Natasha Dardashti social media editor
Model United Nations (MUN) students ran their sixth annual conference at Beverly Hills High School last Saturday, Feb. 20, where students from across the region were invited to partake as delegates and club members took place as committee chairs.
Preparation for Beverly Hills MUN (BHMUN) included advertising, selecting committee chairs and hosting a training session for delegates attending the conference. Winners of Best Delegate include junior Keith Stone for IAEA, junior Harry Lee for UNHCR, junior Ethan Harris for Security Council and junior Veronica Pahomova for UNHRC. Junior Cathy Lee, president of MUN and Secretary-General of the BHMUN Conference, found that both committee chairs and delegates in attendance were productive during the event.
“Whenever I walked into a committee, the delegates were actively caucusing and debating by making speeches and comments,” Lee said. “In addition to the delegates, the committee chairs, who are members of the MUN club, were familiar with committee procedures and ran their committees effectively.”
Junior Even Nehmadi, a MUN first-timer, found that he enjoyed participating in BHMUN.
“It was interesting to meet with the delegates representing other countries, form coalitions with them and create resolutions to reach common goals benefiting the world,” Nehmadi said.
During the conference, Lee delivered a “crisis” to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) committee, something usually given to the more expert Security Council committees. Sam Siminou, a middle schooler from Horace Mann, was awarded best delegate in this middle school committee.
“Usually, only the Security Council has crises, so it was interesting both for me and for the UNEP committee to have a crisis that had to be resolved by the committee,” Lee said.

BHMUN committees also revolved around current events, such as the Syrian Refugee Crisis, which allowed students to get a glimpse at topics debated in international community today. Harry Lee was awarded Best Delegate in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees committee, and found that though the conference was at a novice level, he was still able to learn from it.

“It was very educational since it helped me learn more about current events,” Lee said.

Addressing current events during this conference ended up creating a fun environment that was educational and satisfying to both newcomers and old MUN members.
“Overall, the BHMUN 2016 conference gave delegates an idea of how MUN works and allowed them to enhance their knowledge on and enjoy discussing current event issues,” Lee said.