Twenty-three students participated in the South Orange County Model United Nations (SOCOMUN) conference at Santa Margarita High School in Rancho Santa Margarita Sept. 27; 17 of those students won awards making it the most successful conference in Sage history.

Model United Nations (MUN) is an academic conference modeled off of the United Nations where each student works as a delegate to come up with a resolution that both addresses an issue and advances their country’s interest.

MUN has grown since its founding three years ago with the help of student participation and the club adviser, history teacher Stephen Schumacher.

The student leadership of the club prepared students well for the first conference of the year, Schumacher said.

“I think the MUN officers, Rema Al Saud, Amanda Cohen, Stephanie Cho, Janis Jin and Celine Wang, did a great job preparing delegates for SOCOMUN by hosting meetings prior to the conference,” Schumacher said. “Each meeting stressed important components of the MUN conference experience such as writing speeches, practicing speeches, caucusing and writing resolutions.”

SOCOMUN marks the first MUN conference this year, with Tustin, Berkeley and Marymount to follow.

“It’s tough for a club to compete against schools where MUN is a class and students earn a class grade depending on their conference success,” Schumacher explained. “Despite not earning grades, Sage students are doing an amazing job and I’m very proud of them.”