On this past Saturday, Dec 6, the Model United Nations team here at Cypress made history by putting on their very own conference. The team worked tirelessly for months leading up to this invigorating event, planning, writing, conversing, recruiting, and organizing to make it all possible. The event lasted from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. where the students ran three committee rooms, allowing over 30 delegates to compete for awards. This conference was entirely student run and planned, with leader Penelope Lesage as the Secretary-General. She not only ran her own committee room, but led the conference with a heart-tugging speech on the achievements of this club over the past few years. She, along with Gus Lessinger and Ava Ngo, wrote the very first background guides to be presented at Cypress and, as chairs, influenced the flow of debate in their respective committees.
The conference attracted teams from all around Southwest Florida, some coming all the way from Cardinal Mooney in Sarasota, eager to compete as different countries and characters in their respective committee rooms. These rooms consisted of the World Trade Organization covering the recent tariff battles, the World Health Organization and the dangers of food additives, and a crisis room with the theme of wilderness survival. A highlight of the conference was the use of Minecraft gameplay as a crisis update conducted by Valeska Perez and Carter Grulee. Valeska reflected on this saying, “It was a last minute creative idea we threw together, I think it worked out,” Delegates and sponsors alike were pleasantly surprised by this artsy turn on an average MUN room.
At the end of the day, the team declared this to be a major win in the books of Cypress Model UN. The club has grown from the ground up since last school year, only having eight members, up until this point where a hardworking and determined group of students hosted the first PantherMUNC. This is, hopefully, first of many to come and the beginning of the development of Cypress Model UN into a sought-after program.
