NHSMUN at New York City
March 26th, 2008
The big apple. The city that never takes a nap. The center of the known world. Take nine PAS MUNers and drop them down on 6th Avenue and 53rd, add a visit by the President of the United States himself, shake and serve. The National High School Model United Nations conference from March 12-15 was unlike any MUN conference we’ve been to before.
For one thing, PAS was proud to be the only school from Asia to participate in the conference. Every MUN conference needs to have an international feel to be truly representational. So, a very large task fell on our shoulders. Being in committees with fluent, first-language English speakers presented a real challenge for some of our delegates. They had to cope with the more flexible rules of this American-style conference, which included the deliberate banning of technology in the committee sessions to erase the gap between students who had their own laptops versus those who did not. It is a reminder that not all students at MUN conferences come from private schools like our own.
The highlights of the conference undoubtedly took place at the United Nations General Assembly Hall itself. Students queued out in the cold before walking through security tents and entering the aging egg of a building that is the UN GA Hall. Having the opportunity to sit where the real UN delegates sit and vote was a real treat and added a sense of importance to the debates.
Being smack dab in mid-town Manhattan, our students were able to take advantage of the proximity to many shopping and cultural areas. We visited the Guggenheim Museum and were blown away (literally) by the gunpowder art of Cai Guo-qiang. As usual, the students shied away from ethnic cuisine, preferring Japanese noodles to Mexican empanadas. But they were treated to a lunch in New York’s famous Hell’s Kitchen district, which included a taste of deep fried ice cream.
Overall, I was happy with the performance of my experienced and novice delegates, alike. New delegates, like Alex Hsu and Christine Lai, took a little time before coming out of their shells in committee, and I hope their first MUN experience leaves them wanting more. Other delegates actively tried to take a more hands-on role at NHSMUN, delegates like Daphne Lee.
The preparation for this conference was extensive and asked the students to prepare an in-depth policy paper on Saudi Arabia’s stance on their respective issues. Consequently, we had little time for in-class debate practice. To remedy this, we have decided to hold our very own MUN conference, a one-day Security Council session, at the end of May. I encourage all interested students to come out and take part.
So after another long and memorable week, PAS bid good-bye to the big apple. This conference challenged us in ways our previous conferences had not, and because of this I feel that we left New York with a better rounded perspective of how different MUN conferences work.