Each year we have a fantastic group of students from across the state of Connecticut to lead our Model United Nations committees. This year, we asked our officers two questions: How has participating in Model UN prepared you to be a future global leader? and What does Model UN mean to you? Check out their responses below –we hope their commitment, passion and leadership inspires you and excites you for our bright future ahead with these students at the helm!
Ritika Aggarwal
Glastonbury High School
Participating in Model UN has prepared me to be a future global leader, because it has provided me with a new perspective on our world and the issues that are present. I have been able to gain a better understanding of the various issues present in our world, and their impacts on various individuals and communities. This understanding improved my critical thinking skills, allowing me to be able to come up with peaceful, efficient, and effective solutions to combat the problems in our world.
Lauren Armstrong
Northwest Catholic High School
Model UN is preparing me to appreciate the opportunity of one day being a leader in a global economy. By stepping into the mindset of other national leaders, our critical thinking skills have been sharpened and we are encouraged to execute educational and social skills, while working together in creating the best solution to current world events. I have been a member of Model UN since freshman year. Being an active participant has afforded me the opportunity to work with and meet intelligent, like-minded people, determined to find common ground. Through this experience, I have been made aware of global injustice and a greater understanding of the difference my generation can make in the world.
Francisca Barria
Academy of Aerospace and Engineering
Participating in Model UN has taught me the importance of learning and taking opportunities to be able to improve in all skills, as well as being able to come out of my shell and communicate with the groups around me. Model UN means a lot to me due to how much I enjoy being involved in the global issues and being able to come up with solutions. Becoming a future global leader is a goal that I had set and now may be able to come true thanks to the opportunities given by MUN.
Alex Carabetta
Southington High School
Model UN has taught me the importance of looking at an issue from different perspectives. Where I used to think about how an issue would affect only me and those around me, I’ve learned to think about those everywhere who could be affected by things that would never affect those in my area. This skill is important in leadership because it is necessary to represent everybody with a solution, not just those around you. Model UN is a place where people can come together and share their ideas to make the world a better place. I’ve learned so much from watching other delegates and their ideas. The problems we discuss are just as interesting as all of the solutions we create to solve them. Model UN has made me a better communicator and gave me a more global perspective, and I am grateful for that.
Anmol Chowdhary (President)
Glastonbury High School
Model UN has taught me the true importance of collaboration, empathy, and compromise, all of which are skills effective global leaders possess in society today. Model UN encompasses a variety of important skills from researching a nation’s perspectives to having conversations with my peers regarding global issues. There are times during debate when delegates disagree on potential solutions; however, Model UN moves past these differences, and delegates collectively work to find common ground and similarities.
Model UN is truly a special community that is so strong and diverse. Every time I go to a MUN conference, I learn something new, from hearing the experiences of my peers to discussing a new policy. Despite the differences in experience, all individuals are there for the same reason – to make a difference in our world today. This motivation to make an impact is inspirational and gives me hope for the future of our global community.
Sarah DeSanto
Hall High School
Model UN has prepared me to be a future global leader by teaching me to stand up for my ideas and to work with others. In each conference, you’re thrown together with a batch of people you’ve likely never met, however you all share a common goal. Model UN is about learning to work together toward a shared endgame despite your differences, which is a skill every future global leader definitely needs. To me, Model UN is an integral part of my high school experience. It has introduced me to many new friends and developed important skills like public speaking and writing that I know will benefit me through college and beyond. Model UN has helped me to hone these skills, while debating current events that affect a large portion of the world’s population. I’ve had so much fun and learned so much by participating in Model UN and hope to continue the program in college!
Skylar Dodge
Griswold High School
Model UN has done so much for me and has taught me so many invaluable skills that have prepared me to be a future global leader. Not only has it boosted my confidence in public speaking, but it has also helped me learn about modern world crises that directly affect me. I have been able to collaborate and communicate with others to solve said crises and learned how to compromise and negotiate on important topics. It’s helped me see from other delegate’s views and understand the struggle each delegation has. I’ve developed a problem-solving skill-set and how to effectively research a topic that is useful in everyday life. [MUN] is a way for me to be able to speak out on topics I’m passionate about with fellow peers and to have a voice. It has helped me make new connections and friends with other students from all over Connecticut.
Cal Eppinger
RHAM High School
Model UN is preparing me to be a future global leader because it is teaching me the emphasis on collaboration. Within Model UN simulations, a key important event is the creation of a resolution, which is best accomplished through cooperating with peers. The combination and compromise of ideas with other delegates is a skill people, especially those interested in global/international studies, will need in the future as leaders.
Participating in Model UN to me is very important, as it develops the strengths of potential global leaders and ambassadors in the future. People who participate in Model UN are strengthening their skills in working collaboratively with other people, gaining confidence, and preparing for a crisis that requires immediate and efficient responses.
Jackson Forrest (Vice President)
Watkinson School
First, Model United Nations has served as an opportunity to network and meet like -minded intelligent students. When you enter a Model UN conference the academic achievement and global engagement tends to be far higher than the average high school’s. Second, Model UN is a catalyst for critical thinking, one of the most important skills in the 21st century. Third, Model UN has acted as a mechanism to learn about history and current international events. Model UN means engagement with the wider world, both through the issues covered and delegates met.
Elijah Harris
Watkinson School
Model United Nations has prepared me to be a future global leader in many ways I did not know was possible. Before ever participating in Model UN, I was an extremely shy speaker who did not participate in many public speaking events. After my first conference with the World Affairs Council I felt empowered to use my voice to speak on issues in Model UN and the real world. I have also gained an understanding of real world issues that the world is facing, and solutions on how to combat them. If we students from Model UN can keep these resolutions and work together as one world, we can be the next global leaders. Through my first experience at WACMUN, I have been able to go to other conferences and feel more confident in my debating and leadership skills. Participating in Model UN means an opportunity to work with others towards issues that are bigger than us. It means learning about open mindedness and new perspective. I am extremely excited to take my Model UN skills into a moderator position this year!
Alexander Infeld
Coginchaug Regional High School
Model UN has prepared me to become a global leader through civil debate and learning about new countries that I have not seen a need to learn about. Model UN means spirited debate, meeting new people, and working with them towards a common goal.
Aileen Li
Hall High School
Model UN has given me the public speaking and communication skills necessary for global leadership. Through intense debate and conversations with fellow delegates, I have learned how to effectively present my opinions and thoughts to an audience. I have also gained much knowledge concerning world affairs. Topics regarding plastic pollution, the use of nuclear energy, and mental health are all examples of major issues that the world’s leaders must work to mitigate. More than anything, they need to be equipped with awareness, and for me, Model UN has done exactly that.
Participating in Model UN means learning about new international issues, seeking solutions for those issues, and joining forces with fellow delegates to begin shaping our futures. What we debate in conference is a precursor to what we will put out into the world in the coming years.
Eric Ma
Glastonbury High School
Model UN has fostered in me the skills of a diplomat, debater, and negotiator. It has given me a humanitarian perspective of the world, showing me the importance of collaboration and listening to the voices of everyone: that everyone’s opinion should be considered in order to rectify the problems of the world.
To me, participating in Model UN means late nights collaborating with others to achieve a solution; it means powerful speeches that inspire change; it means bloc meetings over coffee to hear others’ opinions; it means to build towards a collective goal; it means teamwork and negotiation.
Qifei Min
Westminster School
Model UN leads me into a bigger world where global perspectives are shared and I learn to understand an issue on a platform that is inclusive and welcoming. It helped build my qualities of leadership by encouraging me to communicate with people more effectively and echo with people’s sentiments while confidently express my own. Model UN means more than just an event or a club to me. It is a place where I truly find a sense of belonging and make friends, a starting point of my aspirations and ambitions.
Imran Qureshi
Glastonbury High School
Model UN has taught me how to be an effective communicator and how to compromise and listen to what other people have to say. This will in turn help me in an officer position where I can help facilitate participation discussions and give feedback where needed to delegates. These are all essential skills for a global leader and an officer.
Model UN means that I can debate global issues that matter to me most in a professional environment. It also means that I can build up my negotiation skills and research skills along with communication skills, which will help me be successful in a leadership position and in the real world.
Keshav Ramesh
South Windsor High School
Participating in Model UN has prepared me to be a future global leader because it has taught me the necessary research and communication skills for generating impactful solutions, and has also allowed me to understand the perspectives of different countries.
Participating in Model UN is simply a synonym for passion. Over the past three years, I have interacted with hundreds of future ambassadors, diplomats, and world leaders united by the same driven attitude for working on innovative solutions to global issues in a matter of days, sustained by the incredible debate and discourse we engage in amongst ourselves. We delegates not only speak with one another animatedly about different committees, countries, and conferences, but also discuss our ambitions and goals in supportive environments, which is something I cherish about Model UN.
Ria Saxena
South Windsor High School
Model UN has been an incredibly defining experience for me because it has fundamentally changed and improved my confidence in myself and my abilities. When I began my first conference, I could not have imagined going up in front of a room of people and being able to articulate nuanced points and politics; I could barely even imagine being able to publicly speak. But after going through various sessions and conferences and getting feedback from chairs, Model UN slowly helped me realize that I have powerful ideas and the voice to convey them as long as I didn’t doubt my abilities.
Especially in recent years, Model UN has taken on greater significance to me as not only an extracurricular but a way of seeing hope for a new generation of people who are engaged in and worried about what their future holds. Participating in Model UN gives me some hope that the incredibly skilled delegates I compete alongside with may eventually use what they have learned in Model UN to change the world for the better.
Aditya Shah
Hall High School
Participating in Model UN means understanding different perspectives which you may not necessarily have been exposed to growing up, widening the scope of your knowledge. For me, Model UN represents the ability to learn, grow and express yourself in ways you couldn’t even envision.
Hudson Stedman
Westminster School
If my experience in Model UN has taught me one thing, it is how to create an incredible community out of a group of complete strangers. It is such a cool feeling to have established group relationships solely through the joint interest of a certain political topic or crisis, exercising problem solving skills alongside public speaking efforts. Every single participant has such unique and forward thinking ideas, and by listening to those proposals while simultaneously contributing my own thoughts for the betterment of our society–‘model’ or real–has truly helped me in becoming a future global leader.
Participating in Model UN to me means listening and encouraging fellow peers for the collective good of the committee. There are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ answers in your committee room, just opinions and perspectives that are all relative. And it is up to you as delegates to decide which of those ideas are the most beneficial for the greater-good in the long-run.
Ryan Steremberg
Avon High School
I have learned what it is like to advocate for a stance that is different than my own. I have been compelled to step out of my comfort zone, which all global leaders must do at times. My confidence of being able to speak in public in front of a large audience has grown exponentially. The ability to meet new people, find common interests in one another, and work together to reach a common goal has been greatly enhanced. I have learned how to accept negative feedback and adjust my plan so it meets approval from other delegations and still represents the interests of the country I represent.
Participating in Model UN means being a community. The people of Model UN, from delegates to officers all the way up to Administrators, are all very kind. Another great thing about Model UN is delegates are able to apply to be an Officer or even Chair. This furthers their ability and motivation to learn, grow, and be the best person you can be.
Mingda Sun
Farmington High School
Model UN has not only strengthened my communication, public speaking, and interpersonal skills, but also broadened my global view. Since participating in Model UN, I have been more involved in following and advocating for issues of national and international significance. Moreover, I have found myself dedicated to being more open-minded–taking the time to learn about different perspectives and cultures, before making judgements or assumptions.
Participating in Model UN means channeling the passion that you have about global issues to working together to find solutions and making a difference. Ultimately, this means representing your country accurately but also being able to respect others while articulating your opinions.
Ayla Taylor-Robichaud
Griswold High School
Model United Nations has prepared me to be a future global leader by equipping me with invaluable communication skills. I have learned to debate respectfully and negotiate solutions to all types of problems, with all types of people. To me, participating in Model UN means that you are open to hearing all types of opinions and willing to work with almost anyone. It’s been an incredible experience the last few years, and I’m glad that we can continue this year!
Julia Walsh
Glastonbury High School
Model UN has taught me how to come into my own as a leader. After participating in my school’s program for the past four years, I feel comfortable speaking about complex issues in front of large groups of people. I also learned how to connect with people in a more intimate group setting. By forcing me into an environment where I needed to know how to communicate my ideas and discuss global affairs, Model UN has prepared me well for involvement with the world around me as I go forward.
I would not be the person I am today had it not been for Model UN. MUN has been a great way to involve myself in my community and learn more about the world and government. It has allowed me to meet fascinating new people, travel, and expand my mind. Every conference I’ve been to has taught me something new, and I can’t wait to continue my Model UN journey!
Audrey Weber
Hall High School
Through my participation in Model UN, I’ve learned a great deal about cooperation and diplomacy. One of the most important characteristics of a global leader is their ability to work well with their peers and participate in civil discourse, two things Model UN has taught me a great deal about when it comes to debate.
Model UN is incredibly important to me, because it allows me to remain up to date on current events and understand the world from a global perspective. I’m incredibly grateful for all the information I’ve picked up along the years, and the amount of knowledge I’ve accrued about other cultures and nations.
The World Affairs Council of CT Blog 