By: Malak Diaa
Exposure, Transcendence an Empowerment; these are the three words that can be used to envision the MUN impact. A student conference at its front, Model United Nations is the youth’s entryway to “diplomatic debates and conversations that resemble those at the United Nations.”
MUN exposes students to the challenging and emerging conflicts and affairs that concern nations worldwide, and develops their understanding of the interaction of diplomats, secretaries, and judges in discussing issues and creating the holistic picture of matters through the diverse perspectives of the world. Essentially, it provides an opportunity for students to deliberate the critical local and global issues through the lens of a multitude of countries around the world. It also iterates and reveals the importance of the UN to participating youth. This exposure intensifies the significance of MUN’s educational purpose, because it encourages participants to think critically of world events, and grasp multiple viewpoints.
Allowing students to represent nations as delegates does not just allow students to indulge in “the art of diplomacy” and increase collaboration and communication skills, it enables them to understand the stance of their country in political, social, and economic contexts, entrusting them to respond to other countries accordingly. Participants of the conference are students transformed by the interest in debate and discussion in an international simulation of the UN. Therefore, MUN is a challenge to the normal experiences and responsibilities of the student; this transcendental aspect of the conference exists to create a pathway for students to enter the seemingly distant diplomatic world. MUN is transcendent of the student’s existence and multiplies youth interest and engagement in the many concerns of the world, which generates the framework for positive change.
Voice and perspective are the two key ideas that delegates and judges revel in; what is said and how it is said is the drive of discussion, collaboration, and critical thinking. Voice and perspective is what makes nations agree, disagree, abstain, conflict, direct, and modify ideas, stances, and most notably, change. Consequently, MUN empowers students to drive and lead their forums to establish resolutions and conclusions that have worldwide significance. The conference gives a voice to solutions that are so critical in the current time, empowering future leaders and problem-solvers that have a wider scope of the world, here and now.
MUN is the difference; MUN is the exposure, transcendence, and empowerment of youth to face today and tomorrow’s international challenges.
Quotations from: https://www.un.org/es/node/44733