On Saturday, March 20, more than 250 high school students from 18 schools across the state convened at Parker for its sixth-annual student-run Model UN conference, FWPMUN VI.

FWPMUN VI is the first in-person conference after February 2020’s FWPMUN IV, and the virtual FWPMUN V in 2021. A group of XX students from grades 9-12, led by an eight-person secretariat, have worked since last May to make the conference a reality. Senior Alex Carlin, in her fourth and final year of FWPMUN, was the Secretary-General of FWPMUN VI.

“I was in charge of running the conference and doing whatever I could to ensure its success. My day to day changed depending on the month. I ran meetings, I supported the secretariat, I assigned jobs to everyone. A little bit of a disciplinarian,” Carlin said. “I had many jobs, but I feel like my main job was bringing out the best in everybody and supporting everyone in what they were doing.”

The day kicked off at 9 a.m. with an opening speech from Carlin, followed by FWPMUN VI’s keynote speaker — Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, representative from Illinois’s 9th congressional district. Schakowsky spoke to the audience of students and faculty advisors about her political career, personal motivations, and making change. “Hope is what we have to spread. Optimism — the belief that we can win … and when we do, we can make enormous change,” Schakowsky said.

After Schakowsky’s speech, Carlin dismissed the students to their respective committees. FWPMUN VI’s committee topics ranged from the standard — simulations of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and President Biden’s Cabinet — to the unusual — a meeting of the dysfunctional Bluth family from the hit television show “Arrested Development.”

Junior Drew Klauber served as FWPMUN VI’s Undersecretary-General of Crisis, a position which he describes as a “facilitator for crisis in different committees. I was responsible for bringing external events from the outside into committees to stir up debate,” Klauber said.

In Model UN, a crisis is an unexpected situation presented to the delegates in a committee, from the unforeseen death of a key person to declarations of war. Delegates then need to think on the fly and come up with resolutions to the crises. Rather than just explaining the crisis to delegates, Klauber and his team of seven crisis “staffers” put on mini-skits in front of delegates.

“One of my favorite crises was early on for the Biden Leaving Afghanistan and Committee, we did this very interesting crisis where we took a number of hostages,” Klauber said. “And so we set up an event where we had two hostage takers come in, put backpacks over their heads, and then start making demands of the committee. 30 seconds after that we had two other two other crisis staffers burst in as UN forces and act out a firefight in the committee room.”

Klauber believes that extensive use of crises is one of the things that makes FWPMUN special from other schools’ Model UN conferences.

“FWPMUN does a really good job of making exciting and interesting crises. We really like to focus on going in detail and actually creating … a full scene for the delegates,” Klauber said. “And, after hours of debate, it can be really relieving when you have some comedic relief.”

Carlin agrees that FWPMUN stands out from other high school Model UN conferences. “I think it is particularly special because of our approach. We use the Model UN format like parliamentary procedure but we have so many different, fun committees — like we have like a Scientology committee — and we’re able to debate pressing issues and come to great conclusions.”

Beyond the day itself, Carlin says she believes that FWPMUN is a unique club and experience at Parker. “What’s special about FWPMUN is that you devote like a year of your life to one event, and doing whatever you can to ensure success,” she said.