Model United Nations: A Diamond in the Rough

At first glance, you might not be too attracted to the serious exterior of a typical Model United Nations (MUN) event. You’ll witness a group of students discussing weighty matters such as nuclear weapons, solving world hunger, and environmental issues. Your first impression might be that it’s boring and you might not really care about the issues being discussed, because they don’t directly concern you. However, when you think about it, every issue concerns you, because frankly, this is your world. Not only do all these topics relate to the future of the world you live in, but there are also countless ways you can initiate change in your world. The first step: joining Model UN.

MUN is essentially a club that encourages student interest in international issues and world conflicts. The students involved emulate a United Nations assembly by, representing a variety of countries from across the globe. They bring up and discuss topics that they feel are of great importance to our international community, such as nuclear proliferation, world hunger, sexual exploitation, and child soldiers. Once a topic is chosen, discussion and debate will follow. Although this might seem unexciting to your average student, you cannot truly understand the level of intensity certain topics garner under examination until you live the experience that is MUN. Not only do participants make witty and politically-correct comments to spite each other, but they also propose crazy topics and propose incredibly strange solutions, to which they even have to laugh at themselves for. You might not believe me, but I promise there is actually a ton of laughter at Model UN events. Of course, you have to be lucky to actually experience it, because if you walk in at the wrong moment, you might miss it. The best way to make sure you actually understand the greatness of conferences is to come on in, stay for a while, or even participate!

The atmosphere in which all of this unfolds can be serious, but through personal experience, it has only been extremely fun. I started off with the same opinion regarding Model UN as many of you might have right now: it’s not interesting and it would suck to have to write super long reports on world issues I don’t care about. However, after only attending two events, my mind has already experienced a 180 degree change. I can’t even understand how I could have thought it would be boring. For example, there was Bell-run conference just a few days ago, on Tuesday October 20, 2009. The first thing I noticed was that there were many new, friendly faces seated around the cafeteria, since students from three other schools were also attending. I found this a bit intimidating at first, but at the same time, it was great to hear the opinions of other students, and it was the perfect opportunity to make new friends. There were also many interesting topics that caught my attention because I realized that, even though I couldn’t really do much about them, I could have my opinion be heard and I could also inspire, be inspired, and raise awareness among my fellow high school students. To illustrate this, let me draw upon the issue of world hunger. It is true that there is not much we can do to immediately eliminate world hunger, but we can always make small efforts that, taken together, help us get one step closer to solving it. We can participate in 30- hour famines, collect canned food for the less fortunate, or donate to organizations that work towards providing for third world countries. A lot of my motivation to participate in these small activities comes from the discussion that happens at MUN conferences. While hearing the opinions of others, one’s mind is also stimulated to understand different viewpoints and to consider different paths that can be taken when faced with a fork in the road. Finally, by attending these conferences I have acquired a passion and drive to set goals for the future that will hopefully influence the change that is happening in our world.

At the same conference, while interactively learning about the world and its issues, I also managed to have a lot of fun! Students were always making jokes and it was great to be able to comfortably debate with others in a semi-formal environment. The organization was amazing as well, since transitions from one idea to another were clear and smooth. The organizers themselves also made the experience all the better, with their obvious attention and care for the students who attended, their enjoyment of the afternoon, and the amount of knowledge they shared with the students that day. It was clear that they worked extremely hard on making the conference happen and I’m sure that the students benefitted from this effort – I know I definitely did.

All-in-all, I feel that Model UN is an amazing experience that all students should have throughout their high school career. Although it may seem boring at first, it actually proves itself to be extremely fun and interesting when one puts in enough effort to be involved. You’ll definitely find yourself laughing with your friends, old and new alike, while learning about the world at the same time.