The Model UN Experience

By: Deven Desai
DePaul University '12

We go through life in school trying to figure out what MUN can give us. Delegates waste countless gallons of ink revising resolutions and position papers. Every committee is catered to the needs of a unique issue. Why does it all matter? What possibly can MUN do for you? This entry examines what a student should expect from a successful Model UN program in a school.

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Before we even start talking MUN, we need to know wtf the UN is. Some say it is full of unnecessary bureaucrats and unnecessary bureaucracy. Others claim it being a brothel which is filled with the whores of democracy who are bent on a one world government. Honestly though, the UN is a concept; an optimistic idea more than anything else, really. It’s the idea that if enough attention is brought/paid to the issues that concern many places around the world, some people can live life a little easier now than before.

MUN, Model UN, was supposed to carry forward this idea. The program was meant to introduce global issues, diplomacy, etc, to the youth; the same youth that will drive the future of tomorrow. In the USA, this miserably failed (in the context of the original intentions, of course). What it did though, was teach students how governmental organizations really practice politics. This new program fit in perfectly with lots of social science Advanced Placement and Honors courses all over the nation to become a feeder program into various universities’ Political Science departments.

But what does MUN do for you, the student? Lots of things. For starters, it looks ridiculously impressive on resumes, college applications, and grad school applications. That is, if you know how to sell it. When you go into the real world, you’re expected to be sharp, intelligent, responsible, mature, quick thinking, and just about anything else that could describe a successful person. Another thing is that, this program really enables a student to come out of a personal bubble and really give an opportunity for the person to present themselves and their capabilities.

Think of it like preparing for retirement. If there is anything we learned from this most recent recession, it’s that corporate executives are seldom "the friendly neighborhood superheros." Life is hard, so people prepare for the times ahead by investing. And smart people invest smart; they diversify. A little real estate, some stocks, some CDs (Certificate of Deposits…not music discs), some stock options, ETFs, a little bit in 401(k)s, some Johnnie Walker Blue Label, and some more stocks. A good balance of the above and the turnout is amazing off of what was put in as long as the risk was as little as possible.

MUN is exactly that. It is an investment in your future. All the adjectives necessary to become a successful person and also the ones previously mentioned two paragraphs earlier are skills and traits clearly learned in Model UN. There is hardly any risk and it pays off in the long run by helping out in ways no other program could.

Ready to be successful? Join MUN. If you have already joined and are not giving the program the effort it deserves till now, begin to improve for your own good. You already made a mistake once…"Think of it like the Holocaust…NEVER…AGAIN!" – Ari Gold (a little quip for you Entourage fans out there)

Stay Classy, Planet Earth.

Deven Desai has been involved in Model UN since his junior year of high school, and has won numerous awards at conferences across the United States. Deven is currently studying International Business and Information Systems at DePaul University in Chicago, IL, where he is the Director General of Public Relations for DePaul’s Model UN Team and a senior staff member for the 2010 Chicago International Model UN conference for high school students.