Model United Nations

I have been a member of the Model United Nations Club of my school for the past 4 years. The experiences, the people I have met from all around the world and the countless hours of research combined, MUN has been the most inspirational club I have ever been a part of. Today, I am seriously considering a career in the United Nations, and I will be majoring in Political Science when I start college in the fall of 2009.
While I have been in MUN every year in high school, I will mention the experiences from the last two years, during which I was in the IB program.
The beginning of the 2007-2008 academic year was exciting, because we had about 40 new students join the club and it was our responsibility as experienced delegates to train them. The first 2 weeks of club, we worked with the newcomers. Our main task was to get them acquainted with the concepts of United Nations, country policies and resolutions. Afterwards, we began to finalize our preparations for the DSAMUN conference in Athens, which took place in October. I was the Advocate of France in the International Court of Justice. I made the error of confusing the Democratic Republic of Congo and Republic of Congo, and prepared for the wrong case. For the first time in my MUN career, I lost. Still, I cherish the memory of that conference because I got a taste of what being a lawyer would be like, and met many amazing people, most of whom I still correspond with, today.
For the remainder of the first academic term, I was with the newcomers, helping them prepare for mock debates held at school, teaching them how to write, defend and attack resolutions. We also worked on country policies, and making the distinction between our personal ideas on how things should be, and how the country we represent thinks they should be. This was a distinction I also had trouble making, and in the process of working with the new members of the club, I feel that I also gained a better understanding of it.
In April, 2008, we attended the Robert College Model United Nations conference, and I can say without exception that it was the best conference I had ever attended. I was the ambassador of Japan, and I was in the Political Committee. Almost everyone in the committee was very passionate when it came to debates, and it was a thrill to be a part of the discussions. I became the Main Submitter of the resolution on the question of Kosovo, and in spite of the very powerful arguments made by the delegate of Russia and its allies against Kosovo’s independence, our resolution passed. It was then chosen to go to the General Assembly, where it was going to be discussed once again. It passed the General Assembly as well, and at the end of the conference I was chosen to be the Best Delegate of the Political Committee. RCIMUN 08 was an important conference for me because it was there that I truly learned how to work as a team in Model UN, and not be a main submitter who tries to defend the resolution independently. I did my best for have every one who was a co-submitter of the resolution to have their say, and I believe that we worked very well as a team.
The rest of the academic year passed rather quickly, and we held another mock debate in June in order to see how well everyone did. The new delegates that we had worked with were all capable of debating effectively, and overall we as the experienced members felt proud to see how far they had come.
My fourth year in MUN, which was also my last, began the same as the previous two years with us teaching new delegates the rules and procedures of Model United Nations. The first 9 club meetings were devoted entirely to them, and for the first time we were disappointed at the mock debates because the majority of the newcomers did not perform as well as we expected them to perform. We then tried a different method, telling them the topic of the debate and the countries they were assigned 4 weeks before the mock debate. Also, every two inexperienced delegates were assigned one senior member of the club, and we helped them with the research and the writing process. The second mock debate went much better.
I had always wanted for us to host our own MUN conference at Enka, and to that end we began preparations in October. We met during club time and several other times in the week for an hour after classes ended to plan the conference. After three meetings, our examination period began, which forced us to limit the meetings. We met outside of school once, where we discussed everything from the committee rooms, to sponsors for 3 hours, and I had glimpse of what business life was like. We proposed our final plan to our principal, who approved it, but asked for us to move the dates to the end of the year instead of the proposed winter dates. We did, and notified the schools we were planning on inviting that the first ENKA MUN was going to be held in June, with me as the founder and Secretary General of the conference.
It was quite upsetting when Robert College and Üsküdar American Academy, the two main schools we were counting on, contacted us and said that the final examination period was at the same time as our conference date, and therefore they could not attend. Two other schools told us that they were very happy and could attend. We did not hear from the other schools we had invited. Due to the low attendance, we came up with a second list of schools to invite. We had a meeting with our principal again to update him on the situation and ask him to approve the second list. He asked us to postpone the conference to a more suitable date for next year, and after discussing the issue for a while, we agreed. We will be handing in all of our notes, letters and conference plans to the MUN executive team at the end of this year, before we graduate, so that they can host the first ENKA MUN next year.
One of the most interesting experiences I had as an MUNer this year was that, for the first time, I was the Deputy Chair of the Special Conference at TIMUN, in November. It was quite fun, and I really bonded with my Co-Chair and President Chair. I had avoided applying for chairing positions before because I knew that I would be unable to debate, and I believed that I preferred debating. After the conference, in spite of the fact that it was a remarkable experience for me, my belief regarding debating had not changed.
We prepared for a conference in Holland, Haarlem for the following 2 months, and I was going to be the delegate of Uganda in the Peace-building Commission. We also helped delegates do research with us, because our advisor had received several emails from the organizers of Haarlem MUN that students needed to have researched extremely well. When we finally went to Haarlem, however, I was told that Uganda was not in the Peace-building Commission and that I was going to be in the Security Council. I was upset, but I had to accept and I was later surprised to find out that one of the Security Council issues was Kosovo, which I had researched very well last year for RCIMUN. The Security Council experience was not enjoyable, however, because the delegate of China vetoed everything and prevented the resolutions from passing. I still managed to get my points across and also made some friends from Africa, USA, and Holland, which made the trip worth it.
I applied for the chairing position at Robert College MUN, because my friends encouraged me to try, and if I did not get it , then I would be a delegate which would be a great way to finish my high school MUN career. I was assigned President Chair of the Special Conference. I decided to reject the offer, because I had already chaired a Special Conference and I wanted to have a different experience. I chose to be a delegate, realizing that I wanted to live the excitement of debating one last time.
The conference itself was one of the best I’ve ever attended, and I was chosen to be the Main Submitter of the resolution. Our resolution was also sent to the General Assembly where I defended it, and in spite of many speakers who argued against it, it passed. Later on, I was chosen as the Most Active Delegate in my committee. Overall, it was truly the best final conference I could have had, and I am glad that I decided to be a delegate.
At the end of the conference, I had a chance to talk with the CEO of THIMUN, which is a sub-organization of the UN and also the organization that started MUN. I asked her what she would suggest someone who is considering a carreer in the UN should do, and she told me that I should apply for an internship at the UN, and that she would write me a recommendation if I wanted one. That made the whole 4 years I’ve spent doing MUN activities even more rewarding.
My feelings for MUN are difficult to put into words, but I can say that it is one of the things I feel very, very passionate about. I am truly thankful for the 4 wonderful years, and the brilliant people I’ve met from different parts of the world who do care about peace, communication and progress. I am also thankful for the incredible experiences I’ve had at each conference, which I would not trade for anything in the world.