The MUN team is proud to announce that we have in our student body some very high achievers and committed MUNers.  Their leadership quality and their ability to conduct themselves with confidence backed by sound knowledge of proceedings has been recognized by the organisers of two of the biggest MUN conferences in this part of the world. It is time to celebrate this success.

We are very happy to announce that Sneh Deshpande of MYP 5 was selected as Deputy Chair of the General Assembly 2^nd Committee for the THIMUN conference at Singapore.  

Three others – Shreya Margale, Trisha Gupta and Mehek Mehra – officiated as Deputy Chairs at their respective councils at the THIMUN affiliated CHEMUN conference at Chennai.  

These achievements are the result of focused effort on the part of these students and the final selections are based on recommendations of the MUN advisor.

We congratulate these and wish all our MUN students the very best for a continued productive MUN season and hope to see many more students emulating these four achievers.

• Lila Ravichandran

Here the some of the students’ voices about their experiences at the conferences –

At the THIMUN conference in Singapore there was excellent bonding with my peers spending time together, contrasted with nerve-racking conferences with heated controversial discussions. I was extremely nervous when raising my hand to hold a speech. Sometimes other people already addressed the points I wanted to state, so I didn’t volunteer too often and instead let my allies speak for us.

Next time, I should volunteer frequently and prepare my points by writing outlines of them down beforehand.  

I felt like in a whole other life, like a white-collar adult during workdays. The freedom I had when I was out added to the unusual independence from guardians. Meeting people from all over Asia and collaborating or competing with them in political contexts felt really mature and professional.

I finally had the first-hand experience of debating in global politics and expanded my horizon on the relationships within the international community when coming together to discuss issues concerning the world.

– Diego Oschatz

 MYP5

Pranav Berry

THIMUN was a really wonderful experience for me. I had developed a lot of skills through this one conference. Learning to write a resolution was a really challenging thing at first but I got the hang of it after I started working. I wrote my clauses on cryptocurrencies.

It was a really overwhelming experience at the first day of lobbying but it was fine after starting. Everyone liked my clauses and I merged my resolution with some other delegates. The next day during moderated debate, I raised my first Point of Information and I was really scared. I also gave my speech on cryptocurrencies. I was a little nervous but still the chairs liked my speech and our resolution passed.

Looking back, I really developed public speaking and debating skills, learnt to collaborate with others and to convince people about my ideas.

Sneh Deshpande

Model United Nations has been a significant aspect of my life, encompassing 3 years, and 7 conferences. Procuring an alternative perspective as Chair in a conference as prestigious and competitive as The Hague International Model United Nations at Singapore, allowed me to consolidate my leadership, negotiation and communication skills.

I had to mediate numerous debates between delegates, allowing all delegates to contribute their perspectives equally. THIMUN provided me with the opportunity of appreciating debate at its best, with thoroughly engaged delegates, well-researched resolutions and strongly delivered speeches. I recall feeling like a proud parent, when it was revealed that of the 98 delegates that comprised the General Assembly Second Committee, 97 had contributed to debate.

Moreover, the crisis that my committee faced, causing the THIMUN Board, Secretariat Team, and a slew of MUN Directors to closely examine our proceedings throughout the conference, imparted skills as remaining calm, swiftly mobilizing to address the concern, and effectively resolving the issue through compromise and communication.

Overall, the THIMUN experience rewarded myself and eight other delegates with unforgettable memories and the capacity to look at the world from an alternative lens.  

CHEMUN reflections

As a chair, collaboration was vital to my performance. I had to learn to work effectively with my fellow chairs in order to quickly make decisions about the committee. This was especially challenging because, as chairs, we sat at the front of the council and any disagreement between us was witnessed by a room full of delegates. Thankfully, I got the opportunity to work with two highly experienced and highly professional chairs, and we were able to keep the debate flowing smoothly.

Another important skill I developed at this conference was communication. As in MUN conferences, being able to communicate effectively is vital to being effective in your role. As I chair I had to maintain a professional relationship with all of my delegates and I had ensured that I had a serious tone throughout the conference. This became particularly difficult when we had one delegate who misbehaved the entire time. I had to learn to remain calm while simultaneously I had to exercise my authority to ensure that the delegate understood what he was doing was not appropriate.

At this conference, I also developed my self-management skills. Prior to the conference, I had to prepare a research guide during the summer holidays. This exercised my self-management skills because I had to work through my vacations. During the conference, I had to stay respectful and stay attentive for the entirety of the conference, even though, we had to sit in front of our council for seven hours a day. This was extremely challenging and the experience taught me how to stay focused and made me more patient.

This MUN conference allowed me to engage with multiple issues of global significance such as conserving natural resources, managing chemical waste appropriately, and preventing the contamination of water. Each of these is equally important and are currently pressing issues because of their impact on the world’s entire population. Being able to run a committee like the Environmental Committee was a great honour as I was able to propose a few solutions to the world’s current population and I was able to witness my delegates transform them into feasible solutions that have the potential to make the change that society needs.

– Mehek Mehra DP1

Chennai Model United Nations XII—or CHEMUN XII—was my second MUN conference as a delegate and the largest conference that I have attended to date. There were over forty delegates in my committee—the Human Rights Council—and being a delegate in such a large council presented a variety of challenges that required me to employ a wide array of skills.

Primarily, as the main submitter of a resolution, I was required to first use my thinking and research skills, then my collaboration and communication skills in order to form a resolution, then work with my co-submitters and contributors in order to collate our various ideas and clauses into a cohesive whole.

Furthermore, a large part of MUN involves delivering speeches and then answering various points of information—or POIs—that can challenge or question the preceding speech. When delivering my opening speech, main submitter speech and numerous for and against speeches, I found myself utilising the IB Learner Profile skill of ‘Risk Taker’.

Overall, I feel that I faced two main challenges during Chemun XII; first, it was quite a challenge to overcome my initial apprehension to speak, actively participate in, and make significant contributions to such a large committee for the first time. And second, I found an exhilarating challenge in having to think on my feet in order to answer the plethora of questions and challenges that followed each of the speeches that I delivered.

Finally, in addition to utilising skills that I already had, I also learnt quite a bit from participating in active debate; particularly from the challenge of tactfully replying to points of information on the spot. I learnt how to preemptively prepare for potential POIs and, when I was unsure, use information that I already had to craft a passable response. I found this to be difficult, yet very enjoyable once I had gotten the hang of it.

In the end, I was able to overcome both of the main challenges I faced and ended up being able to ensure that my resolution passed unanimously—an outcome that I am more than satisfied with.

Being a delegate at Chemun XII was certainly a challenge, but a welcome one.

– Anjali Kumaran MYP 4

 Human Rights Committee