Model United Nations (MUN) recently won several top awards at various prestigious conferences in the Bay Area, including one at Stanford University and another at U.C. Berkeley , MUN president Ashton Chen, a senior, said.
The group sent several delegates to universities and won awards at each event. The group won several top titles, with four members winning Best Delegate and 13 members winning Outstanding or Honorary Delegate, Chen said. Each delegate level is equivalent to traditional places, with “Best” being first, “Outstanding” as second, and “Honorary as third,” Chen said.
“We’ve seen well over double in the amount of the awards that we brought back,” Chen said. “Specifically at Berkeley, we saw percentage-wise, I think a twenty percent increase,” he added.
These recent successes have been achieved following a significant change in leadership structure, as all the prior core officers graduated last year. The organization faced many challenges during this transition, Chen said.
“I started (attending) MUN in my freshman year, and to be completely honest, the way that our team functioned, we had a couple heavy hitters; (…) the rest of the delegation that would just sit on the backboard”, Chen said. “As the administrations changed between officers, we saw more and more emphasis on actually helping our newer members develop their skills and actually perform better.”
Club advisor Rylie Zea has been the MUN advisor for three years and has seen the growth over time. The club has been stepping up its fundraising efforts to help sustain the various expenses, Zea said.
“They began fundraising significantly, which is so helpful because conferences are expensive and they have fees that need to be paid, and they’re able to help cover those costs so more people are able to participate,” Zea said.
The club hopes to achieve increase their participation and the number of conferences they attend, Zea said.
“I’ve now seen them planning months in advance for conferences that are far out, and that is great, because the hardest part sometimes is just signing people up and then actually getting them to show up and perform”, Zea said.
The MUN executives are also planning on expanding their operations next semester, secretary Lauren Lee, a senior, said.
“I do hope that for our next semester, we will host our own conference”, Lauren Lee said.
Their advisor also approves of their goals for the next semester.
“Hosting our own conference at Milpitas High School is definitely something that we want towanna do,” Zea said..” We participated in many conferences, but having our own (…) is a pretty big deal that we would love to do.””, Zea said.
MUNModel United Nations has continued to increase its presence in the school environment, highlighting the gradual expansion of student interest in extracurricular activities. Students are recommended to join and try out MUN, Zea said.