Bridgewater-Raritan High School’s Model United Nations (MUN) club members held an international MUN conference on May 4 with over 90 delegates from over a dozen countries present, including the US, India, Canada, the Philippines and Zambia.

The Global Virtual Model United Nations Conference (GVMUNC) was initially envisioned and founded by sophomore Ayushmaan Mukherjee and freshman Kush Dave, known as the Secretary-Generals (SGs). They were joined by sophomores Paritosh Bhole and Marko Gvozdenovic to chair and help run the conference. The whole staff is known as the Secretariat.

The two SGs worked on creating and setting up the conference’s features for two weeks, which included four slideshows and two topic briefs for the conference’s two committees: Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC) and the European Union (EU). This work paid off, as the conference was rated 4.2/5 stars on mymun.com, the website used to register the conference, putting it on par with or above most major online conferences on the platform.

Throughout the conference, which lasted from 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. EST, delegates discussed, collaborated and debated one of two topics per committee. Delegates in DISEC selected between countering the proliferation of nuclear weapons or regulating the militarization of artificial intelligence. Meanwhile, delegates in the EU chose between tackling the Russo-Ukrainian War or dealing with political extremism.

As the committee sessions progressed, delegates created groups known as “blocs” within their respective committees to create resolution papers that were intended to be comprehensive solutions to the problem at hand. Finally, they voted on which resolution to pass.

Two Bridgewater-Raritan students won awards for their performance at the post-conference award ceremony. They were Aayush Dhar, who received Best Delegate, and Aishani Udduraju, who received Outstanding Delegate. Both are freshmen who participated in the DISEC committee.

“It was a delight to participate. This was such a smooth-going conference, especially knowing that this was GVMUNC’s first edition,” said delegate Yael Uri Mesias, who attended as part of a high school delegation from the Philippines.

Aarnav Rao, a delegate from India, said that the conference was “planned and executed smoothly. Right from our applications to the end of our second [committee] session, the secretary-generals and chairs were always ready to help.”

Finally, commenting on his experience as a chair, Paritosh Bhole, also an Associate Editor-in-Chief for The Prowler, stated that he “felt like chairing was a really rewarding experience, as [he] got a more holistic view and understanding of how delegates interact in committee.”

There will be more opportunities for participation, as the SGs of GVMUNC plan to hold another conference in the fall. They also plan to expand the Secretariat by recruiting members from the Bridgewater-Raritan MUN club and have a larger selection of committees.