Mclean’s MUN club is preparing to go head to head against many other local high schools in the upcoming conference at Chantilly High School, entitled CHMUN.
“CHMUN is the Chantilly Model UN conference that we as MCMUN go to every year. We usually do really well and awards are almost always between us and Langley,” junior Maged Al Qabany said. “CHMUN as seen from prior years is very competitive so I’m anticipating some good debate.”
CHMUN provides a way for students who are less experienced with MUN to familiarize themselves and engage with schools such as Langley High School and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
“It’s a great opportunity for some of our newer [competitors] to garner some experience and an equally good chance to go toe-to-toe with our rivals at Langley,” junior Andrew Egorin said. “They snagged the ‘best large school’ award at the last conference at Thomas Edison and we want some sweet revenge.”
The club has established an effective method of uniting their new and returning members through their MUNtor and MUNtee programs, in which novice delegates are paired with more experienced delegates so they can receive guidance and experience.
“In the first 10 or 15 minutes of [a typical meeting], we have our MUNtee and MUNtor meetings where we have some experienced members who specialize in a certain topic, such as diplomacy or unmoderated caucus, and members can go to who they want to hear from based on what they want to learn,” senior member Elise Newgen said.
Besides attending the weekly Monday meetings, students participating in the competition are preparing in a variety of ways.
“I’ve written a position paper about my country, possible solutions, and topic backgrounds for my committee. I’ve also prepared an opening speech for the conference and also some backup statistics and solution explanations,” junior Emily Ma said.
CHMUN also provides opportunities to establish new and revitalize previous friendships made throughout Model UN.
“I’m anticipating seeing who’s in my committee. I’m excited to be able to interact with some of my friends from different schools and see how we can work together,” Ma said. “I know some of my friends will be there already, and I haven’t been able to see them in a while.”
