This is a guest article contribute by community member Naba Rahman, Secretary General of NCSC XLV.
The other day I was in an interview, and they prompted: if you could be anywhere right now, where would you be? My honest answer: the crisis suite. I’ve served on three secretariats now and I can say with full faith that nothing gives me more joy than staffing committees.
But as emphatically as I may declare that now, that wasn’t always the case. It was winter break my freshman year and I casually opened an application to apply to secretariat for the National Collegiate Security Conference, Georgetown’s collegiate conference. The application struck a stark line between logistic-focused positions and substantive ones. With a cursory skim over the “sub-side” positions, I began labouring over my logistics application. “You are more of a logistics person. Substance isn’t going to be your thing.” The thought of me being a USG and coordinating substance was laughable at best.
Fast-forward a couple weeks and I groggily pick up my phone at 8AM to the Secretary General of NCSC’s voice: “Congratulations. We would like to offer you the position of the Under-Secretary General of Cabinets and Boards.”
I quite literally had him repeat himself, because I was sure I had misheard him. I hung up the call with a wracking anxiety: there was no way I could be a USG. I physically could not see myself being successful here.
Two years later, I have now completed by tenure as the Secretary-General of the 45th National Collegiate Security Conference. I have never been more unsure of myself than I was when I received that call, but I am now more sure of this than anything: sub-side was my true passion, even if I didn’t know it at the time. Now that prompts the question: what was it that convinced me that I would never be good enough? It was hard to ignore the voice in my head, but it is even harder to ignore this fact: the reason I could never see myself being successful is because there were no women for me to look up to on sub-side.
Substance in Model UN has always been a male-dominated field: I picked this up as early as my first conference. When you constantly see male SGs and male USGs and male Crisis Managers, it reinforces in young women’s minds that Model UN is an old boy’s club. The fact that a woman had not held the title of Secretary-General at NCSC for the last decade stands clear as to why this is a problem.
This isn’t just endemic to the Hilltop. My time traveling and staffing has shown me that there are so many fierce, driven women who are held back because they don’t believe in themselves. So I leave you with two pieces of advice:
- Be the first. It is hauntingly scary and you will find yourself questioning every single step, but each of those steps is one of progress. Don’t throw away an opportunity because you can’t fashion an image of yourself doing that. Take a pen and draw it yourself. It is worth it, I promise.
- What scared me most about being a female SG was that I thought I was alone. I never had anyone to rely on and say, “if she were here, what would she do?” But the amazing thing about this day and age is that you are never alone. The women at Georgetown and on the circuit gave me something to inspire to and the support I needed. To the women who have been already been revolutionary, reach out to underclassmen and show them an image of themselves breaking their barriers.
This activity has single-handedly transformed my college experience and I owe it everything. And, above all, I am elated to see where it takes the next generation of fearless women.
