Categorized | Feature Slider, Features

The Power of MUN

By Elizabeth Metzger, Concordia International School Shanghai 

Power of MUNTo my parents, the only reason should join an extracurricular activity is to beef up college or job resume. If the activity is enjoyable, that’s great. If not, well that’s just too darn bad. During freshman year, MUN was the perfect excuse to escape school for a five day “vacation.” These might be similar factors that drew you to MUN initially, but they aren’t the things that make you stay.

According to countless studies, people fear public speaking more than death itself. MUN is a time to develop as a speaker and push yourself outside your comfort zone to get rid of this very fear. Nervous and awkward freshman that I was, going to the podium frightened me almost to tears. Nonetheless, throughout a MUN conference, speakers must improve their vocalizing opinions and varying speaking styles, so to win over the committee. Believe it or not, you will have to give presentations for the rest of your life. As a result, there is always going to be someone you are trying to convince to agree with you. Luckily, MUN gives you an early start on improving your communication skills. Within a conference, you are able to grow in confidence as you face a fate that is supposedly “worse than death.” That’s pretty impressive, if you ask me.

While reflecting on the current state of governments, young people tend to look with a provincial mindset, relying mainly on the perspectives of their parents, teachers, and/or media. Once in MUN, those perspectives begin to broaden to include the perspective of other countries that may or may not have radically different views. There has to be a pretty good understanding of what nation is being represented, because the bright young individuals around you will call you out and expect you to know your stuff. Analyzing these global issues and researching new parts of the world brings a self-reflection on your own opinions as well. As active global citizens, MUN delegates are taking a hands on role to understand how complex global government is.

Most importantly, through MUN conferences, you make new friends who are going to be pretty powerful in the future. All these students are passionate, hardworking, and dedicated to changing the world. Meeting these types of people gives you a real advantage to have some powerful allies in the future. I look forward to the day I will reminisce on the glory days of THIMUN with the CEO of GM, an editor for the New York Times, and the Canadian Prime Minister on a private yacht. Though this may sound a little ambitious and dramatic, the people who join MUN are the kind of people who create change in various ways. The past MUN alums include, but are not limited to, former judge and president of International Court of Justice, Judge Stephen M. Schwebel, UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, and even celebrity media figure, Ryan Seacrest.

Model United Nations gives students an outlet to discover information about other countries, world issues,their own voice, presentations skills, and future ‘allies.’ Of course, all these reasons also explain why it looks so great on your resume in the first place. I guess my parents were right for once. It was bound to happen eventually.

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