GIIS Queenstown Campus hosted Model United Nations (MUN) 2015, from 29 to 31 May 2015. More than 300 students from GIIS East Coast Campus and GIIS Queenstown Campus participated in this conference. The three-day conference saw lively discussion and engagement from participants, which included students as representatives/delegates from different countries.

During GIISMUN, students were seen leading discussion with facts to convince Chair and committees

On 29 May 2015, the first day of GIISMUN, the delegates and all other participants got to know each other and became familiar with the environment. In addition, they attended the opening ceremony, which welcomed everyone to this year’s MUN and gave the opportunity for various ambassadors to define their positions on the topics of the conference. After that, the delegates gathered in their committees and started lobbying on various and interesting issues like the ‘Outbreak of Ebola,’ ISIS Crisis, so on and so forth.

“We students or ‘delegates’ (as we were referred to) were allotted our countries and committees. We attended a master class on the MUN to help us with our position papers and other preparations. I was the delegate of Cambodia in the WHO committee, which thrilled me as it meant learning about a new country, its culture and of course, the problem at hand,” said Shruti Mishra, from GIIS Queenstown Campus, Class 10C. Adding to this, another student, Muskaan Garg, from Class 10C - GIIS Queenstown Campus, said, “The committee chair makes a big difference on each delegates MUN experience. Students of IB year 2, who had previous experience of MUN, did well as a committee chair. They were friendly and approachable, and briefed us through the rules of proceedings. All my initial nervousness and dubiousness vanished and over the next three days, as we delegates were immersed in committee sessions and drafting resolutions.”

GIISMUN helped students to get different perspectives on various international issues

Students were excellent delegates and had both rewarding and empowering experience from this MUN. The committee was staffed by experienced and empathetic student officers. It was carefully structured to take participants through the entire MUN conference experience from country and topic research, to document and resolution preparation, oral presentation skills, diplomacy, formal MUN speaking, and debate and voting procedures.

“The topics intrigued us a lot and seemed very interesting. Each one of us started our research about the countries we were supposed to represent and their probable stance given their situation. It was a vast topic to research on and a unique experience where we had to combine information with analysis. During the committee session, we were given different types of crisis and situations that may occur,” said Evangelin Deshika Jayachandran of Class 8B - GIIS Queenstown Campus.

GIISMUN was a learning and empowering experience for the participating students

The Secretariat chose six founding committees for the GIISMUN, namely, Disarmament and International Security, World Health Organization (WHO), Special Political and Decolonization Committee, Crisis Committee, Indian War Cabinet and the United Nations Security Council. The topics chosen were very diverse, ranging between Ebola, Human Enhancement, Militarization of the Arctic and Space, Middle East Crisis and Inferno Crisis.

“We had around six committee sessions, and each of it, helped us improve both our communication skills as well as our debating skills. We also got to know about the problems around the world especially the underdeveloped (third world) countries, and how we can come up with effective and feasible solutions to put an end to this catastrophe,” Swetha Sivagurunathan, Class 8 B from GIIS Queenstown Campus.

Once the resolutions was drafted, it was fun time for the delegates at GIISMUN 2015 conference

Scaffolding was in place to ensure that participants had fun, learned a lot, had a dynamic experience, and were also included in the larger conference through attendance at the opening and closing ceremonies.

“The volunteers, chairs as well as the teachers went out of their way to make sure we were comfortable with our committees, as for most of us, it was our first MUN, and they made sure we were not scared and that we had a good time,” Swetha added.

On the second day, the delegates started debating and with the help of the chairs, the co-chairs, the security stuff and the admin staff, the discussions were conducted successfully. On the third and last day of the MUN, the delegates continued debating. At this point, majority of the resolutions passed, marking this year@aps@s conference as successful. The delegates had some more time to debate and finish the discussions and then they were guided to the auditorium where the closing ceremony took place.

Student led conference was well organised and appreciated by all participating delegates

Ms Deepa Chandrasekaran, IB Diploma Coordinator from GIIS Queenstown Campus welcomed everyone to this year’s GIISMUN closing ceremony and praised all the delegates for their hard work. After that, the audience heard the committee chairs’ and presidents’ reports. They all congratulated the delegates and thanked everyone for making this year’s MUN conference successful. Chief Guest for the event, Mr Kaustabh Bodhankar, Deputy CEO Global Schools Foundation appreciated student’s collective efforts and announced the verdict. The ceremony ended on an emotional address by the Secretary General, Vatsalya Kattumuri. A video montage was created, which concluded the conference in images of the smiling delegates.

 Under Secretary Generals
 Secretary General - Vatsalya Kattumuri
 Deputy Secretary General - Rishabh Anand
 Director General - Tanisha Debasish
 Editor-in-Chief - Neha Iyer
 UNSG Business - Avneet Minhas
 UNSG Delegate Liaison - Isha Sharma
 UNSG Conference Management - Eshkeerat Kaur
 UNSG Finance - Jaanvi GK
 UNSG Publicity and Design - Swapnil Das

 For more images: https://goo.gl/3Q07uM