Model United Nations has been more important than ever during a school year with the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic impacting student learning and human connections at schools. Virtual Model UN has helped students connect outside of their homes, discuss world issues and social justice issues that were happening in real life, and build valuable public speaking and leadership skills in an increasingly polarized world.
Model UN participants were resilient in making Model UN happen this year. Students, teachers, and conference organizers had to navigate many challenges with school, MUN, and beyond this year. Nevertheless, our community collectively created one of the most engaging virtual educational experiences available.
The MUN Leadership Stories recognize leaders who contributed to MUN in intangible ways besides winning awards as delegates. This could be making a virtual MUN club or conference happen or even thrive at your school this year despite COVID-19. This could be hosting a panel about social justice issues or doing a club project on the SDGs. This could be leading an initiative that improved your school or community. For some, this could be appreciation for the journey of navigating the financial, mental health, or logistical challenges this year, even if MUN ultimately could not happen at your school this year. This article recognizes six exceptional high school and middle school MUN clubs that persevered despite the unexpected circumstances of this year.
We all navigated challenges and achieved our own definitions of success for this school year. And we want to recognize that. This all contributes to the larger mission of making a difference in the world. Thank you for sharing how you, your fellow student leaders, and your advisors are Bring Out the Best in Model UN.
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Santa Margarita Catholic High School
As told by: Amanda Duffy and Lyndsey Issa, Secretaries-General
Our first semester was jam-packed starting off with a successful South Orange County Model Un (SOCOMUN), before diving into Cerritos, Berkeley, Edison Tustin, and Mira Costa conferences and virtually travelling abroad to Panama, Seoul, and Canada. Our second semester was even busier with our program attending local conferences hosted by Surf City, Laguna Hills, and Edison High school, and collegiate conferences hosted by Columbia University, USC, UCI, and UC Berkeley, where our delegates won the first delegation level award in 25 years! In addition to these events and incredible accomplishments, our program went on to host two more conferences: the Santa Margarita security council online for the freshmen and the SM International rules conference in person for all grade levels.
This past year has not been easy by any means, yet despite all odds (and thanks to an incredible staff leading our program), we were able to pull off an extraordinary year in MUN with memories that are sure to last a lifetime. Although in person conferences were not available to us this year, we adapted to these adverse circumstances remarkably, both hosting the first fully virtual conference in our region of the year and going on to attend twenty-one more following it. The virtual MUN format also allowed our program to interact with students from all over the world through conferences hosted everywhere from Panama to Korea to New York.
On top of this, our MUNers took advantage of this unusual year to amplify our local community impact. Each month, members of the leadership board met and planned MUN Impact projects in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. These projects included presentations on domestic violence and mental wellness, drives for food and clothing, and hands on projects like making hygiene kits. Our strong service efforts and conference performance this year truly capture the compassionate, innovative, and determined spirit that drives our MUN program. As eagles always do, we soared above all adversity this year and explored new heights. We are so incredibly proud and grateful to be a part of SMCHS MUN.
Cerritos High School
As told by: Jason Watanabe, Advisor
It definitely wasn’t what our program had hoped for, but as it looked increasingly more likely that the season would be virtually, instead of complaining, our officers made the most of it. Anjali Mani and Karishma Patel, our Secretaries-Generals led the charge, training our chairs while Adrian Wong and Brian Koo figured out all the technical aspects as our USGs of Technology. Together, they build a handbook to run a virtual conference that would help us through the year. As Wong put it, “everyone had to adapt to massive changes on the fly,” and that we did. We figured out the glitches at our novice conference and a few weeks later, we were back at it with our first advanced conference.
Instead of cutting back, our program added. Our core of officers were amazing and even met with other schools and conferences to help them organize the logistics of their conferences, sharing all the obstacles we faced and how we dealt with them to make their conference run as smoothly as possible. We integrated our new leaders, Anushka Panjwani and Naimi Dellwar who took on the task of organizing a virtual international conference, spending additional hours training schools from across the globe, preparing our chairs, while our seniors voluntarily wrote additional topic synopses as they volunteered give up another weekend to chair yet another committee.
After hosting our own Security Council Conference, they turned around and hosted a conference with Korea in April and in May, a two session conference with schools from all around the globe. Our program attended conferences virtually in Korea, Vancouver, New York and Berkeley among other local ones, and strangely enough, they performed even better than they did in person. Our officers were extra hard to prepare the incoming freshmen, develop the sophomore and work on their own performances as well.
Never have I been more proud of our students, as instead of hiding behind the screens of their computers, they turned a difficult situations into an opportunity and they shined even brighter than before. They continued to allow Model UN to be the social outlet, to be the confidence builder, to be the most important education opportunity a student will ever have. From our Secretaries-Generals to our USGs of Technology, our Delegate Affairs Officers (DAOs) who tutor our freshmen, middle school students and the international students, to the Instructor Aides (IAs) who teach the freshmen and sophomores, and all the students who volunteered extra hours to organize and chair conferences, they demonstrated what Model UN builds, a resilient student who finds a solution in even the worst of circumstances.
As one of our IAs stated that even despite the difficult times, being able to work and know these young delegates, “never failed to make me smile.” Similarly, week after week, my Model UN students always energized me, motivated me, and reminded me why I became an educator, as even when the hours were long and the fatigue was overwhelming, they always kept that smile on my face. In my 27 years in Model UN, this by far was the most challenging year, but never have I been so proud to see just how much this program develops our students as they used every skill they learned in a conference to make this a year that we can all look back and appreciate.
David Posnack Jewish Day School (RAMSMUN)
As told by: Zoey Fisher, President
Our Model UN Club started five years ago with seven students who had never competed at a conference before. Today, we have over twenty members who have excelled at one of the most competitive conferences on the circuit. Due to religious restrictions we can only attend one conference a year as a school: NHSMUN. This put us at a considerable disadvantage in comparison to the other schools that attend 2-5+ conferences per year. Additionally, our club is entirely student run without a faculty advisor who has MUN experience.
Navigating the MUN circuit for the past five years has been a trial and error learning experience for us, as we juggled teaching both ourselves and our club members MUN skills. A few delegates have won individual awards at past NHSMUN conferences, but we continued to strive for a coveted delegation award. This year, when we heard the news that the conference would be taking place virtually, we knew we would have to pivot. Although some delegates were discouraged by this new reality, many persevered and continued to dedicate themselves to the club. We held more after school meetings over zoom than we ever had, and were even able to host virtual joint practice sessions with other school around the country for the first time in our club’s history!
Virtual Model UN definitely presented us with a learning curve, but the RAMSMUN delegates did not waver in the face of challenges – in fact, they were more committed to MUN than ever. After five years of hard work our team won the top award at NHSMUN: Award of Distinction (in addition to two individual awards in specialized committees). If you asked us if we ever thought we would have achieved this, considering the challenges of this year, I think we would have laughed!
I want to thank Sophia Silver, Lily Milgram, Samantha Weiss, and Joseph Pool, some of the outstanding club leaders who made this possible. I also want to thank two of our new members, Ryan and Cami, without whom it would have been impossible to win at NHSMUN. You should all be SO proud of this achievement and remember to never let a challenge diminish your passion for MUN. Thank you for making this the best end to my high school MUN career, and the bets beginning to many more years of success for RAMSMUN!
Lancaster Central High School
As told by: George Stefanov, President
In the beginning of the year, there was no telling if MUN would even be running, but our amazing Advisors Mrs. Pantera and Mrs. Lezynski made it happen. Our club received a virtual opportunity to attend a local conference at Canisius College via Google Meet. We ended up winning 2 Best Delegate Awards! When it came time to a conference with St. Bonaventure University in the spring, the conference’s platform was Zoom. Our school did not use Zoom, so we needed a new system. With the help of Mrs. Santoro and the High School and District IT Departments, the MUN Club received access to use the Zoom platform and created a Virtual Field Trips program in the process.
Access to Zoom opens our club up to numerous other virtual opportunities! This system would also allow teachers to apply for virtual field trips and visits. At our 8 hour conference, our delegates won multiple Superior and Best Delegate Awards, and Lancaster High School won Best Overall School! Special thanks to Mrs. Pantera, Mrs. Lezynski, and Mrs. Santoro for making this an amazing year for MUN despite all the challenges and difficulties that arose from the pandemic! And thank you to all the people who worked behind the scenes in the IT Departments to make this happen, to those who chaperoned our conference, and of course to all the amazing delegates in Lancaster’s MUN Club who make me proud to be their President.
St Michael Catholic HS Model UN Team
As told by: Paul D Saboe, Advisor
Despite only entering our second year as a team when the Covid 19 pandemic hit, our student leaders, Margie Cowles, Bailey Kelly, Emma McBane, Isaac McBane, Tradd McDaniel, and Mimi Smith organized and sponsored two in person conferences, one in October 2020 and one in April 2021. The October Cardinal Model UN Conference grew from our first ever sponsored conference in October 2019, with 62 students from 2 schools to 103 students from 5 schools. The April Spring Cardinal Model UN Conference (our first ever Spring sponsored conference) grew to 138 students from 12 schools, including 5 schools that were gaining their first introduction to Model UN. More impressive than numbers or the youth of our team was that this was all done in person during the height of the Covid pandemic using appropriate safety protocols (temperature checks, mask wearing, spreading our the two committees in the gym or cafeteria, delivering lunches to where delegates were seated, etc).
FMSMUN
As told by: Henry Bankowski, Club Director
This was my first year ever doing MUN, and before October, I didn’t know what it was. I discovered MUN through TV and decided it was something I wanted to do. My school didn’t have a MUN club and even my teachers didn’t know what it was, so I started my own MUN club, and with the help of my friends, I kickstarted a year of MUN. It was a learning experience for all of us, and we had our share of technology struggles. I would like to thank my friends, who represented New Zealand, Switzerland, and France for helping my club run smoothly and creating an awesome year. Even though this year isn’t over yet, we are already preparing for the next year.
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Thank you for sharing all your stories and for making Model UN happen this year! This is how we empower students build resiliency and to take leadership and action to make their world a better place!
