Christina Chen
IRP 471: Model United Nations
Reflection Paper
I first heard about Model United Nations my sophomore year of high school. I was walking down the science hallway when my friend told me that there was an interest meeting for an after school activity called Model UN. At first, I was skeptical to go since I had no interest in the United Nations or in politics. However, I decided that I should keep my options open and decided to attend. At the meeting, I was fascinated with hearing about how the school would be representing a country and going to conference to debate and write resolution papers. I chose to try out for the team and it was one of the best decisions I have ever made in high school.
Model UN was a big part of why I decided to major in International Relations in college. Since graduating high school, I have gone for almost three years without any participation in Model UN. When I found out that there was a Model UN program specifically for International Relations, I jumped at the opportunity to apply. In particular, I wanted to be on the Spring 2011 team because we would be representing a country from Asia, which is my area of concentration. I figured that Model UN in college and high school could not be that much different. Without a doubt, after participating on the team this semester, I realized how wrong I was.
In high school, I represented well-known countries such as China, Brazil, and many others. When I found out that I would be representing Kazakhstan, I knew I had a challenge ahead for me. Until I went to study abroad in Beijing for Fall 2010, I had no idea what Kazakhstan was. The only thing I knew about Kazakhstan was that the country was extremely outraged after Borat was filmed. During my study abroad experience in Beijing, I met a few Kazakhstani students from my Chinese class, yet I barely spoke more than 2 sentences to them the entire semester due to language barriers. Thinking back, I wish I tried to communicate with them more because they could have been helpful in my preparations as a simulated representative of Kazakhstan.
The preparation process was stressful yet extremely rewarding. The first day that I went into class, I was handed a syllabus that almost made my jaw drop. I saw that there was a quiz on Kazakhstan on the second week of class, as well as several other quizzes involving UN Basics and NMUN Basics. The 3 sections of the position papers were also due one week after the other. Since I was a junior taking 18 credits this semester, I questioned my ability to handle this class. However, I knew how much Model UN meant to me and I decided to stick through because I would undoubtedly regret it otherwise.
After being placed into the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) with my partner, I was excited to begin paper writing. Nevertheless, I knew that my partner was an amazing writer and editor, so I was worried that she would dislike me for being inexperienced at professional writing. Soon, I realized that I was lucky enough to have an understanding partner who was willing to always edit my work, as well as put in more than just her own part when I was having trouble with my research. I was pleasantly surprised to be able to find an abundance of information online about Kazakhstan’s position on patents, and we ended up receiving a lot of positive feedback regarding our position paper during class.
During the week of conference, I went in not knowing what to expect, but five day long experience was definitely so much better than what I imagined it would be. There was so much difference between the conferences I went to in high school and the NMUN conference that I just came back from. For one thing, the schedule was so much more strenuous at NMUN. After first seeing the 5 days of schedules in the delegation guide, I was speechless and began stressing before the conference even began. The conferences in high school had committee sizes that were probably only about half the size of my committee at NMUN. During the first committee session, I was nervous and anxious because I felt that I was in a room full of people who were more qualified than me at debating. Nevertheless, by the second day, I became determined to strengthen my debate skills and I stepped out of my comfort zone to be more proactive during caucuses.
One of my main concerns during conference was the fact that WIPO is a report writing committee. While we were given information during class about how to write resolutions and reports, I felt that I was not adequately prepared to actually write one during conference. In spite of this, my partner and me were able to form an Asian block for report writing with the countries Tonga, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Our working paper ended up being the first ones to be accepted as a draft section to the report, and during voting procedures, the draft section passed with almost unanimous support. Knowing that my partner and me were responsible for writing part of a report was one of the best and proudest feelings I’ve ever experienced.
The best part of this Model UN experience was definitely the people that I have met. I am extremely thankful for being able to befriend every single person in my delegation as well as the people in my committee during conference. I believe that Syracuse University has so much diversity, yet people often remain segregated. While everyone in my delegation is a International Relations major, I did not know a single one of them on the first day of class. Without this experience, I probably would never have met any of them otherwise. Additionally, one of the main reasons why I treasured my Beijing study abroad experience is because of all the diversity that I was able to experience. I made friends with people from countries all over the world and got to learn more about their culture. Coming back to Syracuse University after studying abroad, I figured that I would never be able to get another chance like that again. Nevertheless, I was proven wrong when I found out that my delegation composed of people of all ethic backgrounds. I was able to speak with people from Egypt, Taiwan, Italy, and so many other countries about their lifestyles and customs. The Asian block that I was involved with for report writing also passed around a sheet of paper so that we can take down each other’s emails and Facebook pages.
I was astonished at how quickly I made friends with people from my delegation and my committee. Normally, I am a person who is slow to open up to others, and often shy around those who I do not know well. However, I was able to easily open up to people who I see for 2 hours per week on Tuesday afternoon as well as people who I’ve only known for 4 days during conference. I believe that this experience has allowed myself to open up to others more easily, which is a characteristic that I have been hoping to improve on for my entire life. I sincerely hope that the friendships I have made through my Model UN experience will extend past this class and even past our college years.