ELK GROVE, CA (MPG) - A student-led effort to expand opportunities for youth to debate international issues and strengthen their public speaking skills is gaining momentum across high school campuses in Elk Grove.

The initiative, the Sacramento Valley Model UN Conference, or SVMUNC, recently brought together more than 40 students from seven high schools for a Model United Nations conference April 1 at Franklin High School. It also featured Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen as a guest speaker, who encouraged youth to stay engaged in civic life and shared insight on local leadership.

Model United Nations conferences are widely offered at schools and universities around the world, giving students the opportunity to represent different countries as delegates in simulated United Nations debates focused on global issues, diplomacy and policy solutions. Although Northern California has several regional and college-led conferences, Franklin High School junior Anoushka Vyas said she noticed a lack of accessible opportunities for students locally.

To address that gap, Anoushka began reaching out to students and teachers across the Elk Grove Unified School District to build a local organization focused on providing those opportunities closer to home.

 

Pictured with Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen, center, are Sacramento Valley Model UN Conference student officers Emila Steta, left, Ruby Mathew, Anoushka Vyas and Alice Hu at the April 1 Sacramento Valley Model UN Conference event at Franklin High School.

Founded in 2025, SVMUNC grew out of Anoushka’s experience competing in debate for two years, where she said she recognized barriers that prevented some students from participating in humanities-focused academic programs.

As a sophomore, she started a Model UN club at her school but found that operating solely as an on-campus club limited students’ ability to attend larger regional conferences because of distance and participation costs.

“Therefore, I founded the Sacramento Valley Model UN Conference, which is currently focused on providing accessible, no-cost opportunities for Elk Grove youth to learn about current events, diplomacy and global policymaking,” Anoushka said.

With support from student officers from throughout the school district, Anoushka explained that their organization is currently working to expand its reach through social media, school-based clubs and a student newsletter.

SVMUNC aims to recreate the experience of attending a Model UN conference at no cost by hosting its events in gymnasiums and event halls with guidance from college and university groups, such as UC Davis Model United Nations. The organization also offers workshops that help students understand conference procedures and debate structure, making the experience more approachable for first-time participants.

 

Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen attended the April 1 conference as a guest speaker, who encouraged youth to stay engaged in civic life and shared insight on local leadership.

The April 1 event marked SVMUNC’s third conference since its founding and brought together both new and returning students from diverse backgrounds who have begun building a community around the program, Anoushka said. She added that having Singh-Allen speak at the event reinforced the organization’s mission of connecting students with local civic and public policy opportunities.

“Having Mayor Bobbie Singh-Allen as our guest speaker really inspired a lot of students and provided them with other resources to get involved in the community,”  Anoushka said.

“A large part of SVMUNC is to connect students with local opportunities related to humanities and public policy, so having the mayor talk about her journey in Elk Grove politics and how students could get involved truly opened up a lot of other opportunities for our delegates and reinforced our mission,” she added.

The conference also marked a milestone for organizers, who introduced more advanced conference elements for the first time, including veto powers, a constitutional rule allowing legislation to be blocked, and double delegations, in which two students partnered to represent a single country.

SVMUNC co-founder and Cosumnes Oaks High School junior Ruby Mathew said the conference demonstrated the program’s “significant growth” as students worked through simulated international tensions through teamwork.

 

Local high school students are building opportunities in Elk Grove to debate international issues and strengthen public speaking skills through the student-led Sacramento Valley Model UN Conference.

“One moment that really stuck out was when all the draft resolutions got vetoed in the end, and the delegates had to go into a ‘crisis.’ There was a lot of scrambling and negotiations taking place in a short amount of time, but we luckily got a resolution passed in the end,” Ruby said. “This little moment really displayed the dedication and capability of the delegates to communicate with others who had differing viewpoints, all under time pressure.”

Lexie Giang, an 11th-grader and site director for the Pleasant Grove High School Model UN club, said one of the most meaningful aspects of the conference was watching students from different schools connect through the experience.

“The most rewarding part of the conference was seeing students from different schools come together and actively engage in thoughtful discussion and debate,” Lexie said. “As organizers, we spent months planning the event, so it was very fulfilling to watch delegates become more confident and involved throughout the day.”

Alice Hu, head of SVMUNC social media and a student at Franklin High School, said participating in the organization has strengthened her understanding of diplomacy and civic engagement at both the global and local level.

“SVMUNC has introduced me to a variety of global issues such as the implementation of health technologies in the context of Universal Health Coverage systems, the balance between state sovereignty and humanitarian aid, and more,” Alice said. “Most importantly, it has taught me that no one is too young to get involved in global or local issues and youth voices matter.”

 

Students participate in a Model United Nations conference April 1, taking on the roles of country delegates in a simulated debate designed to teach global diplomacy and policymaking through hands-on practice.

For students interested in debate or global issues, Laguna Creek High School senior Emila Steta encouraged them to “just do it” and get involved in a community where students can openly discuss political and global issues.

“We purposefully make every conference guided with as much involvement from chairs as possible to answer any questions or concerns our participants may have,” she said. “Whether you’re a person with a passing interest or actively looking to get involved with SVMUNC, politics affect everyone, so why not learn and take part in the discussion of your future?”