Raven Killinger
Reporter
From Nov. 29- Dec.2, the members of the Model United Nations (MUN) club traveled to East Brunswick, New Jersey to compete in the annual Princeton Model UN Conference (PMUNC), with many members returning to New Canaan with highly valued awards.
Due to the turnout of over 1000 people, the atmosphere in each of the individual rooms was filled with anxiety and nervousness. According to senior captain Charlie Freyre, who won the Outstanding Delegate Award, the atmosphere of the conference fueled heated debate. “My room had 15 people in it. It was an intense, competitive atmosphere,” he said.”Like all the best governments, nothing was initially agreed upon and subject to a high level of debate before any action was taken”.
For Charlie, the key to his success was in expanding his own power through different ways. “To gain my award, I had to control the flow and direction of the debate in my room,” he said. “I had to use individual powers to expand my own and therefore the entire cabinet’s power, and to respond to crises by passing directives and responding to challenges that faced my committee room, while being generally diplomatic when doing so.”
Another award winner was senior Isabelle Herde, who was also named Outstanding Delegate in her room. Agreeing with Charlie, Isabelle appreciated the intensity of PMUNC. “Princeton is definitely one of the more competitive conferences we go to. The level of debate and the ideas people come up with are much better,” she said.
Charlie also emphasized how PMUNC is different compared to other conferences. “This is a pretty huge conference,” he said. “Probably the most competitive our club goes to all year. But there’s more energy that surrounds the huge conferences, which I think a lot of kids definitely enjoy”.
Along with Charlie and Isabelle, many other members of the MUN club left Princeton decorated. Sophomore Charlie Sosnick took home one of the highest awards at the debate: best position paper. “My best position paper award meant that I had done the best research in my committee “The Global Space Summit”,” he said. “Right before every conference, you write a paper on the country you are representing and the topic you will be discussing. It gave me a sense of pride that someone recognized the work that I had done”.
In order to gain success, the delegates had to exercise their knowledge of the historical time period specific to that room. “At one point I had to annex all unorganized territory south of the 36″ 30 parallel as Texas, so I was definitely fulfilling my role,” Isabelle said.
When discussing the matter at hand, the delegates needed to use real world debate tactics.“I also had to contribute to the room with ideas and plans and know when to stop short of annoying your chair,” she said. “I would pass directives that tried to do stuff and make motions that would take everything in the room run more efficiently and the chairs definitely appreciate that”.
The members of MUN seem to improve each year. “Every year we go to PMUNC we get better result,” Charlie said. The proof is in the pudding, as the team had two outstanding delegates, along with honorable mentions for seniors Evelyn Luchs, Jack Ludtke, and Eric Persky, juniors Juan Rivera, Lainie Noonan and Alejandra Zamora, and freshman Kyla Persky.
Want to know more about the happenings of the MUN club? Just check the “Club Board” blog! The first post is from senior captain Jack Ludtke, on his experience at PMUNC. If you would like to write for the MUN blog, please contact Juan Rivera or Harrison Burt.
