After a several-year gap in activity, NC State’s Model United Nations group is once again working to establish a dominant presence as an influential club.

Model U.N. focuses on the simulation of debates and complex scenarios to challenge its participants’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Branches of this program are located at many high schools and colleges.

“Essentially, Model U.N. is a group of people who are interested in politics and are interested in the international community’s view of things,” said Emmanuel Mijangos Lopez, a third-year studying political science and the group’s current treasurer.

This isn’t the first time a Model U.N. group has been present at NC State, with the original team becoming inactive several years ago. With its re-emergence, its executive board looks to reinvigorate interest in the group, as well as become active once more in Model U.N. competitions.

The initial focus for the group is on politics, although the topics handled during debates often intersect with other fields and disciplines, from the sciences to the humanities.

“A lot of people think it’s just model United Nations, but it’s actually much more than that,” said Gabrielle Dauntain, a third-year studying political science and the current vice president of NC State Model U.N. “I’d say it focuses more on parliamentary procedure, conference etiquette, things like that.”

Participants in Model U.N. regularly attend conferences to put their skills to use in acting out a variety of different scenarios in collaboration with other students.

“When you sign up for a conference, they have various committees and each one will give you a background packet,” Mijangos Lopez said. “You read the packet and base your research off of that.”

Each conference has its own unique set of committees to choose from, and participants are able to select their committee and prepare for it several weeks before the conference begins.

“We’ll go around to different conferences,” Dauntain said. “Sometimes they’re based on political issues, sometimes they’re not. Last semester, we went to a conference at UNC that had one that was the Greek gods versus the Roman gods, so it’s not the typical committee selection that you’d expect and it doesn’t necessarily have to deal with politics. Basically, we’ll work together to solve problems and events based on whatever the conference is geared toward. It’s kind of like roleplaying, but you’re also encouraged to do your own thing with it. It’s more like not playing the person to a T, but taking that person and their skills and making them what you want it to be.”

These conferences not only provide a means for participants to test their skills, but also allow them to interact with students with similar interests from other schools.

“When we go to a conference, you get to network with a lot of people who have the same interests that you do and are interested in how politics in the international community works,” Mijangos Lopez said. “You can meet a lot of people that will be able to give you valuable insight in case you decide to do research, or in case you decide to pursue some other activity.”

Outside of the conferences, members get together at regular bi-weekly meetings to hone their skills with practice situations on a smaller scale.

“At regular meetings, we usually have a scenario we come up with as an executive board and plan out and have special themes like before Christmas, when we had one that had everyone in a council of elves.” Dauntain said. “We get the job done, but we make it fun.”

Although the group is just getting the ball rolling, its executive board already has big plans for what the group will do in the future.

“I’d definitely love to see NC State host its own conference someday,” Dauntain said. “I’d love to see more members come in, and I’d definitely like to see us increase our travelling delegate size, since right now only 10 to 15 students go. My goal is for us to eventually be so successful that anyone who wants to go to a conference can go and that we can have the resources to travel and compete.”

The group’s next meeting is Thursday in Poe 532. For more information, the group can be contacted either through their Facebook page or through the group’s Get Involved website.