Model UN Club Competes at KUMUNC X

Model UN Club Competes at KUMUNC X
Posted on 04/26/2018
Cumberland Valley Model UN Club Competes at KUMUNC X

Rachel Shin
Staff Writer

The Cumberland Valley Model UN Club has met weekly during the school year in preparation for their one annual conference at Kutztown University. The Kutztown University Tenth Annual Model UN Conference, or KUMUNC X, was held on Saturday, April 16th this year.
The members of CV’s MUN were assigned one of KUMUNC X’s five international foreign relations topics. The five topics were separated into two categories: Crisis Committees and General Assemblies. The Crisis Committee topics offered this year were Operation Morthor:
Congo, 1948 South Korea, and 1948 North Korea. The General Assembly topics offered were 1947 Zionist Movement and UNGA: World Health Organization.
The CV MUN team left the school at 6am on April 16th, arriving at Kutztown University at 8am for the opening ceremonies. From there, the members of the club split up and joined theirrespective conferences. The conferences were held in three 2-3 hour intervals, with lunch and relaxation breaks interspersed.
During the conferences, club members represented either entire countries or specific political figures. Their job during the conference is to accurately represent the political stance of that entity, and to reach a conclusion on the topic at hand with the other parties. Within the
conference, alliances between parties or figures are usually formed, causing two opposing propositions or “working papers.”
The conference must end with the two sides reaching a peaceful compromise or a standstill. It is this aspect of debate and research which attracts many students to MUN. “What Ireally like about MUN is that you almost get to play a role. You research all about the country or person you represent, which is like learning your lines, and then you get to act out how they would respond to certain situations and dilemmas, almost like improv,” said Alexis Forsyth, who represented Germany in the UNGA: World Health Organization committee.
All of the conferences at KUMUNC X were able to come up with a definitive (proposed) solution to their issue, except the 1948 North and South Korea committees, which ended in a standstill.
The conferences which were able to agree upon a solution required active compromise and attempting to understand opposing viewpoints. Problem solving and diplomacy are important skills that students take away from their MUN experience.
“It was really great to see
that even though many of the countries had differing views on how to handle different world health issues, like women’s health in war-torn countries, we were all able to compromise for the sake of the general good, and for world peace. I like to think that despite our arguments, the
greater good comes first, like in the real UN,” Forsyth said.
Last year at KUMUNC IX, Alex Clark of CV won an honorable mention, equivalent to a third place prize at the conference. Unfortunately, this year no one from CV won an award. Parkland High school was awarded best overall performance at KUMUNC X.
Despite not winning any formal awards, CV MUN was able to earn valuable experience from KUMUNC X. Students learned skills like diplomacy and compromise, and emphasized the priority of world peace and well-being over individual preferences.
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