Danny Konstantinovic
Reporter
It’s probably safe to say that a lot of you have a very clear image in your heads as to what you think members of the Model United Nations (MUN) club are like, so I’d like to start off by saying what we aren’t. We aren’t just a room full of privileged, nerdy kids yelling at each other about politics and pretending to be historical figures that we obviously aren’t, nor are we a club of geniuses with perfect SAT scores and 4.0 GPAs. Across the school I get the sense that there seems to be a misconception that to be in Model UN, you need to be some combination of straight-up weird and Rhodes Scholar. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What we really are is the most diverse collection of students that I’ve ever seen. For every star athlete there are two amateur athletes, for every theater kid there’s a mathlete, and for every artsy student there’s one techy student. Grades really don’t exist in Model UN. In the short time that has passed in this school year so far I can name a handful of freshmen I’ve met through the club that I consider to be friends and many others that I at least say hi to in the hallways. Seniors obviously hold leadership positions in the club, but I can at least say that personally I’ve never been conscious of another student’s grade level when talking to them. I just view them as another member of the club.
No prerequisite exists to become a member of the club. Last year one of the four club captains was Olivia Hompe, who was also captain of at least two other sports teams during her senior year. If anything, that proves that just about anyone regardless of their interests can be successful in the club. Some of you might be rolling your eyes, thinking that mentioning Olivia discredits my “you don’t need to be a genius” statement, so I’ll use myself as an example. I’m one of this year’s four captains, and last year I took a total of one AP class – AP Music Theory, not exactly a class or skill that’s essential to MUN. I’m not a genius by any stretch of the word. Though it’s true that MUN does require a certain level of confidence to feel comfortable doing it, we make sure to work with freshman and new club members so that they’re well-equipped when they go to their first conference.
We go to six national conferences each year at various colleges and universities along the East coast. In the Fall, we attend BUSUN and WMHSMUN, which are Brown University and William and Mary’s respective conferences. Two weeks ago the club took around twenty members to WMHSMUN for the weekend to compete. We attend 4 other conferences at Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, and Cornell throughout the year as well as one international conference at the Hague in the Netherlands
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The process of selecting a team is complex and differs for each conference. Some conferences are more suited for new members of the club while others are suited for experienced ones, and some conferences require us to pick club members based on the committees that we were selected to be a part of. William and Mary was one of the latter. Mr. Phillips (the head of the club), the senior captains, and other faculty advisors all partake in the selection process for conferences. Since it was our first time at WMHSMUN, we picked an especially diverse group of students so that we could see how all different members of the club would react to the conference environment. Eight freshmen were picked so we could find out if the conference is suited for new members and various other members were picked based on what committees were ideal for them so that we could get a sense of the level of competition at the conference. Each student was assigned a different country or person to represent, and each of them (aside from myself due to the nature of my committee) was given a “briefing packet” by the director of their committee, and each was asked to write a position paper based on research they conducted. A great deal of the work that goes into Model UN is research and preparation to represent your country or historical figure, but what wins awards is the actual debate that takes place during the conference.
There’s still so much more to the club that I haven’t mentioned, like the social atmosphere at the conferences, staying in a hotel room with friends for the weekend, or the sometimes-dreaded, sometimes-loved delegate dances at each conference that I will likely get into in future blogs throughout the year. I can’t recommend the club enough. Whether you’re interested in the social atmosphere, the debate, or any other aspect of the club, joining is one of the best decisions you can make – I myself wish I’d joined sooner.
