The year is 1815. The disastrous reign of Napoleon Bonaparte has come to an end, and Europe stands at a crossroads. You find yourself in Vienna, joining monarchs, diplomats, and revolutionaries in a quest to redraw borders, restore stability, and determine the balance of power for the coming century. And you are King George III—well, you are a thirteen-year-old acting as him.

Students clamored for this and similar opportunities at COMMUN X in April 2025, the most recent conference in a ten-year streak. For the uninitiated, COMMUN is a daylong Model United Nations conference for middle-school students, organized and led by Commonwealth students. Part foreign-affairs lesson, part communication-skills boot camp, part role-playing game, COMMUN challenges participant—“delegates”—to find diplomatic solutions to a variety of problems. Delegates are asked “not only to understand history and current events but to grapple with leadership, responsibility, and compromise,” Junior Secretary-General Aadi Krishnan ’26 told them in his opening remarks. “We hope you learn today to speak with clarity, to listen with empathy, and to collaborate across differences, while imagining what a better world might look like, and how we might build it.”

Delegates tackle this work in one of two types of committee: General assemblies are the “classic Model UN experience,” where delegates represent specific countries and tackle real-world issues. Crisis committees, as the name suggests, respond to more acute scenarios unfolding in real time, often via Commonwealth student Crisis Chairs jumping into the room to share updates (sometimes even in costume, as Roman senators, Russian generals, or, in one special instance, a beaver…). Crisis committees can take place in the past, the present, or even a fantasy world. But whether delegates step into the Japanese parliament of today, rewrite history in ancient Athens, or try to negotiate intergalactic peace in a far-flung future, they use and hone the same diplomatic skills (and raise their placards in earnest).

Self-confidence, public speaking, collaboration, research: all are bolstered by Model UN, says Peter Dowd ’25, who burnished those abilities as a delegate and helped impart them to others as one of COMMUN’s leaders. He joined the Secretariat this year “to pay it forward and teach others how to foster that growth and create a comfortable environment for middle schoolers to practice thinking on the fly and off-the-cuff speaking,” he says. “I observed some of the best speakers I ever have seen tackling the most in-depth topics at COMMUN.” Peter hopes younger Commonwealth students “step up to share their passion” by joining the Secretariat and shaping “how educational and meaningful this conference is.”

It’s hard to overstate what the Secretariat does to run the show—and always has, since students, including Allison Stillerman ’16, founded COMMUN in 2015. (If you were part of that storied history, we want to hear from you! Email communications@commschool.org to let us know what those early years of COMMUN were like.) Ever since, participants—middle schoolers and their adult chaperones alike—have consistently praised the sophistication and novelty of the committees, as well as the overall professionalism of the event.

Every school year, the Secretariat spend months organizing the conference with light logistical oversight from Commonwealth faculty and staff. This year, senior Sarah McPeek ’25 stepped into the role of Secretary General, overseeing it all. “Hooked on Model UN” since middle school, Sarah enjoys “behind-the-scenes matters” and problem solving. “This year, I was really excited to see how engaged all the delegates were in their committees. It was also wonderful to see how maturely the delegates held themselves, and how they interacted collaboratively with their peers,” she says. She and her fellow Secretariat members recruited their peers to run the various committees, always quick to remind them that experience is not required.

Though many staffers have been involved in Model UN in various capacities, COMMUN is, above all, “a teaching conference,” they say, pairing more experienced chairs with newcomers and particularly welcoming of new delegates. “Paradoxically, it was the fact that I was a novice, that I was just a fresh beginner, that allowed me to get into [COMMUN] as much as I possibly could,” says Aditya Anand ’26, who this year served as the Crisis Head for The Siege of Delhi committee, which tasked delegates with determining the “fate of the subcontinent” in the “brutal struggle between British colonial forces and rebel sepoys.”

After serving on the Crisis Staff for the Second Greco-Persian War committee during COMMUN VIII as a ninth grader, Aditya knew he wanted to lead a committee. “At the time, I was studying Indian history, and I thought [the Siege of Delhi] was a pretty interesting event, because it has a lot of complex meanings, a lot of complex themes of race and colonization, that a lot of middle schoolers definitely should learn about.” Aditya wants to open the conference up to more students, including other high schoolers, so they can tackle even “more complex issues” with more “creative freedom,” he says. Of course, with COMMUN consistently at capacity in our cozy little brownstone building, scaling up would be a challenge worthy of a diplomatic council.

Natan Shapiro ’27, who chaired a COMMUN X committee this year and is a decorated participant of other Model UN conferences, nevertheless quips, “Frankly, I think Model UN as an institution isn’t that important.” What is important? “The doubly educational nature of COMMUN” as a teaching conference, and “valuable skills like collaboration, critical thinking, and argumentative writing. We get good practice managing middle schoolers and dealing with unexpected events. My love for Model UN as well as the doubly educational nature of COMMUN is what drew me to it.”

Natan joined his classmate Ellery Española Mase ’27 in running the historical crisis committee “The Russian Provisional Government of 1917,” which dropped delegates into a country reeling from the February Revolution and the end of the country’s tsarist regime. Both Natan and Ellery wanted to do a deep dive into the era. And research they did, preparing a background guide (used by participants to prepare for the conference) that introduced delegates to the major players leading up to the Bolshevik Revolution, from Lenin and Prince Lvov to Soviet Republic thought leader Viktor Chernov. “Doing research for the topic was quite challenging because of its obscurity, but I think the effort paid off,” Natan says.” (Do yourself a favor and read this and the other meticulously researched background guides at commonwealthmun.com.) As Ellery and Natan noted, “this committee is filled with such polarizing beliefs and ideals, we hope that delegates walk away with increased appreciation for different opinions and a better understanding of compromise. In today’s fraught political climate, these skills are invaluable.”

Getting to students early is also key, posits Ellery. “[COMMUN] prompts middle schoolers to engage with the world in a more careful and attentive way that stays with them more significantly than it might for high schoolers.” Herself a COMMUN alumna, Ellery wanted to give [students] the same opportunity to learn about something that [she] had.” Natan adds: “The best part is definitely seeing how the delegates react to crisis updates, engage in debate, and embody their roles.”

Sarin Chaimattayompol ’25 agrees. “The delegates always bring such high energy, creativity, and curiosity to the conference,” she says. They even surprised and impressed her by gamely jumping into an impromptu mock-trial scenario she threw at them. “Model UN always reminds me how quickly students can grow when they’re given space to experiment and think for themselves.” Sarin was inspired to develop her committee, Indo-Japanese Population Crisis, after reading Angus Deaton’s The Great Escape in Audrey Budding’s history elective, The World Since 1945. “The book introduced us to global data, including life expectancy and income trends. From there, I started exploring demographic data from other countries and came across Japan’s declining fertility rates and its emerging partnerships with countries like India and Vietnam to bring more immigrant labor.” She wanted delegates to see economic and demographic policies in the context of the social and political resistance they often face. “Protest movements were a key inspiration for my crisis scenarios because I think they’re especially relevant today. I think we’ll see a lot of civic engagement in the next four years, and I hope delegates can realize how protests can both challenge and inform policy making.”

Seniors Andrew Carter ’25 and Brooks Sjostrom ’25 capped three years of COMMUN by chairing the North African Terrorism Conflict committee this year. Said the longtime friends and collaborators: “We both observed an incredible amount of great research and careful consideration of the nuances of solving issues of terrorism. Delegates delved deep into the effect of colonialism on global independence and stability and worked carefully to balance internal, North-African efforts with international collaboration...that ensured a lasting solution that respected state borders and sovereignty.”

To recognize delegates’ work leading up to and during the conference, committee chairs announce Best Delegate, Best Position Paper, and more during the closing ceremony. The winners excitedly scurry up to collect their certificates as their happy, hyper (and just a little overtired) schoolmates cheer them on. As this year’s crop of delegates prepared to depart, Aadi once more entreated them: “I hope you leave with new ideas, new passions, and a renewed sense of what you’re capable of when you speak and collaborate on issues that affect you. The world needs young leaders, and although I’m still only a junior in high school, from what we’ve seen today, the future is in good hands.”

This article originally appeared in the summer 2025 edition of CM, Commonwealth's alumni/ae magazine.

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