Which skills are most important in a Model UN committee? What are committee staff looking for when determining awards? How can students improve as delegates? To answer these questions, we spoke with former high school conference secretary-general Mia Cleary.
Cleary, who served as secretary-general of Florida International University’s FIMUN 33 high school conference, explained some of the most important skills in Model UN and how students can succeed in Model UN.
According to Cleary, Best Delegate helps students develop the skills they need to succeed in the high school MUN circuit.
First among these is self-confidence, which Cleary said is the most important skill needed to succeed at a high school MUN conference. This enables students to advocate for their country’s policy positions and take initiative in conferences, while effectively collaborating with others.
“So much of the other skills that you get in Model UN will come to you, but most importantly you have to be pretty sure of who you are as a person, especially when you’re trying to figure out how to publicly speak, trying to figure out how to research and assert yourself in politics,” said Cleary. “Step one is confidence.”
Cleary also said that diplomacy is critical.
“Diplomacy is honestly how well you can have a conversation with someone, in a manner that involves a lot of active listening,” she said. “It’s about coming to conclusions with the understanding of listening to many different ideas and finding a compromise…. I think that that’s something that most adults can’t even do very well.”
For Cleary, this skill is especially valuable in General Assembly committees, where delegates write resolutions addressing global issues. To accomplish this, they must work with others and determine which policies will go into the resolution.
“Especially [important to] Model UN is figuring out how [to] actively listen to all these ideas, and all these clashing personalities too, and then find some level of a compromise to that and do a paper,” Cleary said.
All these skills contribute to delegates’ leadership — essential not only in real life but also to be successful in a Model UN committee.
“So much of [leadership] is active listening and confidence, and how well you make everyone think that you know you’re doing whether you do or don’t, that’s just your confidence level,” said Cleary. “And then how well people are going to like you, likability and active listening again are two key components of leadership.”
Cleary said how well delegates demonstrate this influences who awards at a Model UN conference: for her, what sets students who gavel committees apart from the rest is that they are “students with very high confidence [who] are very tolerant of others.”
“Creative, confident and tolerant students mostly end up winning awards, I would say like 90% of the time, and then obviously, that also includes students who are really well researched in the areas that you can’t be.” Cleary explained. “When we find out that someone who’s doing really well is someone who’s mean, that will automatically result in some level of loss of points…we’ve even had situations that resulted in people losing a gavel.”
Sometimes, said Cleary, students have misconceptions about what committee chairs and directors are looking for in delegates.
“I think that high schoolers sometimes get hyper-focused on being the person who talks the most all the time. Like I know I did. I used to think that if you talk the most then you’re the most assertive, and for some chairs like that’s what they look for,” she said. “But at least in our conference, so much of the awards is based on who leads by constantly listening and taking note. And so I think that one of the misconceptions is that you have to talk a lot to win an award and it’s not, just that you have to know what you’re talking about.”
Most important is practice: leadership and diplomacy, along with other skills like writing and public speaking, can be learned. Regularly participating in conferences and training programs help students develop these skills and become more comfortable in Model UN.
According to Cleary, attending conferences is the most effective way to improve students’ Model UN skills.
“The best way that you can learn about Model UN, and even the skills in Model UN is by doing a Model UN conference and seeing Model UN, ” she said. “The best way that you can learn how to be a better delegate is watching other delegates in action. And then just sort of figuring out what traits you want to mimic, as a person, and then figuring out how to apply them to yourself.”
Cleary encouraged students to go to conferences at the local, state, and national levels and take advantage of opportunities to participate more in MUN.
Programs like Best Delegate’s MUN Institute give students the chance to participate in conferences and learn MUN skills from talented delegates on the college MUN circuit. Cleary said students should consider participating in such programs.
“First of all, when you’re studying [or] when you’re doing Model UN reading a lot of it is international relations and so Best Delegate helps provide a lot of the researching skills that you need, [to understand] basic concepts that are really important around the world,” she said, listing a few concepts such as food security, national security, and warfare.
She said programs like Best Delegate’s also help students hone their soft skills necessary for success in Model UN conferences.
“I think that just having that constant practice and that constant workshopping of these Model UN skills…they do leadership workshops, they do public speaking, they do writing. And I think that sort of honing in on all these areas just consistently is just really good for building yourself as a delegate in general,” said Cleary. “That’s how anyone [who’s] good at Model UN is good — it’s just because they’ve done it so much.”
While the best way to improve in MUN conferences is through practice, articles with tips and strategies for conferences and information on international affairs are also available to students. These can also be valuable resources. Drawing from her own experience, Cleary said students should pursue the articles available on Best Delegate’s website and those of other organizations.
“I learned a lot by like one researching a ton and figuring out how I found passion and my topics. Typically students who do Model UN like international relations a lot and even if you don’t it’s not very hard to be interested in what’s happening in the world…whether you relate because personally, something has happened to you that relates to a topic like food insecurity, or you just really like a certain subject if you’re doing crisis,” said Cleary. “For me, it was watching videos and then participating in as many conferences as I could, within my financial bounds, when I was in high school, [that] for sure helped.”
Finally, Cleary said that getting feedback after a conference ends is as important as preparing before it.
“After you’ve done a conference I think the most important thing that you could do for yourself, even if you went first place, is to get feedback on what you did right and what you did wrong. A huge part of Model UN is getting feedback from coaches or partners, just constantly wanting to be positively criticized in your performance,” said Cleary.
She emphasized that winning an award is not everything, and students should not obsess over it.
“In order to win an award, frankly, you have to be cognizant of the people around you and self-aware. If you don’t have that you probably won’t win an award, at least not at our conference. Then you’re just going to be annoying to someone, or you’re just going to be someone who wants to win something,” Cleary explained. “We don’t necessarily pick people who want to win, we pick people who deserve to win.”
