WAMUNC APEC delegates pose for a committee photo
George Washington’s WAMUNC conference — and Best Delegate‘s Ryan Villanueva — got the spotlight this weekend in DC. We have recaps from WAMUNC as well as Florida High Schools’ FHSMUN, Michigan State’s MSUMUN, and the MUNterrey Prepas conference in Mexico for you below.
This upcoming weekend will be packed with conferences — there are a total of 14 conferences including nine in the United States alone — making this one of the Top 10 Weekends. The Best Delegate team will be covering Seton Hall’s SHUMUN — where Ryan Villanueva is scheduled to speak at opening ceremonies — and splitting time between three college conferences: West Point’s WPSC, Mt. Holyoke’s FCMUN, and New York University’s NYUMUNC. We have conference previews below.
Also, we have been running two series of MUN Standings to answer the question “what are the best Model UN teams?” The Best High School Model UN Teams in America standings came out last week — check out the Overview, Methodology, and Top 16-25 — and the Top 11-15 will be released later today! The Best College Model UN Teams standings also came out last week — you can read the Overview, Methodologies, and Top 16-25 — and the Top 11-15 will be released on Tuesday.
Conference Recaps
Washington Area Model United Nations Conference (WAMUNC)
Best Delegate liveblogged WAMUNC this past weekend. Check out all the action below!
- Opening Ceremonies: Best Delegate’s Ryan Villanueva Gives Keynote Speech
- Delegates Tour DC, Meet IR Professionals, & Debate GWU Professors
- Videoblog/Photoblog: “Age of Imperialism” Joint Crisis Simulation
- WAMUNC Supports Instituto Mundo Libre
- Delegates in Action: Human Rights Council Photoblog
- Meet WAMUNC Secretary-General Kelsey King
- Closing Ceremonies: Cape Coral and Franklin win delegation awards
Florida High Schools Model United Nations (FHSMUN)
The Delegation of Gabon represented by Archimedean Upper Conservatory displaying their award for Honorable Mention at FHSMUN
Over the past 30+ years, the Florida High Schools Model United Nations (FHSMUN) conference has grown into one of the most well-respected and largest high school Model UN conferences in the Southeast because of the extraordinary commitment of the Staff, the Board of Directors, local United Nations Association (UNA) chapters, the Florida Division of the UNA, UNA National in New York, and universities and community organizations. Attending schools come from all parts of the state of Florida and the Staff represents most of the state universities and a number of private colleges throughout Florida.
This year, the success of FHSMUN 32 was no different. The conference featured over 200 delegates from across the state of Florida as well as a Department of Defense school from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, competing in a myriad of topics all revolving around the theme of science and technology.
The conference has an educational focus, but by no means were the talented competitors and high caliber of debate left unrecognized. Several schools from across the state took home awards for their delegations, but Pine View High School specifically stood out bringing home the title of Outstanding Delegation for both Greece and Japan.
“I had the chance to compete in this conference when I was in high school, and now as an advisor seeing my kids flourish over these 4 days, and unanimously rate their overall experience at FHSMUN a 10 has been more rewarding for me than any award could ever be” stated Liz Rebecca Alarcon, advisor of the Archimedean Upper Conservatory MUN Team.
Michigan State University Model United Nations (MSUMUN)
This weekend, about 500 high schoolers from multiple states came to Michigan State University’s MSUMUN for one main purpose: saving the world through compromise. While the conference provided opportunities for the delegates to learn, it also had its benefits for the Michigan State students and for teachers that want to convey the value of college.
“It’s partly to give back to the community and provide a learning experience to the high school students,” MSUMUN staffer Chris Noffze said. “At the same time, it provides MSU students with the opportunity to see how the other side of the conference works. … Better delegates make better staff and better staff make better delegates.”
“Students might not know a lot of people in college or know that there are opportunities like this ahead of them,” MSUMUN staffer Lauren Jansinski said. “Letting people know you can do something academic that’s still really enjoyable is important.”
“Students enjoy the debate,” Allen Park High School advisor Priscilla Zenn said. “They do a lot of analytical thinking. I love the interaction with kids across the state.”
You can learn more about the conference here. The Secretary-General was Kaitlynn Colbert.
Modelo de las Naciones Unidas de la Prepa Tec (MUNterrey Prepas)
MUNterrey Prepas was held at the Prepa Tec campus Santa Catarina in Monterrey, Mexico. Like many conferences held in Mexico, the conference had committee options in multiple languages — the conference featured six committees in English and four committees in Spanish. The program coordinators were fellow UNA-USA staffers Alejandra Huerta and Pedro Cardenas, and the Secretary-General was Juan Carlos Salamanca.
MUNterrey staffers enjoying the conference
Conference Previews
There are 14 conferences this weekend. The Best Delegate team will be splitting its time covering the four conferences that made the most compelling invitations to us — including a speaking invitation for Ryan Villanueva at SHUMUN — so hopefully we’ll get some interesting liveblogging this weekend. Conference organizers from the other conferences can submit recaps to Kevin at kfc@bestdelegate.com. Here are the conference previews:
Seton Hall University Model United Nations (SHUMUN)
Seton Hall University will be hosting its SHUMUN conference in South Orange, New Jersey. Best Delegate‘s Ryan Villanueva will be speaking at opening ceremonies! The conference lineup will feature twelve traditional UN committees with the most advanced being the Secretary-General’s Good Offices Committee. Several of the committees are noted as “beginner” and will not have a crisis — that means everyone else shouldn’t be surprised if their committee does! The Secretary-General is Marco Alberti who was also Secretary-General of UNA-USA’s Global Classrooms New York City conference. We also wanted to note that the Director-General is Milan Stanic who appears in our book “How Model UN Can Help You Get into College.”
West Point Security Conference (WPSC)
The United States Military Academy at West Point will be hosting its inaugural West Point Security Conference. The college-level simulation will be different from anything we have seen on the Model UN circuit and is very appropriate for West Point to lead — it will consist of Seven committee rooms, hierarchically organized, to simulate strategic decision making bodies of the federal government, to include committees within the National Security Council, U.S. Army commands, and U.S. embassies. The conference Command Team is George LeMeur and Andrew Swick.
Five College Model United Nations (FCMUN) — led by Mt. Holyoke College
Mt. Holyoke College along with neighboring Smith College and the University of Massachusetts – Amherst will be hosting the fourth annual Five College Model UN college conference on the campus of Mt. Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. The conference has a exciting lineup of 14 historical, present, and futuristic committees divided into three joint crisis simulations (six committees total), five single crisis committees, and three summits. The conference’s social event is open to the rest of campus and is expected to be one of the largest of the semester. The Secretary-General is Margaret Fitzgerald of Mt. Holyoke College.
New York University Model United Nations Conference (NYUMUNC)
NYU will be holding its second NYUMUNC in New York City after a successful inaugural college conference last year. The conference was a “Princeton PicSIM” feel — they will be running six crisis cabinets: the United States, Russian Federation, China, Nigeria, Niger, and Special Technical Committee of the African Union. Best Delegate sees potential for at least two three-way joint crisis simulations between the cabinets. Social media like Twitter and YouTube are expected to make the cabinets much more dynamic and to give individuals within each cabinet more influence. The Secretary-General is Kirby Smith.
Other Conferences this Weekend:
North America
- Cornell International Affairs Conference (CIAC), Ithaca, New York (college)
- Dartmouth MUN (DartMUN), Hanover, New Hampshire
- MUNCH, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
- UNA-USA’s Global Classrooms Houston (GC Houston), Houston, Texas
- WestMUN, Santa Barbara, California (college)
Global
- American International School MUN, Cairo, Egypt
- Colegio Americano Internacional Naciones Unidas (CAMINU), Quito, Ecuador
- Haarlem MUN (HMUN), Haarlem, Netherlands
- MUIMUN, Munster, Germany
- MUNUSAL, Salamanca, Spain (college)
Model UN News
Best Delegate news
- The Best High School Model UN Teams in America: Overview, Methodology, and Top 16-25
- The Best College Model UN Teams: Overview, Methodologies, and Top 16-25
Community news
