On Saturday Jan. 19, hundreds of High school students from around Minnesota will gather for the third annual Edina Model United Nations Conference (EMUNC).  The EMUNC allows students to represent the position of an assigned country on post-conflict economic and social recovery or the south China sea dispute.

Edina High School Model United Nations Leadership team members have been preparing for this conference since the beginning of the summer. Each member of the team is given a specific role with designated duties. “I am currently serving as the secretary general for the 2015-2016 Edina model United Nations conference. That entails overseeing all the individual groups that helps make EMUNC what it is,” said Madison Seeley.

This conference is unique compared to other local conferences held in the midwest throughout the year. Most Model UN conferences are held on college campuses and led by adults.“We have a really interesting take on the conference in that we solely use students to put on this conference,” said Seeley.  Furthermore, Edina model United Nations leadership team has expanded the size of the conference from previous years. “We are ramping it up this year in the sense that we have had one committee with hundreds of delegates, but now we have exceeded that capacity so we’re actually having two committees which is a really revolutionary thing even within the Edina Model UN community and we are very excited about that,” said Seeley.

Arranging this conference was not an easy task. Students must be able to communicate with other organizations to coordinate key speakers, prepare information on the topic and, organize lunch.  “Some challenges were that we have [had] to correspond with a lot of external relations and a lot of them are not as cooperative as we would like them to be,” said Seeley.

The Edina Model United Nations conference will be the largest High School Model UN conference in Minnesota. “We are really optimistic about this conference. We’ve all just been working really well together and it has been a fun experience,” said Seeley.