John P. Stevens High School had hosted plenty of JPSMUN conferences before, but this weekend was their first time hosting a much larger conference with multiple schools in attendance. JPSMUN simulated several advanced committees — Arab League, NATO, and the US National Security Council — but they also had a novice SPECPOL committee where they chairs basically taught delegates who were doing Model UN for the first time.
This format reminded me of Santa Margarita Catholic High School’s SOCOMUN conference in California which primarily has novice teaching committees but also some advanced ones. Over 1,000 delegates attended that conference and delegates in California have a high school-hosted conference to attend every month.
But very few high schools on the East Coast host their own conference. J.P. Stevens is a trailblazer here and we wonder if this is the beginning of the rise of a New Jersey Model UN circuit with high schools hosting their own conferences every month. Will we see 1,000 novice delegates at JPSMUN in the near future? Will we see rival New Jersey powerhouses — or even Best Delegate — host their own local conference? That remains to be seen. For now, this conference is a great start and a huge success for JPSMUN.
Best Delegate’s Kevin Felix Chan and former Rutgers Head Delegate and city council candidate Samip Joshi (who is a JPSMUN alum) spoke at opening ceremonies. Both speakers emphasized how Model UN helped make a difference in their own lives — and how Model UN will make a difference in the lives of the delegates today starting with JPSMUN.
How does that experience look like? Here are photos from the conference and of delegates in action!
Keynote speaker Samip Joshi spoke with students to encourage them to get involved in government and politics
Chair Parth Shingala helps ease the novices into their first committee by explaining the basics
Estonia makes a speech in NATO
One of the caucus bloc leaders (grey vest) tries to get down everyone else's ideas in SPECPOL
A delegate leads his caucus bloc in SPECPOL
A delegate gets two of her points across in SPECPOL
The sponsors of a draft resolution to the issue of North Korea explain their ideas in NATO
Slovenia listens to the sponsors' presentation of their draft resolution in NATO
Advanced committees featured crises. Here a delegate is captured and blindfolded and given instructions on his next directive.
Similar to what we did at SOCOMUN, we also interviewed different JPSMUN Secretariat members and veteran delegates to have them share their best tips for newer delegates:
Looks like everyone had a lot of fun — I’ve even heard it was the best JPSMUN ever! Thank you to advisors Dr. Eugene Geis and Anthony White and the entire JPSMUN Secretariat for inviting me to the conference!
