Around the Globe and Into the Classroom

A few years after I started teaching at DSHA, with the support of Social Studies Faculty Chris Weiss, DS ’70, (dept. chair at the time) and S. Virginia Honish, SDS, DS ’55, (principal at the time), I developed the International Relations (IR) class which took a general focus on global issues. Students created their own unique portfolios by submitting objectives that addressed a variety of topics like balance of power, economic influences, conflict resolution, etc. As a culmination and a way to demonstrate their understanding of IR, students attended the Model UN conference at UW-Milwaukee to bring it all together. As Model UN delegates, students were assigned countries and committee topics that needed to be researched and then addressed at the conference. Delegates needed to understand the social, economic, and political aspects of their country in order to address how “their” government would resolve the issues presented in the topic(s). I guided them through the preparation, but at the conference they were on their own. The delegates acquired research, critical thinking, leadership, and negotiating/compromise skill sets through preparation for, and participating at, the conference.

Model UN then expanded into a club. The first club meeting had 92 students! The experience expanded to conferences at Harvard and Georgetown with around 3,000 high school students (co-ed) from around the world. The DSHA delegates exhibited confidence in working with others and explaining their points of view. They seemed to forget it was a simulation and really took ownership of the process and outcome. I was always so proud of our girls. The experience allowed them to understand what it was like to be in someone else’s shoes and make decisions with the mindset of the country they were representing, and to respect the views of others. It really is an exercise in creating the whole person.