LT’s Model United Nations (MUN) club traveled to the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor on Jan. 16 to compete in a four-day long conference.

MUN is a club that many students are involved in across the country. Members of the club attend local as well as national conferences to act as delegates on an array of different committees to discuss various topics. Delegates are given little preparation time before the debates, making the speaking very impromptu, Will Madigan ‘25 said. 

“Most of our conferences are one day meetings,” Madigan said. “The difference is that when we go to universities, the conference lasts multiple days, and there are many more committee sessions. There’s a lot more time to talk about the topics and you get a lot more in-depth into the topics.”

Rather than having one committee session before lunch and one after lunch as you would have in a one day conference, at Michigan, they had one session on Thursday as well as the opening ceremony, three on Friday, three on Saturday, and one on Sunday as well as the closing ceremony and awards, Madigan said.

“We got around eight hours a day to talk, which is much more time than we typically have, “ Madigan said.

LT’s MUN has attended the University of Michigan conference for many years because the students enjoy being on the campus, and the committees are always well organized, club sponsor Andrew Johannes said.

“We try to create a conference schedule that is not too demanding on students’ time and provides a variety of experiences,” Johannes said. “We typically go to six one day conferences that are offered by area high schools. In fact, we host our conference on March 1. We also attend overnight conferences that are hosted by universities, like Michigan.”

Some goals for students going into the University of Michigan conference included being well prepared and that everyone put in their best effort, Johannes said. They also wanted to grow as MUN delegates and hopefully come home with some individual awards. The group ended up walking away with individual awards from three delegates. Madigan won best delegate, Keira Connelly ‘25 received an Honorable Mention, and Ella Nelson ‘27 received a commendation.

“I think that Model UN offers a great hands-on experience in which countries can collaborate with each other to solve real problems,” Johannes said. “The conferences that Model UN attends offer a simulation of this and is an amazing learning experience for students involved.”