From November 15-18, 19 students from Grades 7-12 at the FIS traveled to Munich to participate in the MUNOM Model United Nations Conference which hosted over 500 students from as far away as Azerbaijan. As a Grade 7 student, this was an intriguing opportunity to examine the policies and perspectives of different countries on current event issues and to see how an actual debate works. This required lots of deep thinking and strong communication skills to show how the country that you were assigned feels about the topics of debate, such as ensuring that the cultural identity and rights of Indigenous people are upheld.
MUNOM was both an exciting and tense experience. This was because when we were delivering speeches, we were addressing hundreds of people. However, this actually allowed us to have a more authentic experience which mirrored the atmosphere of the actual United Nations. As a whole it was truly thrilling to hear the speeches of other delegates and understand the divergent perspectives of different countries and to present our own speeches. Participating with people from all over the world was a new experience for me as there weren’t opportunities to attend conferences like this since the onset of the pandemic. However, examining real world issues and working collaboratively with other delegates to develop solutions to these problems was inspiring. Participating with delegates from all over Europe and Asia also helped to boost my confidence and helped me to develop better communication and logical thinking skills.
Before the conference, we were also required to do a lot of work to develop our research skills, our understanding of current affairs, and understand issues from a range of perspectives. My favorite part of the conference was the debate that combined all of the committees. It was a wonderful experience to see all the countries’ perspectives and views on the resolutions that had been submitted by different country groups. MUNOM was definitely a good experience to test out and show my communication and diplomacy skills and learn new perspectives on challenging topics.
Delisha Arora
Grade 7 Student