Program Manager Chris Talamo coaches WHISMUN dais staff during their conference
Last May, Education in Motion (EIM) approached the MUN club at the High School for Enterprise, Business, and Technology (EBT) with a unique offer: EIM would finance and support a new Model UN conference that would be run by the high school students. This was a new challenge for them. EBT’s students were experienced delegates, having attended conferences like NHSMUN and GCIMUN, but they had never chaired a committee or run a conference before. But the students leaped at the opportunity without hesitation, embarking on a year-long journey that would transform their MUN club for years to come.
Over the next year, I served as the EIM Program Manager of EBT’s conference, WHISMUN. I met with the students on a weekly basis to advise them on how to best prepare for a conference. In the process, I became a valued member of their team. I helped them manage the roadbumps that came up during conference prep and was there to celebrate their victories with them. The team even managed to find out when my birthday was and pooled their money together to put together a surprise party.
After a year’s worth of hard work and preparation from the students, the conference was a huge success, receiving a 4.4 / 5 rating from its attendees. Delegates left their committee rooms energized and confident, and told us that the conference had been a great experience for honing their debate skills in a welcoming environment. However, it was the staff reaction that touched me the most. At the post-conference staff wind-down, the conference’s Secretary-General invited everyone on staff to say a few words about what the conference had come to mean for them personally. It was a celebration of the tight friendship that MUN fosters.
On the heels WHISMUN’s success, EIM is seeking schools to help us create more local and affordable conferences all across the country. However, we can’t do it alone. We need volunteers who mentor students in their local community and apply their MUN knowledge to create new educational opportunities for local students. If you want to help create new MUN opportunities, we urge you to consider applying to become a Program Manager with EIM.
So what exactly does EIM do? We’re a start-up nonprofit dedicated to helping high schools start and sustain local, affordable MUN conferences. EIM does this by providing:
- A Model UN Expert: An EIM Program Manager – typically a college-age MUNer – guides the students through the process of running a conference and helps them avoid the most common obstacles. This volunteer visits the school regularly, becoming an integral and valuable advisor to the club
- Risk-Free Funding: We provide all the seed funding for the conference on an interest-free, risk-free basis. If the conference is not profitable, EIM absorbs the losses. We believe that running a conference shouldn’t require a single penny to come out of the pocket of a student, teacher, or school.
The UNEP dais relaxes after the end of committee session on the first day of debate
With a successful pilot conference and already three new conferences slated for the 2014-15 school year (in addition to WHISMUN 2015), we need new Program Managers to help build MUN in their local communities. If accepted into the program, EIM will provide you with an expansive training program that will turn you into an expert on running Model UN conferences, regardless of your experience level. We’ll also help you identify a school to work with and provide you with our expansive library of templates, guides, and training outlines that will help you focus on mentoring the students.
In additional to the training you’ll receive, you’ll also be working in a meaningful volunteer position that will have a visible and lasting impact in your local community. We build our conferences for the long term, so the conference that you start could give leadership positions to hundreds of students and provide a local and affordable debate experiences for thousands.
If you’re interested in volunteering with us, we encourage you to find out more about our organization by visiting our website at www.edinmotion.org or contacting us at boardofdirectors@edinmotion.org. Information about the position, including a job description, preferred qualifications, and the application itself, can be found at www.edinmotion.org/volunteer. The priority application deadline is October 17th, as we have schools already waiting for the expert guidance that you can provide. Together, we can make Model UN a life-changing experience for students.
