About 350 high school students from across the country gathered at GW this weekend for the International Affairs Society’s second annual Model United Nations conference.

With opening ceremonies at the State Department, the conference offered students a truly international experience.

The conference participants were divided into several committees, such as the U.N. Security Council, NATO and the International Court of Justice. The proceedings of the conference were a simulation of actual U.N. procedures.

They solved a terrorist crisis where an Afghan hijacked a Canadian passenger plane, said IAS Vice Chair Seema Talwar, who served as chair of the Security Council for the conference.

GW junior Edalin Michael served as secretary general for the simulation, which made her the Kofi Annan of the conference, she said.

While no world wars broke out, Michael said the actions of the committees weren’t always as realistic as possible.

I know they did a lot of bombing, she said. We had some funny, weird things happen.

Students from 24 schools participated in the conference. Michael said she hopes the event will branch out to other countries next year.

We got a really big response this year, she said. Next year, instead of being a national conference, it will be international, which will be nice.

International schools had trouble collecting funds on short notice for this year’s simulation, Michael said. Next year, she said she hopes to involve schools from Latin America and Canada.

Michael said about 100 IAS members were involved in the planning of the weekend, and 50 served as committee chairs and other positions at the conference.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the opening ceremony keynote speaker Pat Patierno, director for the Department of State’s Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs. He discussed United Nations and U.S. cooperation in land mine removal.

St. Ignatia’s High School in Ohio received the award for the best overall delegation.

What interests me the most is we actually get to deal with international affairs, but if we make a mistake, nothing really happens, said Sam Lee, a sophomore at McLean High School in Virginia who participated in the conference.