The Jamesville-Dewitt Model United Nations won the award for best small delegation at the United Nations Associations of Rochester on March 8. Four students in J-D’s MUN club won many different individual awards. Sophomore Dean Bratslavsky won an outstanding delegate award, senior Paul Fischi won an honorable mention, senior Alex Parratt won best delegate, and sophomore Evan Wagner-Flynn won outstanding delegate.
MUN is a club where members practice research, public speaking, critical thinking, and debate skills. They do this through conferences, debating different topics with other schools. Conferences are held at different local schools, and through different MUN organizations. These conferences are mainly student-led, with very little adult intervention. Members use their meetings to prepare for the conferences. They research and make notes for their topics.
In order to be eligible for an award, you need to write a research or position paper on your topic, which is done during club meetings. Chairs, who are other students, watch and decide who deserves these awards.
During these conferences, delegates alongside delegates from other schools with the same topic and are grouped into committees. They work together to come up with a resolution to their topic. The topics are usually about the social, economic, or political problems of a certain country. The resolution is all written on a piece of paper, typed up, and then submitted.
Parratt acquired his award by adding amendments, or changes, to other people’s resolutions, and talking the most. He got a trophy and certificate for his award. Parratt talked about suicide prevention in the South African country of Lesotho, a country with very high suicide rates, and also discussed how to increase technology access to poorer countries. He used to get nervous, but as time went on he became more comfortable.
Fischi has been in MUN for all four years of high school, and just recently won honorable mention. He joined MUN due to his interest in history and politics. At the conference, Fischi discussed child slavery in southeast Asia, and the dispute of territory in the Ilemi triangle, near East Africa. Fischi said he used to get really nervous during conferences and speaking to everyone, but he grew more confident, and made sure to write down everything he needed to know.
Wagner has been doing MUN since freshman year. He joined because of his interest in politics. He won outstanding delegate because “I talked a lot and I talked substantively, and I contributed to writing a resolution.” He got a certificate for his award. To come prepared for the conferences, Wagner uses news articles and YouTube videos for different resources. Wagner-Flynn also gets nervous at conferences; “I’m nervous, but I’m also excited, so I just kind of sit there, and wait for the time to start.”
Junior April Hatori joined the MUN club because she said it would look good on her college application. She recently discussed weapon trafficking at her last conference. “I get very nervous and just think about the fact that I don’t know anyone there and will never see them again,” Hatori said.
Most of the members of this club agreed that this club can be difficult, depending on how much effort you put into it and depending on how much research you put into your country and topic. Some skills that members gained/learned were public speaking, debating, problem solving, and researching/note taking. “It really helps with public speaking, if anyone would want to improve it, it’s a perfect opportunity to do so in high school,” said Parratt. They recommend anyone with an interest in politics, debating, history, geography, or different languages/countries to join the club.
