The Village School MUN Team Sweeps HAMUN 43

The Village School made history by taking home the Best Large School Delegation award for the first time on Jan. 25-26 at the Houston Area Model United Nations Conference (HAMUN 43) at University of Houston’s Student Center and Cullen Performance Hall.

The Village School took 26 kids to HAMUN 43 and returned with 17 individual awards, in addition to the team award. They included six best delegates (1st place), three outstanding delegates (2nd place), five honorable mentions (3rd place) and three best position paper awards (best preparation and research).

“We as a team have grown a lot from where we have started, and I think we have a fantastic team of delegates who are all each individually committed to their own growth and success as well as the team as a whole,” leader of the team and Secretary General, junior Ritika Saligram said. “I think that passion and drive is what led us to succeed as well as we did in HAMUN.”

With over 1,000 students representing various Texas high schools, the MUN conference served as a student simulation of the events of the United Nations. Students, referred to as “delegates”, were assigned countries to represent in one of the UN's numerous committees and required to debate pre-set topics. Before the conference, they were required to research the background of their country, their country’s position on a specific topic, and prepare possible solutions. Students convened at the conference to discuss problems and identify solutions through negotiation and voting procedures.

“It [MUN] took me …from someone who wasn’t confident in herself and had no idea to who I wanted to be … And showed me that I could be confident and that I could interact with people, that I could have a stance on a topic whether that was as a country or as an individual, and that I could communicate that effectively,” Saligram said. “[And] from a personal growth standpoint, in terms of my personality, it really helped me find who I was…[and] my voice, and it made me realize about the issues that I really care about. This past year as a leader, MUN has helped shape me into the person I think I want to be and the person I want to become. Its helped me move to that goal of inspiring and leading people and generally helping people find success within themselves.”

MUN is a popular activity at the Village School with over 30 students participating in it. Benefits include meeting and making new friends, exposing students to global issues, enhancing leadership skills, teaching diplomacy and compromise skills and helping students gain confidence.

“Despite never being interested in the club before, I quickly found it to become one of my main passions,” said sophomore Matias Cattani, Assistant to Secretary General for Village School MUN Team. “I believe that MUN can truly shape a person and has greater application then just going to conferences and …meetings. Personally, MUN has made me more aware of the problems that we have to fix and inspired me to take action against these problems now and when I'm older.”