The Model United Nations club will be hosting its own conference, McMUNC II, on Oct. 21 and 22. It will be led and has been organized by seniors Fatima Shahbaz and Alex Brunner, co-Secretary-Generals of the club.

“McMUNC II is planning to host around 600 students from schools in Northern Virginia,” Brunner said.

As of Oct. 14, McMUNC II has 595 delegates registered. The conference is the largest event hosted by the Model UN team here at McLean so far. Fatima Shahbaz is in the process of planning and preparing McMUNC II, after doing the same last year as Chief of Staff of the conference.

“My biggest challenge … would definitely be organizing and planning McLean’s first Model UN conference,” Shahbaz said about last year’s conference. “It was one of the most stressful periods of my high school career.”

McMUNC II has almost doubled the size of McMUNC I. Last year’s conference was organized by then seniors Shivani Saboo and Abraham Haji, the two co-Secretary Generals from last year.

“[Abraham Haji] dragged me into this club again, and he helped me take this club to the next level,” Brunner said.

Brunner and Shahbaz both want to continue the growth of the club and encourage more people to join and be committed.

“I want to continue to include everyone and continue to grow the club,” Brunner said.

Model United Nations is currently the largest club at McLean, with more than 100 members. Not all of those people, however, are heavily active and involved.

“I want to encourage more people, who are already in the club, to become active members,” Brunner said.

Brunner and Shahbaz have similar views on the goals of the club for the coming years.

“I would love to continue McLean’s two year tradition of being a nationally ranked team, and continue its exponential growth,” Shahbaz said. Model UN at McLean wasn’t always a large club.

“When I firsted started Model UN as a freshman, we only had around ten or fifteen members, but now, at the end of my senior year, I hope to have more than 100 active members,” Shahbaz said.

According to Best Delegate, a website created as a Model UN resource to anyone who requires it, both Langley High School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology are ranked higher. In fact, Langley and TJ rank in the top 25 of the country, while McLean ranks only in the top 150.

“As of right now, TJ and Langley are renowned to have the largest and best Model UN teams in the circuit. However, McLean’s club- if more delegates show more commitment- can overtake the two,” said sophomore Neha Rana, Director of Logistics.