What is MUN?
Model United Nations, also known as Model UN or M.U.N., is an educational simulation and academic activity in which students can learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the United Nations. MUN involves and teaches participants speaking, debating, and writing skills, in addition to critical thinking, teamwork, and leadership abilities.
My MUN story starts from 2013...
...when one of my friends in high school (St. Columba's School) came over with an idea to host the first-ever MUN in our school and asked for my technical expertise for the same. Knowing nothing about the topic, I was hesitant in saying yes but did so any way to help the team out with the novel idea. What started as an experiment turned out to shape my journey.
We went through a new and tedious yet successful process to host over 300 delegates from various schools across India. This conference set the standard for the forthcoming editions in my school.
Next year, I decided to give MUNs from a participant’s angle with the University of Chicago’s MUN 2014 in New Delhi. I have had learned a lot during the three days of dedicated debates and vigorous lobbying.
I won the esteemed Meritorious award during my bachelor’s at Bharati Vidyapeeth University for bringing the most amount of awards within the academic year of 2015-16 by participating in various kinds of competitions.
As I got experienced while doing MUNs, I was invited by Schools and Universities to be a Chairperson at their conferences. Each committee in MUN is presided over by a Chairperson (or Chair), who has accepted responsibility for ensuring that the debate within a Committee is orderly and takes all necessary decisions as outlined in its Programme of Work.
In 2015, I was invited as an Executive Board member for four conferences, such as the Chairperson(Vice) at Manipal University Jaipur MUN and President at Lovely Professional University MUN.
In 2016, I acted as an Advisor to Bharati Vidyapeeth College of Engineering’s MUN.
In 2017, I came to Germany for my master’s studies, and during the first semester itself, I was invited to be a Chairperson at Hochschule Rhein-Waal’s Kleve MUN.
In 2018, I participated as a Chairperson at the University of Cologne’s inaugural MUN Conference in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Later that year, I participated in my University’s conference SiegMUN 2018, where I secured the Best Delegate Award representing China in UNESCAP - United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
Impressed with my track record of MUNs, I was part of the official delegation to the National MUN in New York, the oldest MUN conference, representing the University of Siegen.
At NMUN, I acted as a Chairperson at the United Nations Environmental Assembly committee in my largest committee to date (150 states, 300 delegates/students). Our delegation also managed to secure the Outstanding Delegation Award (First Position) at the conference amongst over 5,000 participants.
The Delegation of Siegen got an opportunity to talk to the Mayor of Siegen about the achievement and experience in New York.
Later in the year, I acted as a Chairperson at the African Union committee in the SiegMUN 2019.
In 2020, despite the Covid-19 pandemic, we organized a hybrid SiegMUN conference so that delegates do not miss out on the opportunity to participate and learn about foreign policy, diplomacy, and debating.
