This is a guest article submitted by Marcie Doll. She is a former teacher and Model UN faculty advisor at CD Hylton High School in Virginia.
As I was observing my 1st period World Studies II students participate in a simulation on instability on the Korean Peninsula, I realized that my students who participated in our high school Model UN earned the highest grades. They were better researched and asked higher-level questions, debated their fellow sophomores with a maturity beyond their years, and their public speaking blew away their non-MUNers. The Model UN Club members all earned A’s. And my fellow Model UN Advisor saw the same with his classes.
We had to face the reality that the same kind of student joined our club each year — the top 10 percent of highly motivated students with strong parental support at home. How could we recruit more students into our Model UN Club and be more inclusive?
Students recruiting other students. Our in-class recruitment efforts could only get us so far, so we talked with our student leadership to actively recruit for more members. We openly talked about our observations of exclusivity and how we needed to draw our circle wider for our club members. At the same time, we developed more dynamic brochures for the fall club fair and freshman orientation and a motivated all club members to recruit in classes.
Induction and beginning level support. We may be able to get new students to join, but how can we get them to stay? When I first joined Model UN over 30 years ago as a middle schooler, I was a bit overwhelmed by position papers, debate, and how to research my country. But I had an advisor that spent time with all of the new members to make us feel more comfortable. And, I was lucky to have my older brother who served as my mentor and who I could openly debate with at the kitchen table. For our program, we focused on building a year-long induction program and had experienced students partner with the newbies. We included social gatherings more to help everyone get to know each other better and have more fun outside of our competitions.
Dealing with the “academic chip on the shoulder.” Yes, this was a problem for our Model UN Club. The students who flocked to Model UN traditionally had been the top 10% in each of the grades at our school. As we were bringing in new members, we had to really work on the current members in being more inclusive and welcoming. They needed to help the members grow and feel comfortable. When a pair of new recruits who were also heavily involved in the performing arts won a top prize at the William & Mary conference, our current members started to take notice.
Removing money barriers to participation. We had parents who could afford to pay for local conferences, but not for the college-sponsored conferences we would attend each year. The money we raised from our own conference shifted to financial aid for students who needed it, but it was not enough if we wanted to include more students. We fundraised and actively sought sponsors in the community from law firms to local businesses. We also worked with our guidance department to help these families get the aid they needed to increase participation.
Removing time barriers to participation. We had students who played sports or were involved in school plays at different times of the year. They also wanted to join our Model UN program in the off season, but in the past, we had club rules that made their participation impossible. So, we rewrote the rules to allow more flexibility and honor other commitments of a well-rounded high school student. This flexibility increased our membership the most and also contributed in other ways, like increased collaboration, sportsmanship, and teamwork, which our team needed to learn. It also went a long way to breaking down some of the artificial barriers between certain groups of students have at the high school level.
Our club grew significantly as we welcomed new and different members to our club. For me it was just as exciting to see the jocks, nerds, theater kids, military kids and gamers working together as colleagues and become friends. Hopefully, I have given you some ideas on how to grow your Model UN Club to be more inclusive and diverse.
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