Alya Mehrtash staff writer
The BHHS Model United Nations (BHMUN) team competed at the annual BruinMUN competition on Nov. 16 and 17 at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). BruinMUN was the team’s second competition of the year, following the Cerritos High School Novice Conference in early October. 
The Normans came home from BruinMUN with multiple accolades: juniors Elitsa Mincheva and Una Stevanovich, representing the delegation of Ukraine, received the Honorable Mention award for the Novice UNEP committee; juniors Ben Maizes and Jack Lanzer, as well as seniors Mason Ware and Harrison Stone, representing the delegation of Singapore, received Verbal Commendations for their work in 1st DISEC and ECOFIN, respectively.
BHMUN delegates worked toward multiple goals throughout the weekend.
“Our goals were to improve upon speaking, diplomacy and communication skills–to pick up new MUN techniques that can be used in future conferences,” BHMUN president Britney Shirian said. “The primary goal, of course, was to have fun.” 
In preparation for the conference, delegates conducted extensive research, wrote two research papers on their assigned topics and drafted speeches. The work Mincheva and her partner did prior to BruinMUN contributed to their success at the conference.
“When we won the award, it felt really rewarding. The whole weekend before that we spent researching away felt totally worth it,” Mincheva said.
Mincheva has never attended BruinMUN until this year, and while she enjoyed many aspects of the conference, it was the company that made it most memorable for her.
“My favorite part of BruinMUN has to be that I experienced it with my friends. I really could not have gotten through the conference without them and the new friends I made,” Mincheva said. “I had the best time doing dual delegate with my partner, because it made the whole experience more fun. [The award] was especially important to me, because Una and I had won it together.”
Aside from future conferences that they plan to attend, BHMUN is also hoping to begin preparations for their BHMUN school-wide conference in the Spring.