On Wed. Oct. 25, the United States will celebrate National United Nations Day. The day aims to make citizens aware of the goals and achievements of the United Nation.

Students at Lafayette can celebrate this day by joining the Model United Nations (Model UN) club.  

“Lafayette has been participating in the St. Louis Area Model UN since 2009. I had a student new to Lafayette in my Advanced Placement (AP) Government class and he transferred from a school that had a club,” said Lori Zang-Berns, Model UN sponsor.

Model UN competes against other Model UN clubs in the St. Louis Area Model UN (SLAMUN)  in small scale versions of actual United Nation conferences. The club currently participates in two conferences during the school year, one in Sept. and another in Feb.

Students have the chance to learn more about other countries and their affairs, how the actual United Nations work as well as better their public speaking skills.

“It’s a really relaxed club that allows people the opportunity to improve their speaking skills. We’re are not very strict club, and we like to have fun at our conferences. It’s ultimately a learning experience and there’s not a ton of work that goes into going to a conference,” said Johnathan Ebenezer, president of Model UN and Secretary General for SLAMUN.

Schools inside of the SLAMUN conference take turns to run the Model UN conferences for the year. This year, LHS and Marquette are in charge of organization. Ebenezer and other leaders of the Model UN clubs meet, plan and schedule what will happen in the conferences.

“I would encourage anyone who’s interested in politics, global issues, or becoming a lawyer (anything of that nature) to join; but even if you are into those types of careers or ideas you can still be a part of it,” said Ebenezer. “I, for example, want to go into medicine; however, I still really enjoy participating in Model UN because it’s a ton of fun.”

Anyone can join Model UN at any time. Meetings for Model UN will resume in January with the next conference in February.