I gave the keynote speech at this weekend’s Mission Viejo High School Model United Nations Conference, which was a special moment for me because it marked several personal milestones. Mission Viejo is where my Model UN journey began over ten years ago as a high school freshman. I was Secretary-General of the conference in my senior year. And I realized that this would be the 100th Model UN conference I’ve ever attended. I felt like I had come full circle.
My prepared remarks are below, although I got caught up in the moment and changed most of it as I was speaking.
Secretaries-General Mark Christian and Quentin Moscaritolo
Nearly 600 delegates from Southern California and the United Kingdom attended the two-day Edison High School Model United Nations Conference this past weekend. The conference itself was also very colorful, with country flags and committee banners decorating the classrooms and the halls — the only thing more colorful was the dais staff’s outfits!
Over 500 high school students attended the 2011 Cerritos Model United Nations Novice Conference this past Saturday. Led by advisors Bill Mustard and Jason Watanabe, the conference takes place on campus at Cerritos High School, and it’s a training ground for many first-time delegates, mostly freshmen and sophomores.
Cerritos was one of the first conferences I attended as a delegate. Walking from classroom to classroom, I was reminded of how fortunate Southern California is to have so many local, high school-run 1-day and 2-day conferences, especially novice conferences like Cerritos’ and last week’s SOCOMUN. The classroom setting provides a welcoming environment for first-time MUNers, less intimidating than a university lecture hall or hotel ballroom, and committee sizes that average between 30 to 40 students make it possible for everyone to participate. 1-day and 2-day conferences means it’s easier to fit into a busy student’s schedule, as well as less logistics work for advisors. And with at least one conference taking place every month during the schoolyear, Southern California MUNers get plenty of chances to attend conferences and rack up experience.
Check out this video of the conference by advisor Jason Watanabe, and check out the pictures after the jump!
I had a great time visiting LHHSMUN 2011 today. The conference drew 450 delegates from neighboring schools around Orange County, including Mission Viejo, Santa Margarita, Tustin, El Toro, and Capistrano Valley. Committees catered mostly to novice delegates but simulations of the Security Council and a fictional resource war on the moon (!) challenged more advanced delegates.
Today, I’m visiting the Laguna Hills High School MUN Conference (LHHSMUN), which draws hundreds of MUNers from all over Orange County. I’ll be live blogging the conference via Twitter, so check out the feed below and follow me @BestDelegate! new TWTR.Widget({ version: 2, type: ‘profile’, rpp: 8, interval: 6000, width: 500, height: 350, theme: { shell: [...]
