By Stephanie Nguyen
The Fountain Valley High School’s Model United Nations (MUN) program competed at the Surf City conference at Huntington Beach High School (HBHS) on February 1. After a lot of preparation, seniors Uy Pham and Katelyn Nguyen and juniors Evan Ready, Minh Le, Josh Nguyen, Lydia Tran and Ema Terada received respective awards for their hard work. They were judged individually by the quality of their solutions to the world’s most pressing issues, knowledge of the issue, speaking skills and ability to work with a team.
MUN is a former club that has been turned into a four-year class pathway. Each delegate — as members of the class are called — represents a country and speaks on its behalf. At every conference, delegates showcase the extensive research they’ve done to help find a solution to various global issues. The Surf City conference, hosted by HBHS, is considered to be an advanced competition against some of the most disciplined programs in the southern Orange County area, such as Edison, Santa Margarita and Mira Costa High Schools.
Preparation was meticulous. Speeches are memorized and a position paper — a document summarizing the policies and solutions of each delegate — was written and turned in about a week before the conference. For some of the delegates, that was the most challenging part. Research often takes a lot of time and attention to detail. A poorly written paper would make it harder for the delegate to push their country’s agenda forward at the conference because their goals aren’t outlined on paper.
”I ended up pushing that all into one weekend, which kind of drove me insane, and then memorizing all of my speeches, it was definitely like, kind of hard to lock in,” senior Tyler Kols said.
Ema Terada, who was in the Commission of Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ) for Cuba, agrees.
“I felt underprepared at the conference since there were people with tens of pages of research that they did on their country and topic,” she wrote in an email. “I did a lot of spontaneous speeches and last-minute research during the committee, which worked out in the end for me!”
On Friday at 4 p.m. the delegates had dinner before settling in an hour later. They discussed their first topic — which is different depending on the committee — until 9 p.m. At 9 a.m. the following morning, voting on proposed solutions began before another meeting was in session.
Every committee competes on two global issues; for example, UNICEF discussed child malnutrition and child marriages. Committees have twenty to thirty delegates each.
The day ended at 3:15 p.m. with closing ceremonies and awards.
When asked about her award of Commendation in the CCPCJ, Terada was elated.
“I honestly didn’t expect to win an award, so when Cuba was called during the awards ceremony, I literally jumped with joy and it felt amazing, and also really surprising,” Terada said. “Overall, it was an amazing conference with a little bit of anxiety, a lot more confidence, and so much fun, both during and after the committee. MUN is FUN!!!”
The Barons’ next conference will be at Los Alamitos High School on February 15.
