Sara Dal Monico e Filippo Schena

Apr 29, 2019

63 editions before our arrival at the Boston Park Plaza; 63 editions of HNMUNs, with thousands of delegates participating in the committees. A story of implementations and improvements, a story of diplomacy and discussions, a story of cooperation and… youth.

Quite weird being on the other side, because we got used to play the organizers instead of the participants of a Model: but things never change, at all. You can notice organizational issues, you can learn organizational advice. However, even though it feels so right, pressure escalates higher and higher, because somehow it’s time to show you are a good delegate – otherwise, how are people supposed to trust you as a MUNtor?

The Harvard National Model United Nations is the most important MUN across the world, with literally thousands of delegates all gathered for 4 intense days in the same place – the hotel hosting the event. The MUN starts when you step into the hotel, because your fellow delegates start approaching since that very moment: “what’s your committee? Who do you represent? What’s your opinion about…?”. No time to get familiar with the place or put down your luggage, no time to recover from the jet-lag, no time to think ‘wow! Even JFK walked down this same floor!‘. The sessions are so hectic that you only live with your committee’s mates all the time: you have breakfast with them, you have lunch with them, you have the post-committee meetings with them. Always with them… always. Just in our rooms with the true mates, but we are too tired to do anything. You don’t see them for the entire MUN, just the first dinner and the last dinner together.

We’ve been assigned Sweden this year, a quite manageable country luckily. World Health Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, United Nations Development Program, Historical General Assembly and United Nations Security Council were our committees. Coupled up 2 in each committee, and ready to rock it. The Rules of Procedure are stricter, more copious and the fellow delegates are quite competitive. Also the chairing can be quite different. This year, for the first time ever, Ca’Foscari has offered 20 scholarship to get there: otherwise, we’ve always been 10. According to the Committee, we were in different numbers, sometimes 40 countries (meaning 80 people, 2 per country) or sometimes 60 countries (120 people!) all striving to speak or to raise a motion. They play MUNs since their childhood, they have classes teaching about MUNs, they work hard and constantly to be ready for it. Completely different than what we usually do, for a matter of contextual differences. Even though relational and communication skills sometimes cannot be properly taught, if a person is intrinsically endowed with cooperative and diplomatic attitude, it’s really worth training, and it’s evident.

The experience of the HNMUN is completely different from any other MUN that you might have ever witnessed or taken part in. The beauty of such simulations is that they lead you face to face with people from other cultures, who have a completely different background, as well as a different way of approaching debates and MUNs. There are those who have very choreographic ways of speaking, those who prefer to speak one line each, those who are naturally born crowd-movers. There are those who try to lure you into an agreement and those who flatter you to talk you into their resolution. All this allows you to reach the greatest achievement possible: understanding your own abilities and potentiality. If you get there, then your MUN experience was complete, to the fullest extent possible. You will make new friends, you will debate world-threatening issues, you will understand how the dynamics of debate and negotiations are, but most importantly you will get to know yourself better. You will understand how Americans address contents or topics, or how French people propose solutions, or how Latin Americans approach debates, and in the end, this will all contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of your own competences.

Therefore, to be a proper MUNer you have to be goal-oriented: but watch out, the goal is not the prize that you might (hopefully) gain at the end of the simulation. The goal is to live an experience so enriching that you will keep for the rest of your life. A prize will eventually be left over a dusty shelf, but the memories, and what you have learned about yourself and others will be what you keep with you. Think of an HNMUN as more than an international UN simulation, it is also a social experiment and an introspective journey: if experienced fully, and you are 360 degrees involved, it overwhelms you.

Good luck, and, most of all, enjoy!