Interview Transcript

Caroline Brandes
My name is Caroline. I’m Jasper. And I’m Tinin. And today we have our very first guest, Mr. Sims. So what exactly do you do around the school?

Samuel Sims

Well, first off, it’s good to be here, especially on the first episode. I’m a social studies teacher, so I teach AP European history and U.S. history, and as well as a co-sponsor, the Model U.N. team with Mr. Blair.

Tinin Lewis

Can you tell us what exactly Model U.N. is?

Samuel Sims

So if you think of the United Nations itself, if you don’t know what that is, it’s a big organization made up of tons of different countries that come together and try to work on different issues diplomatically and peacefully. And so it’s a simulation of that. And so as a club, we work on researching different issues. And the best way is to communicate those issues to other groups and kind of diplomatically solve problems as if we are those countries’ delegates.

Tinin Lewis

That’s interesting. How does Model U.N. work for new people ?

Samuel Sims

So we’re kind of all new people at this point. We’re starting back up. It was really big a few years ago. And so maybe Mr. Blair are trying to make the experience of refreshing it, bringing it back as I guess, as smartly as we can and I don’t think is probably the word there. But to try to make it to where everyone feels as prepared as possible as we go in, and then once we go to conferences and see what other groups do, try to see, okay, what do we need to work on. And in general, I mean, if we’re all new, we’re all going to make mistakes and we’re all going to bring something different to the table that we all need to account for and figure out as we move on. So, yeah, I guess we’re kind of all new people trying to figure it all out all together.

Jayden Gaskins

All right.  Are there any ranks and roles? And if there are, what are they and what do they do?

Samuel Sims

So we will have officers. We don’t have any right now. We just recently had an interest meeting. So as far as what positions there are, I know in years past there’s been, I believe, a president, a vice president, treasurer and a social media manager. I believe we may adjust those this year. Again, it’s all very new. I just know that’s what different groups have done in the past.

Caroline Brandes

Cool. So I’ve got a question. Have you ever done Model UN before, like when you were in high school?

Samuel Sims

It’s actually I didn’t. Yeah, I don’t think my school had one. I grew up in Blue Golf, which is not that far away. But I don’t I don’t think our school ever had a Model U.N. So I didn’t really know what it was until a few years ago when I was already, you know, becoming an adult.

Caroline Brandes
So. So then based on, like your kind of limited experience, then what do you think the most interesting aspect of all of you is?

Samuel Sims

So one thing I do know about it, because one of my coaching teachers, when I was learning to become a teacher, was a Model UN sponsor. One thing I saw was just how much students can get involved with it. Because if you think of, you know, a simulation of the United Nations, you know, not many students may see that as like, you know, as flashy as like, you know, sports or anything like that. But to see that there are kids that are students, the students that bring a passion to it, that enjoy what they do, that take a lot from it, you know, to know that this is an even a thing that schools can be involved in. That was really cool to see and hear from that coach teacher describes his experiences over the years with it as well as to hear stories from teachers who were teaching at Model UN when we were, you know, winning competition after competition from our conference at the conference for Model UN in just to hear the, you know, the pride in different teachers voices about what the program used to mean to so many people.

Caroline Brandes

Well, that’s nice. Um, so how exactly did you kind of start getting the team started?

Samuel Sims

So I talked to Mrs. Rabin. Um, she teaches human geography here. She’s been RNE for a very long time. She loves the school, and she was very, very passionate about Model UN, um, again, she was here when it was in full force and it was doing a lot of great things. And so just in talking to her and hearing about how big it used to be and the desire to get things started back again, and so that kind of piqued my interest. And so that kind of got the ball rolling, as well as I’m not sure how Mr. Blair came into the fold. But When I heard he was coming on, I was really happy to that I was going to have someone to help me out and figure all this out with.

Jayden Gaskins
Did you always know that you would be interested in Model U.N. in or leading it?

Samuel Sims

Um, I think I think ever since my coaching teacher was the leader of it, and again, because I was, I was learning how to become a teacher and then my teacher is doing this thing that he was very passionate about. I don’t think it was inevitable at that point, but it back then I was like, I’m wasn’t sure at some point I’m going to be doing this again. So yeah, I guess after talking to Mrs. Rabin and hearing about how important it was, so many people here at RNE, I think they really kind of got me excited to get involved.

Jayden Gaskins

When did Model UN last, you mention Mrs.Rabin was here when it was in full force. So when was the last time that was in full force? When’s the last time all of you? When was the thing here?

Samuel Sims
Yeah, that would really be in this Mrs. Rabin question because of course with COVID, I think that just kind of I think pre-COVID was when I was really going strong because obviously after COVID, it kind of, you know, everything got thrown out of whack. So, yeah, I would my guess would be pre-COVID. That’s more of a Mrs. Rabin question. So we know the Mrs.Rabin does have, like you just said, they have a future start with more. Um, but it really took a break.

Caroline Branders

Is there any particular reason you said sort of this year or just now better than ever?

Samuel Sims

I think it’s just now is better than ever, especially since Mr. Blair wanted to co-sponsor it with me and partner up to get it done. Um, yeah, I just feel like now’s a good time now that, of course, you know, now Covid-19 is starting back up to to really rise the number. So I guess we’ll see where the future goes with that. But now that things are more yeah, I hate to say it back to normal because that’s not really a thing. But now that we’re starting to get back into the swing of things a little bit, it’s a it’s a good opportunity to bring something back that again, many people at RNE really, really enjoyed.

Tinin Lewis
Um, do you think the break that we had in the fall or in his ability to perform its best this time around?

Samuel Sims

Maybe because I think there’s only one person on the team now that was on the team previously. And so again, it’s just kind of all new stuff. And so I think really just the fact that we’re all new to it all figured out together, I think that’ll I imagine that’ll probably impact things a good bit. But like I said, it’s just the thing of, you know, we prepare as much we can and we learn as much we can. We get as involved as we can and preparation. And then if we go to conferences and we see, okay, this group’s doing this, this group’s doing that. All right, let’s implement that next time. Let’s work on what worked. Let’s figure out things that didn’t. So I think that’ll still work out really well Again, once we get into the swing of things.

Caroline Brandes

Cool. So like, I know there’s different also have the different conferences and I know there’s a really big one in New York every year. Do you guys have a plan, like with want to go downtown yet or to kind of just be a go at the flow of that quality?

Samuel Sims
So my, my goal would be to go to I want to go to at least one conference this year. And so I think there’s there’s several more local ones I’d rather if we only do one, we do a smaller one instead of just going, you know, full force for the New York City one. But I think my current plan and maybe Mr. Blair’s current plan is we have a small conference that we go to a small conference at first. And if that goes well and if we learn a lot from it and feel confident enough to go to another one, then we do that one. If we feel kind of so confident that we can tackle New York, we’ll do that as well. So it’s really a kind of a play by ear, but also kind of take it slow a little bit and see where we’re at and see what we feel like We’re we’re confident enough to to go for another next.

Tinin Lewis

And for people who don’t know much about you and what do you do at these conferences?

Samuel Sims

So again, that’s an answer that I can give you and more in later once I’ve been to one. But my understanding is that at the conference you’re given a country to research and so you spend the time before you go to the conference researching that countries issues. I’m not sure if you had the issues before or during the conference, but again, you go you dress like you’re in the Model UN.You’re like you’re in the actually United Nations. You use the language and the rules. It’s called parliamentary procedure. If you ever heard of like I make a motion to blank or something like that, that’s that’s what private procedure is. So you go to conferences, use that type of language. And again, you research, you state your positions, you write what’s called position papers, trying to convince other countries to go along with your positions. So that’s my understanding of it going in. So we may get there and find out there’s more elements to it than I could even imagine now. But that’s that’s my understanding going in.

Caroline Brandes

So one thing that kind of popped into my while you were saying that was like the war in Ukraine and stuff like that. Like, would current events be brought about modeling then or is it reflective of the real world?

Samuel Sims
So it’s all based and reflected in the real world. That’s mostly to help the male U.N. teams be able to research effectively. And so I’m not sure if they would use an issue like the Ukraine war, because that’s a really big topic. So they might they might not. And I know sometimes it could be more niche issues as well, I guess. So we’ll have to figure out when we get closer to it how confident are you feeling in the U.N. this year?

Jayden Gaskins

So I’m feeling confident that we can learn a whole lot this year and that we and that once we learn more, once we get into it, once we find out what we’re doing, I think we can do some really great things.So I’m feeling confident just in meeting with the students and issues meeting the students all seemed really, really capable, really excited for Model UN in this year. So I think again, once we get into it, once we figure out what we’re doing, I think we really start to grow and improve and do a lot of good stuff.

Jayden Gaskins

Um, okay, how, how would people, how people joining out of U.N. and are people still able to join now?

Samuel Sims
Yes, people are still able to join, I would say talk to either me or Mr. Blair in order to join. And we have a good classroom set up. If you know someone who’s in Model UN, you can also ask them for the classroom code as well. So that’s how I’d recommend getting involved with my unit, especially if you’re a guy because, well, I didn’t just meaning it was it was all all girls.So we need some guys in there.

Caroline Branders

Where do you guys meet?

Samuel Sims

The current plan is Sundays from 5 to 6, which is it’s sort of odd for a club to meet on Sundays, but I know that’s what we but that’s Model UN  Club has done in the past because a lot of the other students have stuff going on during the week. And so it’s just a time that is more readily available for a lot of students to participate. And so we’ll do those looking at every other week with our first meeting being on the on September 10th.

Tinin Lewis

All right. How can model U.N. student show their support?

Samuel Sims
How can they help them? Well, by encouraging students who they know may be a Model U.N., by asking students who are involved how, you know, how’s it going? Yeah, again, that’s that’s probably a better question once we get into it. Once I found out more of what we need. All right.

Jayden Gaskins

One final question, because we’re nearing the end of our time here. First of all, I want to thank you again for being on the podcast again. But how do you feel about the 2023, 20, 24 school year and how do you think it’s going to go from out of U.N.?

Samuel Sims
So in terms of like the school year in general, I feel like we’ve had a really good start. Um, I especially like the fact that we’re we have semester black classes. And thats has just kind of always been something I’ve wanted since I started here to have that. So that’s good. It’s again, been a really solid start, at least for me, for Model UN, my expectation is that we learn that, we figure out again what will we get out, what do we need to work on, what do we need to improve coding to incorporate and use that information to next year, be a bit more informed and do the same thing. Learn more. It doesn’t matter if it’s the first year or the 20th year of a program, you’re going to still learn new stuff. It’s just that first year is going to be a lot more stuff you’re gonna learn.

Caroline Brandes

Yeah.

Samuel Sims

So that’s my goal is to again, just get in there, do our best, prepare as much as we can and learn what we don’t know and incorporate that later.

Caroline Brandes
Well, thank you so much for agreeing for coming to our podcast. Again, I know it’s been a bit of a struggle, but yeah, thank you so much. I mean, I’m actually a part of the Model UN , really looking forward to doing it. And I encourage anyone listening to sign up and just give it a try. Well, it looks like it’s going to be a lot of fun.

Tinin Lewis
And is there any final note that you want to tell the listeners who may be interested in Model UN in?

Samuel Sims

If you’re interested again, just come talk to me. It’s I imagine it’s going to be a whole lot of fun as we get into it. You’re going to learn a lot no matter what. Again, we’re learning a lot about how to do program, but in the middle of that, you’re also learning, you know, how do I research how do I effectively communicate how to work as a team, how do I speak publicly and how do I, you know, convince other people to go along with certain positions? And so it’s you learn a lot from it. It also looks really good on college applications because, you know, the name Model UN in that club, it has a certain area of legitimacy to it. You know, a college is going to know, okay, if the student was a model you in, all right. They know how to write, They know how to research, they know how to speak. They know how to work as a team. They’re going to be a good candidate to come to our college. So, again, if you’re interested, come talk to me or Mr. Blair. We’ll get you set up and you know, you know anything else you’d like to know about it?

Caroline Brandes

Well, thank you so much again.

Tinin Lewis

Thank you. That’s all for today. Sabers Edge signing out.