Model United Nations, a Great Experiential Learning Tool.

Guinevere Caswell

As part of our Governance class, LIU Global participated in a Model United
Nations conference that was held at The University for Peace here in Costa Rica. For three days, we became delegates, joined committees, and debated with students from all over the world on many different global topics. I was on the Human Rights Council, along with three other LIU Global students. Other students were spread out between
UN Women, The Security Council, The Environmental Council, and the media team. Our fellow delegates from UPEACE were mostly master’s and doctorate level students, and because of that, us freshmen felt very out of our depth at first. To top that off, none of us had ever participated in a MUN before, which made it even more overwhelming.
Thankfully though, the UPEACE students were so kind and immediately made us feel comfortable and involved. There were many rules and policies to follow, but everyone was willing to help us get the hang of it, and we were able to learn so much!
We got to choose our committee, and which country we would represent. Some of us chose the countries we had visited or liked, while others chose countries they had never heard of before as an opportunity to learn more about them. At the conference,
our first step was to prepare a one minute opening statement. They called our countries, by alphabetical order, to read it through a microphone. I represented Ukraine, which was very helpful since I was near the end of the list, and I got to listen to everyone else’s positions first! After everyone had stated their positions we would then debate the topics, find allies, and start creating solutions to fix the issues. Doing this, we were able to experience and get a good idea of what a real United Nations conference would look like. This included everything from passing motions, taking a long time to find common ground, and choosing sides based on our country’s best interests. In connection with current world events, we even had an emergency disease outbreak that interrupted our scheduled topics and caused multiple delegates to be quarantined.

Each day, the conferences lasted for eight hours! We did get multiple coffee-breaks and lunch too, but these long days were very exhausting. Thankfully at night we stayed in a very nice hotel close by, and I took advantage of the comfortable beds to get a lot of rest. Although it was exhausting, the MUN was a very unique and interesting experience. I learned so much about how the United Nations works, and at the end of the three days when our committees published the final draft resolutions containing all of our hard work, there was a huge sense of accomplishment throughout the room.

Our final product was beautiful!
As an introvert who especially dislikes debating things, I can’t say I was exactly looking forward to participating in the MUN. However, it definitely exceeded my expectations, and I think the wonderful staff/students of UPEACE played a big part in that. ​The other participants were lovely, and it was awesome to meet and get to know like-minded people from all over the world. By the end of the three days, our committee was like a big family. One girl even brought in a huge bag of homemade muffins to share!
Participating in the MUN conference was a great way to put what we had learned in our Governance class into practice, and really was an experiential learning tool. As freshmen, we worked alongside masters students! On the final day, we left UPEACE
ready for a long nap, but also very content and proud of what we had accomplished.