Update: CMC's Model UN team competed in the WorldMUN in Montreal in March and each member of the team won an individual award. "Over the course of one week, we were able to work with, exchange ideas, and share experiences with delegates from around the world," said team member Emma Houston '19.
The championships just keep piling up.
CMC's Model UN team won Best Delegation for their size division at the Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) Conference held Feb. 16-19 in Boston. CMC Model UN Teams also won top laurels two years in a row (2015-16) in that same division at Harvard’s World Model UN Conference. The CMC team will try for a “three-peat” at the next World Model UN March 13-17 in Montreal.
At the Harvard Conference, CMC competed against over 3,000 other delegates from more than 70 countries and around 150 academic institutions to bring home the award. It was the 63rd session of HNMUN and ranks as the largest, oldest and most prestigious Model UN conference.
“We were incredibly excited when we found out we won and glad that all our hard work paid off,” says team president, Fiona Bare ‘17 “It was a special moment for the whole team to share. I was extremely proud of everybody, especially the freshmen and sophomores who were able to compete at such a high level.”
CMC's team had students debating in eight different committees, with topics ranging from the societal causes of terrorism to reform of UN peacekeeping operations to development after health crises.
Along with Bare, other CMC Model UN team members included: Sam Minter '17, Griffin Merians '17, Michael Grouskay '17, Tim Plummer '17, Sydney Smith '18, Jerry Li '18, Emma Houston '19, Ariana Kemp '20, and Andrew Ciacci '20.
“It felt absolutely incredible to win the competition in our division at HNMUN 2017, says Li. “CMC was the only North American team to bring home a delegation award, and our victory bears testament to the amount of energy and work we dedicated to the weekend. As a small delegation that funds our participation through holding our high school conference, it meant a lot to each member of our team to beat out larger, better-funded teams from other universities.”
Participation in the Model UN program helps build many skills, such as collaboration abilities, improved understanding of current events, public speaking and negotiation. It also fosters cross-cultural understanding as delegates from across the world learn to work together.
“I would absolutely recommend Model UN to other CMCers because it is a fantastic opportunity to hone a variety of valuable skills, including public speaking, negotiation, and conflict resolution,” Li says. “These skills are rigorously put to the test in committee sessions, and delegates are tasked with debating a range of topics (anything from amnesty in international armed conflict, to reproductive health, to nuclear proliferation, etc.). The result of this is that when we walk away from a conference weekend, not only do we become 'experts' in the topics we discussed, we also improve these practical skills that can be applied any and everywhere else.”
In addition to the upcoming World Model UN conference during spring break, the team just finished competing at UC-Berkeley's March 2-5, and brought back to campus a large number of individual awards. The team is also scheduled to compete at UCLA's conference in April and will be hosting McKennaMUN, a high school conference, at CMC also in April with over 600 delegates expected to attend.
##