Last month, right before Spring Break, the CHS Model United Nations Club embarked on a four-day trip to Washington, D.C., for the annual Washington Area Model United Nations Conference. The mix of students from all different grades went in expecting a fun field trip, and returned having gained so much more.

Senior Sean Lipscomb was one student who attended the conference.

“The best part was seeing people from all over the world and learning about different cultures,” Lipscomb, who represented the country of Bhutan, explained. He participated in the mock version of the International Atomic Energy Agency, along with fellow senior James Flaherty.

When asked why she does it, she said jokingly, “Because I’m the only one crazy enough.” And it does take patience. Fourteen teenagers in a big city all anxious to do different things takes a mixture of compromise and iron-fist. But she is loved by the whole club.

Member Natalie Bockmiller loves the club and the advisor.

“She’s outstanding and a top-notch teacher,” she explained.

Lipscomb agreed. “She’s a great leader and I love her.” According to students, Ms. Cremen deserves enormous credit for organizing this whole experience by herself.

With four people to a room, it got pretty crowded but it was a small price to pay. The best time at the hotel came at night when they would walk to the closest 7-11 two blocks down, and hauled loads of junk food to snack on in the confines of their quarters.

“Walking to 7-11 and messing with people at the hotel was definitely the best part of the trip,” remarked sophomore Jason Miller. The following day, Friday, the group braved the busy Washington Metro and walked the many blocks to the Mall, the main strip of grass that is bordered by the museums and monuments. There they basked in the sun for hours, talking bonding, and enjoying the beautiful day out of school in the nation’s capitol.

Junior Hanna Dasoo had the unique opportunity to serve in a Joint Crisis Committee, a fast-paced real-time crisis situation. She quipped “we essentially treated our discussions like they were happening in real time. Made a lot more difficult by the assassination of our leader with a nerf gun.”

“I liked it just the way it was but I would have preferred shorter committees,” senior Maria El Hani commented. But its not like the committees were full of boring, dull people. Quite the contrary, as everyone managed to make several friends.

“I made tons of friends from all over the country. We are currently keeping in touch on Facebook,” said Lipscomb. The note passing system that delegates used to talk about resolutions were also used to find out about each other and became a great way to communicate.

Sunday brought the last committee, which were laid back and full of jokes as names were passed around and phone numbers exchanged. The closing ceremonies were later that morning where the awards were produced. No one took home an award from Catonsville, but quite frankly, they could’ve cared less.

Asked if they would go again, Bockmiller said “Yes, most definitely, it was the greatest time of my life.” Sophomore Rachel Albert had similar sentiments calling it “The best weekend of my life.”