An Unforgettable Experience in New York
The National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference took place in New York between March 5th-10th. This is the largest MUN conference in the world, and SIS, once again, had the opportunity to participate. This year we represented Greece.
(Song: Alicia Keys “Empire State of Mind (Part II) Broken Down”)
This year, 11 students from SIS travelled to New York to attend the NHSMUN conference. After months of research for our various committees, including writing opening speeches, policy memos, and drafting possible clauses – it was finally time to go to New York. On the 5th of March, we departed from Arlanda Airport and landed 8 hours later in Newark. On Wednesday we had a full day to explore the city, including a tour of the Museum of Modern Arts (MoMA) as well as shopping on 5th Avenue and SoHo. On Wednesday afternoon we attended the opening ceremony of the conference where we listened to various speakers. At 21:00 our first committee session started. This committee session continued until 23:00, which was tough considering the 6 hour time difference (it was 5:00 AM for us).
On Thursday we started off the day with meeting a Greek diplomat who told us more about the Greek stance on our various topics for our committees. After lunch, we had our second committee session which lasted three and a half hours. We then had a break to go into the city to grab some dinner and came back to participate in another three and a half hour committee session which ended at 23:00. The committee sizes ranged between 80-200 delegates, so it was the perfect opportunity to practice public speaking.
On Friday we had our last two committee sessions in which we presented resolutions from the various alliance blocks and then went into the voting procedure to determine which resolutions would pass. We ended the day with the delegate dance (as shown in the video), which almost all the schools attended. It took place in the ballroom of the Hilton Hotel, where we stayed.
Saturday was our last day. We attended the closing ceremony of the conference in the UN headquarters, which was an amazing experience. After the closing ceremony ended we had some more free time, in which some of us explored central park to get the full New York experience. We headed back to the airport in the afternoon and arrived back in Stockholm on Sunday morning.
Overall, it was a great experience to be able to participate in the worlds largest MUN conference and to meet people from all over the world. I strongly encourage all students in MYP to participate in MUN to practice research, debating, and public speaking skills, as well as going to these amazing conferences!
