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A science teacher advising a Model United Nations (MUN) team may present a combination of duties that raises eyebrows at other schools. But at St. Andrew’s, it’s not so weird for teachers to touch seemingly disparate aspects of school life—teaching chemistry, checking dorms as co-dean of residential life, coaching cross-country, and advising the Model UN program is just all in a day’s work for Will Rehrig ’11. 

As an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying chemical engineering, Rehrig was a member of the university’s Model UN team. He brought that passion for history back to St. Andrew’s as a faculty member in 2017, and facilitated the first Model UN conference hosted at St. Andrew’s in November 2018. 

Model United Nations allows high schoolers to engage with and debate world issues, both current and historical, furthering their understanding of the United Nations and international relations, while also strengthening their skills in debate, cooperation, critical thinking, and research. MUN conferences are organized into numerous committees where students consider specific issues of global importance, representing member countries as delegates. 

The sixth-annual St. Andrew’s Model UN conference, known as SASMUN, was held on Nov. 5, 2023, with 140 students from local schools, along with nearly 20 St. Andrew’s students, in attendance as delegates. 

Months of planning go into the conference, and Rehrig says that student leaders are at the helm of the organizing. 

“It’s an incredible leadership experience for them in terms of having to plan and put together a committee, and thinking about what a whole day of this looks like,” says Rehrig. 

Two students, Zachary Macalintal ’24 and Caroline Adle ’24, served as secretary general and executive director, and they worked with Rehrig to prepare the logistics for the conference, as well as lead a team of students in planning the content for the committees they chaired. Over the summer of 2023, the students started writing background guides for their respective committees.

“Zachary and Caroline worked tirelessly to bring the conference to fruition, supporting each committee in developing their content and training the staff in chairing and running their committee,” says Rehrig. 

Macalintal and Adle both joined the MUN team during their III Form year, with Macalintal looking for something new to get involved in, and Adle encouraged to join by two upperclassmen who were both passionate about MUN. 

“This club gave me the resources and experience to represent something greater than myself,” says Macalintal. “Whether it was reading some of the most amazing background guides, sending back-and-forth emails to Caroline about MUN… each moment [of SASMUN 2023] felt like the culmination of my [Model UN] career.”

The conference also aims to provide St. Andrew’s students with a low-stakes opportunity to check out if Model UN is something they may be interested in, since the conference is on their home turf with their friends leading the charge. 

The SASMUN conference, says Rehrig, is committed to distinguishing itself as the premier, one-day Model UN conference in Delaware. The student leadership aims to focus on teaching, learning, and guiding, while also balancing a competitive environment for the more experienced delegates. He adds that thorough background guides and challenging topics at the SASMUN conference push the expectations of a high school Model UN conference. 

“Delegates and advisors commented on the high-level committee content, smooth organization and logistics, and competitive and supportive atmosphere,” says Rehrig of the response to this past year’s SASMUN. 

The delegates also were simply into it. 

“I love how deeply invested the delegates get,” says Adle. “Many delegates continue to debate over lunch, so I loved walking around the lunch room and picking up on little snippets of conversation.”

This upcoming school year, returning members of the St. Andrew’s MUN team—including SASMUN Secretary General Peter Bird ’25, MUN Co-President and SASMUN Deputy Director General Amanda Meng ’25, and MUN Co-President and SASMUN Director of Registration Grace Anne Doyle ’25—will pick up planning for the fall 2024 SASMUN conference, and continue to build bonds with each other and the delegates from neighboring schools. 
 

In the summer of 2022, Chris Hunter ’26 and Emma Hunter ’25 sat, cards in hand, sizing up each other, their dad, and their older brother, Billy Hunter ’23, in a heated game of Hearts. In a world of endless options for streaming and scrolling, the simple activities—like playing board games and card games—remain a staple in the Hunter household. 

The trio of siblings got to thinking: why don’t we play cards more often at school? 

Chris, Emma, and Billy, going into their III Form year, IV Form year, and VI Form year, respectively, kept this thought in the back of their minds as the school year approached, and once the time came, they got the ball rolling on the kernel of an idea: Cards Club. Emma and Billy were the founders of the club—in a typical sibling fashion, they wanted Chris to get some St. Andrew’s experience before he became a leader of the club. 

“We just wanted a lower key, lower commitment club that actually met,” says Emma. Chris adds that they wanted people to “connect” through a deck of cards. 

They set their sights on Tuesday nights for Cards Club meetings, as they thought this was often the least busy night for students during weeks where schedules are packed with classes, extracurricular activities, and sports. They wanted to give students who aren’t Spikeball and lawn game fanatics a chance to do an activity that could help them relax and have fun. 

With two school years having passed since the club’s founding, and with Billy having graduated in the spring of 2023, Cards Club is still thriving and keeps students coming back. Chris and Emma attribute a few reasons to why Cards Club has gained popularity amongst the student body. 

“While it is low commitment, it’s not something where [there’s] no meeting,” says Chris. “It’s just for the purpose of hanging out and playing cards … and so it allows a fluidity of membership where you don’t have to be part of the club. It’s not something that you have to do, it’s something that you want to do.”

Director of Student Life Kristin Honsel thinks that in addition to Chris and Emma’s “friendly and energetic” nature, Cards Club is successful because of its consistent presence on campus. 

“If things come up that interfere [with Cards Club] … [Chris and Emma are] respectful of that because they don’t want to take away from the culture of the school. They want to add to the culture of the school, so they find another time,” says Honsel. 

Chris and Emma emphasize that playing cards is an easy way for students to get to know people they haven’t hung out with previously. Students from every side of campus, from every class year, with diverse interests and passions, can get together and share a common activity.

Cards Club also brings a piece of home to St. Andrew’s for Emma and Chris, keeping them connected with their family traditions. However, they don’t want to dominate the club with their favorite games—they want all students, of all levels of experience, to learn each other’s “random home card games.” Emma talks about one of her favorites, which she refers to as “Nerds,” a game of competitive solitaire that she taught and now frequently enjoys with her friends during Cards Club. 

The siblings don’t take for granted how Cards Club gives them a shared project, keeping them close at school even though they are separated by grade years and interests. The elaborate announcements they make at Tuesday lunches to alert the school of Cards Club gatherings take quite some thought, which forces them to set some time aside from their busy schedules and have dinner together to plan. 

“I would say pretty much everyone in the school knows about Cards Club because of our Tuesday announcements. And those are almost, I would say, more beloved than the club itself, because we get up and do a funny skit,” says Emma. 

On Halloween 2023, Emma and Chris got up in front of the whole school at lunch to make, or rather, perform, their weekly reminder that students should join them that night at the Cards Club meeting. 

“L’eggo of your ego when playing cards,” joked Chris, providing the packed Dining Hall a moment to smile, or at least to break out into a reluctant grin, before students and faculty headed off to a busy St. Andrew’s day of classes, sports, arts, and extracurriculars.

The “just for fun” nature of Cards Club provides students an essential opportunity to truly relax, yet still, in St. Andrew’s character, stay phone and digital-distraction free. 

“There’s absolutely no pressure, and kids can just plop down and it takes five minutes or 10 minutes, or they could stay for a half an hour,” says Honsel. “It’s a good way to kind of just de-stress and socialize.”

In a few weeks, Cards Club will be back in action on campus, with returning Saints like Chris and Emma inducting our newest students into our community with SAS traditions like the Frosty Run, the Opening of School Square Dance, and this blossoming yet beloved tradition of playing cards on Tuesday nights.