{"id":9065,"date":"2016-10-14T18:01:47","date_gmt":"2016-10-14T18:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/idsunmedia.com\/?p=9065"},"modified":"2016-10-14T18:01:47","modified_gmt":"2016-10-14T18:01:47","slug":"oskar-wilander","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2016\/10\/14\/oskar-wilander\/","title":{"rendered":"Oskar Wilander"},"content":{"rendered":"

Has A Passion for History<\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n

BY JONATHAN KANE<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Oskar
Oskar Wilander. Photo courtesy of Oskar Wilander<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O<\/span>skar Wilander, a senior at Wood River High School and president of the school\u2019s Model United Nations Club, has a love of history. The son of former tennis pro Mats Wilander, Oskar also plays tennis and ice hockey and has recently taken up oil painting.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really interested in studying history and I also have a strong interest in government,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve read so much but I\u2019d have to say that my favorite is ancient history, especially studying the Roman Empire. It\u2019s amazing how much that culture impacts us and resonates to this day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Oskar traces his interest in history back to when he was about 9 years old and got his hands on his older sister\u2019s Ancient History textbook. Today, he\u2019s focused on both world history and U.S. history. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI try to take any class that applies, like psychology, government and any of the humanities,\u201d Oskar said. \u201cLast year my favorite class was \u2018War in the Modern World.\u2019 I\u2019m interested in the history of warfare because things change and some stay the same. I\u2019m most interested in those that stay the same.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those is how societies cope with combat stress. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnother constant is racial discrimination against the enemy because it makes it easier to fight them. There is also the search to find the most efficient way to kill people.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018War in the Modern World\u2019 also talks extensively about the Gulf War, especially the economic impacts.<\/span><\/p>\n

When asked what we have to learn from the Roman Empire, Oskar said, \u201cThe key thing is that they didn\u2019t have the separation of powers that we have today in the United States. This led to a lot of civil war and tyranny.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This is the third year Wilander has been a part of the Model United Nations Club.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere are about 25 people involved and we meet once a week,\u201d he said. \u201cWe attend a conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., in November, and then one in Berkeley, Calif., in March. At the conferences, each school will represent one country and we prepare by writing position papers and dealing with logistics.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

WRHS will represent China, which Wilander said was a daunting task. The conference will have a United Nations Security Council. The topic will be the refugee crisis.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt will be exciting to have that power,\u201d Wilander said. \u201cWhat\u2019s most interesting is that all the countries have a different perspective on the issues from us. We have just started researching and there is some culture shock seeing how much China may differ on an issue. It\u2019s a challenge at first to take on positions that you don\u2019t really agree with and we have never taken on something this big, so it\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wilander was elected president at the end of his junior year and he is proud and excited to take a bigger role. \u201cI guess what I\u2019ve taken out of the whole experience is a more international view of the world. That\u2019s something that can be hard to experience when you live in a small valley like ours.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s Note:<\/i><\/b> Anyone who would like to recommend a Blaine County School District student for The Weekly Sun\u2019s \u201cStudent Spotlight\u201d feature should contact Jonathan Kane at jkjonkane@gmail.com.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Has A Passion for History BY JONATHAN KANE Oskar Wilander, a senior at Wood River High School and president of the school\u2019s Model United Nations Club, has a love of history. The son of former tennis pro Mats Wilander, Oskar also plays tennis and ice hockey and has recently taken up oil painting. \u201cI\u2019m really […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32,38,41],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-schools","8":"category-sponsored","9":"category-student-spotlight"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}