20  members of the HHS Model United Nations club attended a competitive conference March 2-4 at UC Berkeley. Berkeley MUN is one of the largest conferences the club attends annually.

There are over 2,500 people that attend the conference, which includes high school students, international students and middle schoolers, club officer and junior Michael Wallerius said. 

“What Model UN does is it mimics the UN, so the way procedure works in the UN is the same way procedure worked [at BMUN],” officer and junior Dan Cohen said.

For BMUN, the participants had to write a 10-page research paper on their country, Wallerius said. The paper had to include background information, current policies, what the  members plan on doing, or arguing, during the conference and why they plan on doing it.

Cohen and partner Wallerius did very well at BMUN representing Iraq, club Vice President Kary Wang said. They “gaveled,” which is the MUN equivalent of getting first place.

“I think it is important to get feedback from the people running [MUN conferences],” Wallerius said. “One of the reasons we were able to win best delegate was because we took feedback from the chairs after each session.”

The main difficulty with conferences like BMUN is the size, which can lead to less participation by members of MUN, junior and club member Mira Khosla said.

“There were a little less than 200 students in the lecture hall with me. This meant that everything was a little more chaotic and that the students in charge had to put in a lot more effort to keep things running smoothly,” Khosla said.

Contrasting Khosla’s view of the conference, some members believe the size is more exciting because of all of the different opinions and the large debates, Cohen said.

Overall, Wang said, HHS MUN members performed very well.

“I am very proud of the amount of preparation, intellectual discussion, public speaking skills, and more that each of our delegates displayed,” Wang said.

Photo by Laurel Schmidt
A large variety of students came to the college fair, ranging from freshmen to seniors.

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variety of colleges came to the HHS cafeteria from out-of-state for a college informational fair on Nov. 29.  Around 20 colleges from all over the country, including both private and public schools, were represented at this event.

Booths were spread around the edge of the cafeteria, with representatives at each open to answering student questions regarding their college or university.  Questions varied from what is unique about this campus to how easy is it to change majors.  

Schools also provided flyers and pamphlets including information such as campus life, demographics and majors offered.

This college fair is significant because it exposes students to smaller, lesser-known schools that they may have not even thought to apply to originally.  “Not every student has the means to go out of state to visit colleges, so it’s very nice to have them come visit you,” representative of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Christopher Williams said.

The factor that makes this college fair unique and set it apart from past college events is the grades of the students that were invited.  Typical college events are only open to upperclassmen, but this fair welcomed students of all grades, according to past college events listed on Naviance.

It is important that students start getting information about college as early as freshmen year in order to make sure their options are open when it comes time to apply to colleges.  “By the time I get kids in my [junior year] literature class… they [say] oh… my options are really limited,” English and AVID teacher James Ratti said.

“I think that [this college fair] is exceptionally helpful,” freshman Gabrielle Milne said.  

It was mandatory for Milne, along with the rest of HHS’ AVID students, to attend this event.  Mandatory attendance was implemented to help reveal opportunities that they may have not known about before an event like this, Ratti said.