Sindy E. Mendez

5/7/10

IRP 470

Professor Dr. D’Amico

Being part of the National Model United Nations (NMUN) program has taught me how the UN functions from hands on experience. The IRP 412 Global Governance: The United Nations System class teaches us the theoretical part that is important but the NUMN program provides something that a classroom environment cannot. This program is crucial to students interested in some day working for the United Nations and it should have more support from the university since it offers skills and knowledge that an International Relations B.A. student would not learn anywhere else but through the NMUN.

The NMUN enhances students researching skills while writing up the country’s report. This was rather difficult to do since it required a lot of accurate information in two pages. The amount of writing space specified was not enough for all the information found on Perú. Not only was that difficult but the language used was out of the ordinary from my other class experiences. I have never written papers with that type of language and it required us to be committed to role playing as a delegate to Perú. We could not let our own idealist standards get in the way of what Perú stands for or against. But once we understood what we had to do it became manageable and natural. We learned diplomatic language and how to think like a delegate.

The reports served as our background knowledge and took a lot of time to gather but the most difficult part was understanding the rules and procedures of the conference. Memorizing the specific phrases we had to use and the rules to when to use them required us to think in a different way and to speak in an adequate language. Before the actual conference we practiced in our class, but I still felt that we were not fully prepared to what we encountered in the conference. I fully comprehended the rules and procedures when put in action at the conference, but I wished that we would have learned them more clearly before hand. I think that we would have been able to perform better as a team if we would have practiced more before the conference.

The conference week in New York City felt like a blur. I never felt that I had focused and worked as hard as I did in the conference. That whole week was intense we barley slept and ate, but at the end of the whole experience I felt like I had accomplished something. The resolution writing was different from the reports we had done earlier in the semester since these were agreements that nations had partnered up to compose together, which we then had to vote on as a whole committee. This was the best part of the conference caucusing and negotiating with all the people from different parts of the world. It was exciting to interact with all the students there and the different points of views they represented.

Although the overall experience was unforgettable and extraordinary there were some things that did seem that could have been better. From the NMUN organizers part they could have made sure that there was enough space for everyone to see the closing ceremony in the General Assembly Hall. I think that it was not fair that some delegates had to witness the closing ceremony through a TV screen, we all deserved to experience an appropriate closing ceremony especially through all the hard work we had done throughout the week. The elevator system in the Marriot was horrible since there were to many people trying to access them all at the same time, which comes back to the same issue of cutting down the size of the conference.

By the university’s part I think that we should have received more support and it does not seem to be getting better for the other students next year. This program is essential to comprehending what international relations is all about and it gives us hands on experience and teaches us diplomatic skills that a university classroom can’t provide for us. If the university doesn’t come to realize this and disregards the program there will be students missing out on such a great opportunity due to financial matters. This would lead to an unequal representation of students in the program that goes against the advocacy of diversity that the university proclaims, which is not within the school’s best interest.

Coming into this program I really did not know what to expect, but it was the best academic experience I’ve had along with studying abroad. I became closer to students in the program and the faculty, and made new friends at the conference. I learned new researching, negotiation and diplomatic skills that I think are essential to my future career in international relations. I am so grateful to have been part of the program because I have learned so much from it and I think that NMUN is an important academic experience that any international relations student and especially those interested in one day working with the UN should apply to.