Chieh-Ning (Jenny) Ho cub writer
Model United Nations (MUN) is a club where students experience what it’s like to be a member of the United Nations. Students undergo the process of how to make speeches, resolve conflict and debate current issues.  
Students join MUN for various reasons. Some may join purely out of interest, from advertisements, or even just to challenge themselves.  
“I was attracted to MUN because of its ability to improve my public speaking skills and knowledge of world occurrences,” junior Britney Shirian said.
“I got into MUN through a school advertisement and thought it would be interesting to try public speaking,” junior Andrew Chung said.
Once students join the club, they experience their first ever conference. MUN conferences are diplomatic competition. Students are assigned countries, and their job is to debate the given issue from the given country’s point of view and belief.
“My first time at a conference was in the eighth grade. I was very nervous, but having some friends there made it a lot better. I remember loving the program and the concerto of pretending you were a delegate at the UN with the ability to foster change in the world,” Shirian said.
As students attend more and more conferences, some may come across obstacles and some may face challenges
“I initially struggled with intimidation at conferences. Everyone else seemed so much more capable and experienced than me. But then I realized that their experience was attainable as long as I attended conferences and challenged myself,” Shirian said.
Not only are students themselves facing problems, so has the club.
“One of the biggest obstacles of MUN has been the logistical obstacles we had to face as a club. In three years we cycled through three advisers, which has been pretty rough. It has meant that we haven’t been able to compete in as many conferences or events. But, finally this year we found an adviser who is dedicated to our club and conferences,” senior Kimia Azad said.
MUN is a place where students can be challenged and also challenge themselves.
“I’ve learned throughout MUN is that public speaking is a craft, and it takes time to perfect [it],” Chung said. “… Just being a good person to everyone, even the ones who are rude, will help you get to where you want to be in life because people will remember you for being kind to them and will want to help you in return,” sophomore Aasha Sendhil said.
And while members of MUN are bound to face challenges, it is the goal of the club to make sure that kids enjoy their time in the program
“…It’s just to try something new or push themselves [students] out of their comfort zone,” Shirian said. “You never know if you’ll fall in love with it like I did.”
If you are interested in joining MUN or want to learn more about MUN, here is the sign up link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdbmGRoZUF4pZEDLIIikW7UfhFkO5HWKWetzZo2QRjwP0GpoA/viewform