The First Meeting with the Lyons Township High School
This new year brings new meetings and interesting debates for the CSI’s MUN club, one of which took place on Saturday, January 9th, 2021. The MUN clubs from LT (Lyons Township High School), located in Chicago, and the CSI had an online meeting in order for the students to meet each other and break the ice for the planned future debates.
Many students were in attendance, from junior year to senior year of high school, all looking forward to this anticipatory interaction. The meeting began at 4:30 pm with the individual presentation of each student, including their actual positions in MUN conferences, their personal feelings about the exchange, as well as their experiences within their MUN clubs. After this general introduction, a representative from each school gave a short presentation of their establishment, allowing CSI students to learn more about LT and its organization. It is a large school composed of two campuses, with juniors and seniors grouped on the northern campus, and freshmen and sophomores on the southern campus. It has a variety of extracurricular activities, including MUN, which is the largest club in the school.
The meeting proceeded by dividing the students into groups of 4 or 5, which allowed everyone to discuss current events with more freedom and intimacy for 15 minutes. Several topics of discussion were addressed, such as life with Covid and the stress of not knowing what to expect, and how their academic futures will be impacted by this pandemic. The two schools shared common anxieties as well as laughter, which helped lighten the atmosphere and set a comfortable and pleasant ground for their future interactions. Finally, one of the most popular topics of discussion was the attack on the US Capitol, which occurred on January 6th, 2021, when Trump supporters sieged the Capitol, a building that symbolizes the American people and their government, and is the meeting place of the nation’s legislature. Many confessed that this did not surprise them and that they found it unacceptable, despite some of their fellow classmates or relatives sharing the opinion of these protesters, or as the French students labeled them, “terrorists”. After this pertinent discussion, the students reunited in order to conclude the meeting, exchange positive feedback and express their shared impatience for their future debates.
Shereen Bellili
