On Nov. 18 and Nov. 19 McLean’s Model UN team competed at William and Mary’s High School Model UN Conference (WMHSMUN) and won the Best Large School Award.

“McLean MUN achieved an incredible success over the weekend earning over eight gavels (50 percent of our positions placed first) and in doing so we beat other schools like TJ which hasn’t happened in a long time at a national conference,” junior Asia Kurtalic said.

The success was in part due to the amount of effort put into preparing for the event.

“Through mock committee sessions, we meticulously chose 22 students to WMHSMUN. From there we did hours of research, speech preparation, and writing to get ready for this past weekend. Each delegation also had to write a position paper for each committee that consisted of background information, current events, and possible solutions to the topic,” senior Riya Master said.

More preparation occurred specifically to help improve their speech.

“We even had a delegate from the organization of best delegate come in for a speech workshop to help improve upon our skills,” Kurtalic said.

The hard work paid off for McLean MUN, earning them great success.

“We beat TJ, which was huge for our school, as well a championed over schools for Chicago, Connecticut, and Wisconsin. It also helps establish McLean as a school to reckon with academically. This win could easily place McMUNC in the top 25 HS team in the nation,” Master said.

This McLean MUN win also sets up their future successful repetitions.

“This success is definitely a big deal to McLean, as it [is] a significant point in the history of our club and ensures the success of of our future. This is our first year as a team without our core founding members and thanks to our amazing secretariat we were able to sustain our previous successes even with new generations and it definitely means that our model un team can continue to replicate these successes in the future,” Kurtalic said.

At the WMHSMUN conference, 20 McLean students were recognized for awards:

Gavel/Best Delegate:
Noor Al-Saloum
Ian Ghasemian
Sophie Howery
Nour Khachemoune & Jillian Pincus
Asia Kurtalic
Maria McHugo
Neha Rana
Siddarth Shankar

Outstanding Delegate:
Caroline Brunner & Zoe Lynes
Laith Samamreh & Shriansh Singh

Honorable Mention:
Lana Al-Saloum & Sarah Gu
Kenan Nabylsi

Verbal Commendation:
Kyla Duggal & Maddie Sisk
Riya Master
Jeremy Siegel

Through all of their hard work, McLean MUN has built a solid foundation of friendships that make competing even better.

“My favorite part of MUN is definitely the environment. While I love competing and being in the committee room, my favorite memories are actually outside of the competition. Hanging out with the rest of the team, meeting new people, traveling, and getting to have casual debates in a setting where everyone is interested i. the same topics as you is an incredible experience. The team is like my family, and I couldn’t be happier to have spent so much time with them,” Master said.