The Model United Nations team gathered for its annual meeting on Oct. 24, but this time, unlike any other year, the conference was fully online and only Lab students attended. 

This annual conference, usually for freshmen and sophomores, focuses on developing their skills. In the past, they would compete with around 200 students from different schools, but this year, only the U-High team attended due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Model United Nations competitions and practices have been more difficult through Zoom but thanks to practice on the part of the freshmen and sophomores who were participating, and the board’s organization, the conference exceeded the club leader’s expectations. 

“A lot of the benefits of MUN, and a lot of the competitive aspects, and fun aspect, relies on being in person,” Omar Siddiqui, secretary general, said, “so we were just kind of nervous and anxious to see how it would go, but after Saturday we were really encouraged.”

Unlike past conferences, no other schools attended. While this made the transition to online conferences somewhat more comfortable for the delegates, it also made the competition fierce.

“Lab is pretty competitive when it comes to the Model UN team,” Cindy Wu, secretary general, said before the conference, “We’ll see. I think It will be interesting seeing Lab dels who were trained very similarly go up against each other.”

As successful as this conference was, the Model United Nations team is working with faculty and the University of Chicago to book in-person dates later in the year.