By Christine Garcia
On Nov. 11 and 12, the Fountain Valley High School’s (FVHS) Model United Nations (MUN) program debuted at UCLA’s BruinMUN, the Barons’ first conference as a program. After months of preparation, delegates from FVHS represented their countries to debate social and economic issues that impact the world.
BruinMUM is a well-established MUN college conference hosted for an entire weekend on UCLA’s campus with 26 committees and 2,239 delegates from around the world. Each novice or advanced committee simulates a UN main or subsidiary body that explores a plethora of subjects.
History teachers Kelly Ducat, Julie Chaicharee and Michael Kral successfully prepared 125 MUNers for the conference. Combined, the classes represented 69 countries. The teachers gathered the funds to pay for the bus and conference fees along with recruiting extra chaperones to assist with the event.
“We had to keep in track of the 125 kids for two days and send them communication lines to make sure that the safety was prioritized between us and UCLA and students,” Kral said.
On both an early Saturday and Sunday morning, 125 business-ready FVHS students boarded three buses to the event at UCLA. At the conference, students debated with other delegates. In their committee for six-and-a-half hours starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 5 p.m. However, during lunch at 12:30 p.m., students were allowed to explore UCLA’s vast architecture with the capacity of outer Westwood, the surrounding neighborhood.
Dual delegates and juniors Chelsea Grack and Elizabeth Doan won commendation awards for representing Belarus in the United Nations Development Programme. They expressed their excitement about the conference because it was their first.
“My favorite thing about BruinMUN was getting to meet all the people from all over the country. It was like the first-ever conference, and I just really enjoyed getting to debate and practice my speaking skills,” Doan said.
However, when Grack was asked about her dislikes regarding BruinMUN, she highlighted the conflict caused by the number of delegations in each committee. She recalled an event in her committee where there was an altercation about policies between some of the delegations.
“There are so many different people with different beliefs that sometimes they just clash,” Grack said.
Another junior, John Ennen, won a commendation award for representing Singapore in the Social, Humanitarian & Cultural Issues Committee. After undergoing his first MUN experience, Ennen feels most proud for curating a resolution that passed in his committee.
“Some advice I would have for some upcoming students would be just to practice your public speaking and communication skills with other people,” Ennen said.
MUN is an academic simulation of the United Nations organization where students represent one of the UN’s 193 member states. Students develop interactive solutions to apply to real-world issues such as climate change, world hunger and gender inequality. In addition, students discuss their solutions to create and pass resolutions that apply to their appointed issue.
Last school year, efforts from members of the MUN club and their advisor, Kelly Ducat, Fountain Valley High School established an appropriate curriculum that combined history and MUN. Ducat had a fruitful and rewarding experience at her alma mater, the Edison MUN program; she felt inspired to advise the MUN club.
Kral heard about the development behind the program. He felt passionate about the subject and he was excited to be a part of the program. After attending UCLA’s BruinMUN, Kral expressed how proud he was of the students competing for the first time.
“I’m also proud to see most of them came from never doing a committee or conference or anything like that and then starting from scratch and being successful,” Kral said.
As for the future of MUN, both Ducat and Kral express enthusiasm to expand the program, hoping that students will evolve their research ability, delivery of speeches and writing, after observing the program flourish at UCLA.
“I am also looking forward to taking upperclassmen on trips to UC Berkeley, Harvard, and New York to debate in the United Nations building,” Ducat said.
