On November 16 at 5:59 p.m., three seniors, three juniors, four sophomores, and five freshmen Model United delegates with upper school history teachers Kevin Conlon and Susan Elliot departed O’Hare International Airport to Seattle, Washington for the Pacific Model United Nations Conference (PACMUN). They returned November 20 in the afternoon.

During the conference, the delegates were involved in several committees, including: the World Health Organization, US Senate, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, United Nations Human Rights Council, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), European Space Agency (ESA), and the United Nations Economic and Social Council.

Often, the topics for each committee are based off of current events around the world. Delegates from Parker were able to discuss problems such as combating gender based violence and discrimination in refugee camps and improving refugee assistance in the Central African Republic on UNHCR, while delegates in ESA focused on space debris and privatization in space. In committee session, delegates work together to write resolutions to the topics they’ve researched.  

For junior  Sarah-Jayne Austin, this was her first Model UN trip. She represented Sri Lanka on the World Health Organization committee, and her topic was Malnutrition and Mental Health Infrastructure.

“I’m super excited to be on the World Health Organization committee,” Austin said before the trip. “The topics, malnutrition and mental health, will be super interesting given my country,” Austin said. “When researching, I found out a lot about how their past has affected their current actions regarding the topics. I think it will be interesting to represent Sri Lanka, which, before researching, I knew very little about.”

On Saturday, November 18, the delegates attended the opening session of the conference, their first three committee sessions, an advisor meeting during their second committee session, and their delegate dance. And then on Sunday the delegates attended their head delegate meeting, their fourth and fifth committee sessions, their delegation photos shoots, and the closing ceremony.

PACMUN, a student-run conference, started as a collaborative effort by delegates from Tacoma, Kent, Bellevue, Issaquah, and Seattle in 2014. PACMUN, the first student-run conference in Washington State, though in its inaugural year, according to its website, right away became the largest conference in the state. PACMUN is a registered non-profit organization in the state of Washington and is a federal tax-exempt organization designated as a public charity by the Internal Revenue Service.

The conference was chosen by the 2016-17 captains– seniors Grace Buono and  Olivia Levine, junior Charlie Moog, and Josh Kaufman– last year. The general criteria for the choice of conferences is one national or continental, and one international, generally happening in November and March. When deciding, the captains browsed a site called Best Delegate, where there is a database for conferences in the North America region and the World.

For each conference there is standard preparation. In the first lunch meeting after delegates have been selected for a trip and the captains have registered each person, students pick their countries based on seniority and years of experience. The delegates’ homework is to write their first position paper to prep for their next conference period meeting, which is allotted for peer editing with other delegates.The last lunch meeting entails binder training and receiving “rock the conference” tips from the captains.

“The tips just include how to use the binders they will bring to the conference, including what to put in them,” Levine said. “In addition, we give them comments on how to perform well at the conference.”

The Model UN captains this year, Levine, Moog, senior Ray Blickstein, and sophomore Lindsay Carlin, met with faculty sponsor Jeanne Barr every Thursday morning to go over details on the trip and split up responsibilities. Levine and Carlin were in charge of creating the itinerary for the trip. In their prep, they researched local food spots and tourist attractions that the delegates could go to when not spending their other two days at the conference.  

On Friday, October 17, the delegates enjoyed a day of exploring the city, visiting the Space Needle, and Pike Place Market, a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay. They continued their day walking to Pioneer Square, and took the Underground Seattle Tour, where the delegates got to explore the city’s subterranean streets. They then had dinner at Barrio, a Mexican kitchen and bar restaurant.

This conference no one from Parker went home with any awards, but for at least one, the experience was more than prizes. “A lot of people think of Model UN as a competition, and I don’t think about it like that,” Blickstein said. “Yes, you want to argue for what is best for the country that you are representing, that is obviously your top interest as a delegate, but I think that it is more about finding ways to work together with others. The goal of the real United Nations is not like a debate club. It is a way to keep peace and alliances, so I think that is more about what Model UN is about.”