The 12th annual CIMUN, or Chicago International Model United Nations, was held at the Chicago Hilton on December 10th-13th.  The conference is for high school kids of any grade to participate in simulations trying to solve past, present, or future problems of various countries from around the world. This extracurricular activity allows students to role play as delegates from an assigned country and make alliances with neighboring countries in order to find resolutions to an assigned topic. This year was a big turnout for CIMUN, with more than 1,100 students and hundreds of volunteers.

        At CIMUN there were about two-dozen committee rooms, some rooms holding more than 100 students with committees such as the General Assembly.  Each committee works to find a resolution for a different topic through alliances, working papers, and Model UN structured debate.

        This conference has committees that last for four or five hours at a time, however the weekend is not just this. On the last night they host a delegates dance, which is basically a casual dance for all the delegates to listen to music and hang out with the new friends they made throughout conference. Also, the hotel is on Michigan Avenue and close to many interesting stores and good food. There is plenty of time to walk around the city in between committee sessions.

The conference is international, so it was really cool to sit at a table with some people from around the world, such as, Lithuania and Washington D.C.

I was fortunate enough to be able to participate in this wonderful conference for the first time ever, and I would recommend this conference, and Model UN, to any student who enjoys being a leader and who wants to make a change in the world.  If this club sounds interesting to you, or you would like to attend a conference like CIMUN, make sure you stop by room J250 every Thursday after school for more Model UN news and conference updates.