On Saturday, March 24, 18 Eastside Connections students in sixth to eighth grade traveled to Michigan State University in East Lansing, to participate in a daylong Model United Nations Conference for middle schoolers. About 400 students from middle schools around the state participated in the academic conference.

As part of the event, Eastside students participated in a simulation of the real United Nations. At MSU, the ECS MUN team sought to demonstrate their leadership, diplomacy and critical thinking skills to build coalitions for their solutions to global crisis. 

“Model UN has shown me that I can have an impact in solving global problems and making the world a better place,” said sixth-grader Sawyer Lundberg. 

Eighth-grader Marika Ruppart echoed
this sentiment.

“I loved working with other students from across Michigan and trying to find common ground to real world problems,” Ruppart said.

Model UN is a debate program available for middle school, high school and college students around the world.  As part of the club, ECS students learned parliamentary debate procedure, improved their public speaking and debate skills and conducted critical research and drafted position papers.

“Our Model UN Club members learn about complex global issues and have the opportunity to strengthen their leadership skills through participating at this prestigious academic conference at Michigan State,” said ECS principal Joe Racht. “We are proud of these students for their hard work, reliance and professionalism.”

“Model UN has given me new ideas for college majors and a possible career in international relations or government,” said eighth-grader Miles Hostettler.

“My favorite part of the MSU conference was trying to convince other kids from around Michigan to support my solutions to real world problems,” said eighth-grader Stuart Lundberg. “Working with complete strangers to solve real problems challenges you to step up and out of your comfort zone.”

At the MSU conference, ECS students were challenged to present their own solutions to global crisis issues and then build coalitions for their plans with other students from around the state.  Each student was assigned a different research topic such as how to how to help climate change refugees, how to encourage more girls to study and work in the science, technology, math or engineering fields, as well as historical crises like addressing problems resulting from the Cold War.

Three ECS team members received awards at the conference for their performance. ECS seventh grade student Samuel Kaufmann was commended for his role in the National Olympic Committee, seventh-grader Mati Riggenbach won an award for her efforts in Juan Peron’s Cabinet and eighth-grader Stuart Lundberg won the Best Delegate Award for his efforts representing Belgium in the United Nations Environmental Program Committee. 

Over the course of five months, ECS students prepared for the event and they were supported by generous community members. For example, the Niles Service League and local Dowagiac Realtor Lissa Carter donated significant funds towards the team’s charter bus. Niles District Library staff and ECS parents and staff helped the students prepare for the event.