Spending six hours on a plane with only adrenaline and a single RedBull keeping you awake might not be the ideal Thursday morning for most teenagers, but for the group of Model United Nations students that were headed to Washington D.C., this was a rite of passage to a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

On Thursday, February 15, 16 members of Liberty’s Model United Nations club, often shortened to LIBMUN, met up in the Alaska Airlines departure gate with history teacher and Model UN advisor Peter Kurtz–accompanied by parent chaperone Barbara Mallard–to check into their 8 am flight to the nation’s capitol. What awaited them across the country was the 61st North American Invitational Model United Nations (NAIMUN) conference–the largest student-run Model UN conference in the world. This group of over-caffeinated teenagers would have a long week ahead of them.

“I was nervous for the debate and super tired from the lack of sleep, but I was also pretty excited because of all the energy drinks I was having,” senior Logan Winfield said. “Plus, I was worried about my position paper. It was a lot.”

While most students like Winfield were expecting to finish their position papers–essays covering their positional views on each topic–while on the plane, their individual research had spanned months before takeoff.

“I did what was, for me, a huge amount of research on Syria. I went back into the 70’s in the UN library just to find statistics, basically long lost Harvard Excel spreadsheets,” Winfield said.

Deep diving into UN files wasn’t the only thing that attending members had to cover, though. They also needed to conduct extensive research with information gathered from “background guides,” essential starting points to understand the basics of each committee.

“I did a lot of research on my topic and committee. I read the background guide written by the dais, read news articles, and watched political speeches to get a better understanding of our debate and solutions,” sophomore Marisol Mason said.The “dias,” as Mason mentioned, is a term used to collectively refer to the members who are leading the committee. It is a dias’ job to regulate the committee sessions and enforce the committee’s Rules of Procedure, the rules and guidelines by which a committee functions. Diases play essential roles in any conference, and much like the students in attendance, countless hours of work were put into making NAIMUN LXI a reality for thousands of attendees from all across the globe.

“In about April of 2023 was when we formed our Secretariat. I was Director of Operations so a lot of my role was buying various things,” Liberty alumnus and current Georgetown student Ryan Reamy said. “It’s a massive conference with around 3,500 students. A lot of work goes into that, but it was a lot of fun. It was definitely worth it.”

Reamy, who extended his invite to the LIBMUN delegates, was one of many staffers involved in the behind-the-scenes work at NAIMUN and was excited to introduce Liberty to all that the conference had to offer.

“I think the biggest part is making international elections come to life. You can learn a lot in a history classroom, but when it comes to practicing diplomacy, there are very few opportunities to do that. I think NAIMUN does a great job of providing opportunities for students to interact with one another, to gain interpersonal skills, and to learn diplomacy,” Reamy said.

With such a unique opportunity to practice diplomacy on such a wide scale, LIBMUN touched down in Ronald Reagan National Airport ready to face whatever might be waiting for them at NAIMUN.

By the end of the conference, all of their hard work and effort paid off with an unexpected reward: two of their members, seniors Jherica Paulino and Shelby Mallard, won an award in their committee.

“LIBMUN really brought our A game. Everyone was engaged and excited to connect with other MUN kids from across the world. We experienced the conference for all it was worth and definitely made meaningful connections and lots of memories,” Mason said.

Being at such a large conference left LIBMUN at a disadvantage, but despite it all, they left NAIMUN not only with an award, but with an experience that they will remember for the rest of their lives.

“A lot of the people there were just trying to get a gavel, and we were underdogs unaccustomed to the world of pro MUN,” Winfield said. “It wasn’t the best for the competition, but it was worth it because it was fun.”

With only a couple of days left, LIBMUN had the opportunity to explore the rest of the Capitol and take in the history found down every street. One of those places was the National Mall, which houses a majority of the Capitol’s war memorials.

“One of the most memorable moments from the trip was when we were at the Vietnam Memorial, and I couldn’t stop crying,” Mason said.

Along with their impactful trip to the Mall, LIBMUN also visited the Capitol Building, The White House, Library of Congress, the Georgetown University campus, and the National Museum of the American Indian. On their very last day, LIBMUN ended their trip with a walk on the floor of the House of Representatives – which only 1,000 visitors a year get to experience – and by the afternoon, they were ready to head home–and possibly ready to give up energy drinks for at least a year.