After some hype with the Djarum Foundation Delegation from Indonesia’s success in London International Model United Nations 2014 for nailing Best Position Paper at UNESCO Committee, Best Delegate finally has a chance to interview the champion. Check out the interview with Reinhardt Graciano Rongre, an Electrical Engineering student from Bandung Institute of Technology (Institut Teknologi Bandung), Indonesia as the conversation becomes more personal and touching.., aww.
Hi Reinhardt, congratulations for your success. You nailed Best Position Paper at LIMUN 2014! Tell me about your position paper and committee! Does your position paper help you in person as delegate and does it affect the overall debate?
Reinhardt Graciano Rongre, representing Guatemala at UNESCO Committee at LIMUN 2014
Thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed. It is a privilege for me to be able to share my story and my great experience in LIMUN 2014. I was awarded Best Position Paper in UNESCO committee. At the LIMUN 2014, the UNESCO talked about two topics and I represented Guatemala. Topic A discussed about establishing international standard in teaching history and topic B discussed about developing a framework for academic and cultural heritage programs in conflict zones. My position paper for each topic contained similar points, only with different focus of discussion in them. Those points were :
- Important facts in the world that coincides with each of the topics.
- The policies implemented by Guatemalan government
- Obstacles Guatemala faced during the implementation of policies
- Solution to be proposed based on research results
To tell you the truth, in writing my position papers, I got helps from my coach. She helped me by reviewing my position papers and made some revisions and suggestions especially in my vocabularies – they weren’t diplomatic and formal enough – and she also helped me rearranged my writing in order to make it orthographically sound. The position papers really did help me in the conference. Maybe the papers didn’t affect the overall debate but it helped me personally to make my points during the conference. All in all, I am grateful for the award and I thank everyone involved in helping me creating those position papers.
Reinhardt with the UNESCO Committee
How do you prepare your position paper? And how do you train with the whole delegation from Djarum Foundation for LIMUN?
I began to prepare my position papers two weeks before the conference date. However, in order to prepare well, our Djarum delegation coach asked us to submit our papers to her before the deadline so she could review them first before we send it to our directors. As for the content itself, I read thoroughly the study guide the LIMUN-UNESCO committee provided for us. After that I began to research about Guatemala weeks before the deadline was even mentioned. I made a compilation of my research and sorted things out to be put into the papers and I tried my best to finish it before February 11th. I wrote them and I read them over and over just to make sure everything was okay. Later, I sent them to my coach first and after she made suggestions and revisions for me I revised my position papers, refine them, and finally sent them to the chairs.
Djarum Foundation Delegation for LIMUN 2014
What are the strengths of your position paper? What do you think the keys to compose the Best Position Paper?
I believe the strength of my position papers lies within the specific ideas I gave and the arrangement of the contents. based on the interview done by my Head of Delegate, Marsha Imaniara, with Hector Tsamis my UNESCO chairman, the reason that my position papers were awarded was because they were comprehensive and they followed the study guide well. He also mentioned that my position papers were exquisite and they contained a very well arranged personal research results.
Personally, I believe the keys to write the best position paper are first, to follow the guidelines provided in the study guides. Secondly, do as many research as you can and make a neat compilation so later you can easily look again in your research files. Third, make sure our proposed solutions answer the study guide questions and goals. And last but not least, I believe inserting correlating facts and quotes will boost the sharpness of your position papers. Those are the keys that I believe will increase our chance to make the best position paper.
So, what is it like to be a winner? What does this achievement means to you?
Being a winner feels like a miracle for me. Until now, I feel so grateful and wonderful for being awarded in LIMUN 2014. If I have to put the feelings in simpler words, I would say that being awarded made me feel so blessed, joyful, and honored. And to me, this achievement means a lot. This achievement also opened my eyes of how exciting MUNs are and thus make me long for experiencing MUN again in the future. And of course, this achievement makes me feel more confident about myself.
‘enjoying the atmosphere and making many new friends from abroad are also important to make your MUN experience memorable,” said Reinhardt
What are you suggestions for future delegates?
To all future delegates, I encourage you guys to try MUN if it’s going to be your first time or still thinking whether to join or not. Be motivated, not intimidated. I was intimidated at first, but when I knew that I would make new foreign friends and get a new experience, I became rather excited. Another suggestion for future delegates, MUN awards are not easy to be achieved, therefore make preparations at your best.
Lastly, I know most of the times MUNs can be competitive and award-oriented but if you’re going to an MUN, I really recommend you to look for the moment to enjoy the conference with the motivation to share your thoughts and opinions and to enjoy the flow. Being competitive is good, aiming for the award is important to do, but enjoying the atmosphere and making many new friends from abroad are also important to make your MUN experience memorable.
So, thank you for Reinhardt! I love the way you are so humble and motivating. We, at the Best Delegate, also believe Model UN is wayy beyond the awards. It is a “smart sport” and also the best way to learn, work in team, and be brave on our voices! Plus, Reinhardt once again proved that an non-familiar academic background can also shine at the MUN, like our best pal from Nursing student at IndonesiaMUN! Cheers
