Guest Article by David Sullivan
On November 18, 2017, high school students from around New England gathered at Clark University’s campus in Worcester, Massachusetts for the eighth iteration of the ClarkMUN high school conference. ClarkMUN VIII boasted a roster of fourteen schools from Maine to all parts of Massachusetts to Connecticut, in total bringing 170 delegates together for the premiere central MA high school MUN conference of the year.
Executive Director and Secretary-General Josh Merchat, Director of Administration David Sullivan, and Director of Operations Lars Dahl took the stage along with keynote speaker Yohan Senarath to kick off the opening ceremonies that morning. Senarath, a 2014 alumnus of Clark’s MUN program and current communications expert at the World Bank, delivered a rousing speech about the practical applications of Model UN in the real world – how employers have high demand for the social skills honed from years of MUN.
Delegates stream into the Jefferson Auditorium for opening ceremonies.
ClarkMUN VIII featured an ambitious number of six committees, with the choice for delegates to either represent Russian gas oligarchs or executive politicians amidst the collapse of the Soviet Union or famous American political figures in a current-day Constitutional Convention, plus much more. Other committees featured a 1945 convention of the French Constituent Assembly, a simulation of the World Health Organization, and a Summit on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Committees were hosted in five different buildings around campus and delegates were given free meal tickets to eat in the school’s cafeteria, helping to give the students preparing for college at least a small sense of what life will be like beyond their hometowns and on a university campus.
Clark’s Model UN team is consistently ranked among New England’s top competitive and most well-traveled teams on the collegiate circuit. “It’s not only our team’s experience and love for MUN that allows ClarkMUN’s staff to deliver the best high school conference in New England each year,” Administrative Director David Sullivan remarked, “it’s also the way that Clark students in particular devote themselves to excellence, community engagement, and understanding that brings back our high schools in the region year after year.” ClarkMUN is noted as a conference for its ability to create a hands-on, flexible, and professional staffing experience that can guide new delegates being introduced to MUN for the first time.
The Chair and Vice Chair of the 2018 Constitutional Convention hand out awards at closing ceremonies.
While the advisers enjoyed the relative luxury of the adviser lounge’s coffee and donuts in a University Center conference room or roamed around to see their delegates perform, their students were engaged in heavy and occasionally contentious debate. After a lunch break, the delegates returned to wrap up their resolutions and begin the process of successfully closing the deal with their colleagues on proposals to solve the issues at hand.
Closing ceremonies began at 6pm, and awards began to be distributed. First came the book award for the best position paper. ClarkMUN has a policy of not requiring position papers or using them to consider awards, but the delegate writing the most clear and concise position paper can still win their own separate and distinguished award, a book prize chosen by the Secretariat.
The chairs and vice chairs of each committee went up to the podium one at a time to present an overview of what happened in their committees and to present each award.
ClarkMUN VIII was the product of well over a year of work (yes, even before ClarkMUN VII began!) and its success is owed in no small part to the efforts of the Clark University Secretariat and staff, who balanced a collegiate academic career, other extracurricular activities, and sometimes their jobs with working hard to deliver one of the most well-run high school conferences in the school’s history and the best possible experience the delegates will have all year.
The ClarkMUN VIII staff poses for a team picture at the end of the day.
The staff from ClarkMUN would like to sincerely thank all those who participated in our 2017 conference. The ClarkMUN VII delegates demonstrated the maturity, articulation, and supportiveness that makes us proud to host the region’s high schools every year. We hope that everyone is looking forward to ClarkMUN IX, a conference we will strive to make even bigger and better than ever before!
ClarkMUN IX is set to take place on Saturday, November 17, 2018. More information is available at www.clarkmun.org.
