A question, such as ‘What is your opinion on maritime safety and security,’ is asked, and you are required to answer back, not basing the answer on your own opinion, but by basing it on the supposed opinion of the country you are representing. Can you do it?

This past weekend, the Model United Nations (M.U.N.) traveled to Johns Hopkins University to debate questions like these and other current issues around the world while role-playing as their assigned country. The majority of students from AHS were representing Kenya and China in the discussions, however some students were delegates from other countries as well portraying historical figures. Many other schools came to the conference and also represented different countries from around the world and engaged in the discussions.

Almost fifteen hundred students from 32 different schools attended the Johns Hopkins University M.U.N. conference. “I think the best part about M.U.N. is probably the experience. Even if the conference is local, you will always be guaranteed to meet new people from other schools and sometimes even other states or countries,” freshman Amelie Trieu said.

At the conference there were a total of six sessions, and at each conference different topics were debated in hopes of passing a resolution that would satisfy all of the delegates that were representing different countries. One committee had 196 countries being represented and each session lasted between two and half and three hours long.

“Considering that [Annandale] does not actually practice debating or writing position papers during our club meetings, we did pretty well but then there’s always room for improvement,” Trieu said.

The conference lasted from Thursday to Sunday and the students had many opportunities to not only debate, but also to tour Baltimore and Johns Hopkins University. Different events were planned for each night to keep the M.U.N. members entertained such as ice cream socials, trivia nights, performances by music and dance groups from Johns Hopkins, movie nights and even a dance.

“I thought that the Renaissance Hotel and Johns Hopkins University had everything extremely well organized,” M.U.N. sponsor Jonathan York said.

“In my opinion the music at the dance was a little too overwhelming but the selections were really good. Halfway through the dance I went to see the Social Network, which I thought was amazing,” Trieu said.

At the end of the conference on Sunday, an award ceremony was held to honor the delegates who best represented their countries. Senior Emily Fruchterman won outstanding delegate for Press Corps and senior Ben Wolfenstein won verbal recognition for the Ottoman Sultanate.

“The students were outstanding. I couldn’t have been more proud of the way they conducted themselves. We had the best and sharpest dressed students there,” York said.

M.U.N will have there next local conferences at Thomas Jefferson High School and Bishop Ireton High School at the end of March, and they always need more members.