The new era of education focuses more holistic abilities of the student rather than just textbook knowledge. The model united nations conference is taking the world by storm today in education institutes, universities and schools where the students are exposed to real world global issues and debate, collaborate and communicate to come to a resolution. This is a great opportunity for all of us to improve on crucial skills that shape our character, essential for our future. As a part of my CAS experience, I decided to volunteer for the organization of Fountainhead school’s MUN. Having done 2-3 of MUNs in the past myself, I know that it is a fruitful experience for the delegates, hence, I wanted to contribute in organizing FSMUN 9.0 version to make it a success. This experience enhanced my collaboration, social, communication and time management skills. We started working for the event in September, since it is such a huge event, it was a huge responsibility and commitment, and it took time to present our best. The event was on the dates 19th and 20th of November 2022. Throughout the journey I was able to learn a lot of things, as mentioned below:

LO1 : I am a person who is keenly interested in world affairs and politics. I regularly keep up with the news and current affairs. However, to understand the implications of the event or occurrence on different stakeholders, political parties and ideologies, thereby evaluating the affair was important. Hence, the MUN allowed me to build upon the strength of having substantial knowledge about current affairs (especially in India), and building upon the evaluation part as I had to research well about the agendas of the committees.

LO2 : Since this event is planned on a huge scale, we had a lot of responsibility. I had to prepare the study guides for 2 committees : UNSC and Lok Sabha. A study guide is a booklet about the agenda of the committee which is given to the delegates a few days prior to the MUN for them to prepare themselves accordingly. Doing so required rigorous research and studying about the agendas myself. The main challenge throughout the experience was to thoroughly understand the UNSC agenda : Boko-Haram conflict and Lok Sabha agenda : Rising tensions in northern and northeastern states of India. I had to take time out of my own studies and preparation for the exams as the MUN preparation was clashing with my exam preparation. However, I had to manage my time responsibly and be diligent about my work. I had to research every fact and figure consciously and make sure there are no biases or informal conventions in the study guide I have prepared.

LO 3 : The FSMUN required a lot of dedication and hard work. An event where more than 300 people would interact required planning and initiation. We had to assign the students their respective committees, the venues, the food menu, the hotel bookings for EB members, the transport facilities etc. in advance. Moreover, the event was on a large scale, hence, what decorations were needed, what resources are required, how to manage the finances etc. was only possible through intense planning and collaboration.

LO5 : Dealing with different people is challenging for me because I am an introvert. Yet, while working with other OC members, I was able to trust them to finish their work while I focused on the work that was allocated to me. It was challenging at first, but after a few sessions, I became more comfortable with their working style. Although there were a few people who were difficult to work with as some people weren’t able to meet the deadlines, we were able to solve the issues because our team was very cooperative and supportive.  This is something I’ve learned as well: it’s important to collaborate with everyone so that the end result is better. Working together makes things easier and faster. Working with others broadens your horizons by including multiple points of view and views.

LO6 : Because MUNs are all about discussing global issues, w e picked upon agendas that are going on around the world and are big issues that should be attended to. There were eight committees at this MUN: UNSC, UNHRC, UNGA, Lok Sabha, WHO, IP, UNOOSA, and DISEC. Except for IP (International Press), all committees had agendas that discussed global issues such as Boko Haram, cyberterrorism, space technologies, discrimination against people based on their identity, conflict in Northern and Northeastern Indian states, veto powers, and establishing precautionary protocols for future epidemics and pandemics. All of these topics are distributed around the world, and the discussions in each committee were quite healthy and had a .global significance attached to it.

To conclude, I learnt a lot and had a lot of fun throughout this experience.  I thoroughly appreciated the entire experience. The journey was challenging, but the outcome was wonderful. This event helped a lot of people overcome their public speaking fears and learn a lot of new topics because it helps obtain a lot of knowledge based on what’s happening around the globe.

Evidence (Certificate) :-