Courtesy photo Members of the 2018 Model United Nations Club at the Boston College Model United Nations Conference. In back from left are Aidan Pearl, Madison Roe, Jessica Kaplafka, Sarah Kelley, Margaret Paratore, Grace Tomasetti, Brian Massalti. In from from left are Carson Goh, Isabelle Gates, Nicholas Scalera, Kelly Conley, Rose Wakelin and Zoe Goodman.

NASHUA – This weekend, Nashua High School North Model United Nations students will head to Boston to attend a conference with more than 1,000 students to get their taste of foreign politics.

In the past, North’s Model UN students have attended conferences at Boston College, Boston University, Princeton University and Plymouth University.

This year marks the club’s 12th year. As part of the club’s fundamentals, students represent different countries and take a look at the major problems going on around the world as if they were part of the United Nation’s various councils and assemblies. They are required to research a nation, research the issue presented and devise ways to resolve the problems.

This year, the students will be focusing on refugee and migration issues.

Club adviser, Nashua High School North Social Studies teacher Mabel Brown, said her students spend all year preparing for conferences. Typically, students are assigned countries between the end of January and early February, but the club runs all year long.

To prepare her students, Brown said she will use Nashua High School North’s Library Media Center and the United Nations website for students to look at past policies of their countries to see how they might use them or edit them for their solutions.

This year, students will be acting as Mexico and Somalia.

During conferences and leading up to them, students will have to represent the views of the country they are assigned to, which requires extensive research on the history of their country, its policies and other factors. Students also have to prepare position papers on set topics.

In the past, Brown said she’s had five students win best position paper.

Through the years, the club has consistently had about 30 students per year. Brown said she prefers to get students started as freshmen. She said she takes students from all different levels, not just AP and honors students. She said she looks for students with good speaking skills as well.

Brown said the conferences help students build their confidence.

“They’ll go in and debate and they will realize how smart they are,” she said.

She added that when they compete, they don’t just compete with local high schools, but also with very prestigious boarding schools.

Brown said during the conferences, the students always have to be on their game. Brown said they may be having a debate and then all of a sudden, they are presented with a civilian crisis that they have to immediately address.

Brown described the debates as “authentic experiences” that teach students world awareness. She also said the students get different perspectives from taking on roles of the various countries and understanding actions from multiple points of view. Brown said whether they agree or disagree with an action, putting it into a different perspective helps them understand from their representative country’s point of view.

Brown has also been working to teach her students global awareness. She said a primary goal of hers is to bring attention on global learning for her students.

“No matter what job they work, they need to be able to communicate globally,” she said.

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