Three Étude High School students got hands-on experience in high-level diplomacy and political intrigue at a Model U.N. event in November.

Organized by the Madison Area Model United Nations Conference (MADMUN) in Madison, the event put sophomores Charlie Hamm and Kai Mavity Maddalena and freshman Jake Perez in the middle of a range of national and international conflicts.

Both Mavity Maddalena and Hamm took part in a different Model U.N. event last school year, but it was Perez’s first experience.

“I did it so I could get a different learning experience and work on public speaking,” Perez said. “I was in the European Union, doing topics on tensions between countries and addressing communist ideas. The meeting itself went a lot different than what I expected it to be.”

One of the topics Perez’s committee worked on was an attempt to kick Portugal out of the European Union because of its ties to Communism.

“I enjoyed it,” he said. “It’s something I would do again.”

Mavity Maddalena was assigned to take on the persona of Andre Antonovich Grechko on the 1967 Council of North Vietnam.

“My job was to represent Soviet interests and our main interest was to gain control of the region; have North Vietnam gain control and kick out the capitalists,” he said.

Their first topic was to choose between Soviet and Chinese support, a discussion that “felt like an all-out brawl,” he said. After that, they discussed military strategy and how to guarantee a victory for North Vietnam.

Mavity Maddalena was already interested in the history of the Vietnam War, and this experience solidified it.

“It was only recommended for people who had done Model U.N. before and done a crisis cabinet before,” he said.

His group did a lot of high-level debate about various aspects of the war, from the pros and cons of a possible assassination of President Lyndon Johnson to trade deals involving napalm.

“The main skills were public speaking,” he said. “There was a lot of communication involved. We had to work tog as a group and have a lot of decorum.”

Hamm was assigned to join the Las Vegas Casino Association, and became the head of the Aira Casino. That group had two topics to discuss: the ethics of Las Vegas weddings and mob involvement in the casino business, including security, surveillance and preventing cyber attacks and money laundering.

“I wanted to do the U.S. Senate, but there wasn’t enough space so I went to the LVCA because it was the most about economics,” Hamm said. I sponsored legislation that got passed. I was able to participate a lot more.”

All three students said they would do a Model U.N. again, depending on how intense it is. For example, there’s one coming up in the new year that goes four days.

“I would do it again, but maybe not the next one,” Perez said.