by Celine Hoang and Pallas Ziebarth, Staff Writers
On November 8th and 9th, the FVHS Model United Nations (MUN) club received six awards as delegates of countries Ecuador and Finland at UCLA’s Bruin Model United Nations 2014 conference.
The club went head to head with approximately 30 other schools bringing thousands of different delegates. This year’s BruinMUN had been the most successful competition in the club history. Club members Emily Bui (’16), Kristie Hoang (’16), Bree Lee (’16), Aileen Nguyen (’16), Daniel Sobhi (’17), and President Ryan Carr (’16) all won commendation awards as 3rd place in their respective committees.
“I gained a lot just from simply going to my first conference but receiving the award was incredibly exciting,” said Bui.
Photo by Kristie Hoang, Baron Banner
MUN has existed for many years at FVHS. However, recently, it grew to be more popular than previous years.Through much recruiting at Club Rush and and an effective administration, the club has massively grown in size.
At Fountain Valley, MUN prepped its members through workshops and mock conferences. The workshops are led by board members and award winners. All training is utilized to prepare delegates for novice and advanced level conferences. Through MUN, students learn much about political matters, public speaking, and world nations. Students also improve public speaking, diplomacy, and networking skills in its club members.
“Taking Ecuador’s position allowed for my partner and I to learn quite a lot about the nation and others like it. Ecuador’s firm policy also made it easier for us to work with other people in our committee,” said Carr.
This year, the club is going to Mira Costa High School, UC Irvine, UC Santa Barbara, and most notably, the University of Washington in Seattle.
“I’m really excited for the upcoming conferences. I really want to be better at public speaking, and I think that the whole process of MUN is going really well. I’m meeting a lot of new people, and knowing much more about political issues,” said Dorothy Ngo (‘18).
BruinMUN was one of the most anticipated and difficult conferences of the year. However, with training and extensive work outside of club meetings, the delegates succeeded and learned much about diplomacy and debating during BruinMUN.
“My experience at UCLA was a very good learning experience and an eye-opener. I also loved meeting each and every student in my committee because they were incredibly welcoming and I learned so much from them,” said Bui.
