The Bridgewater-Raritan High School Model United Nations (MUN) Club celebrated its annual banquet on May 23 at the Chimney Rock Inn.

With nearly 80 club members, in addition to the advisors Ms. Yanessa Santiago and Ms. Eileen Boosmann, the night properly celebrated the achievements of MUN for the 2023-2024 school year.

The event started with speeches by the club’s president, Alyssa Xu, followed by speeches from Vice Presidents Pranav Karra and Abhijay Edavalapati, who spoke about their experiences in MUN and how it shaped their public speaking and leadership skills. Following a huge round of applause were the speeches given by junior and sophomore officers to commemorate the graduating seniors.

After a brief break for food, the outreach committee of the club began handing out gavels for superlative awards. Officers of the club were eligible for the awards, which were determined through a vote including all club members. Darsh Srivastava won Most Charismatic, Harsha Ahmend won Most Likely to be Arrested, Isable Lu won Most Likely to Start an Argument with a Chair and Nandini Kuppachi won Best Dressed.

Subsequently, the banquet concluded with the announcement of the new officer positions. The club’s core members began by announcing the secretaries of the Conference Planning, Member Training, Outreach, and BRMUNC Planning committees, followed by directors and finally the chairs.

The new core positions, two vice presidents and one president, were announced. Lily Xu and Isabel Lu were appointed the new vice presidents of the club and Harsha Ahmed was appointed the new president.

The ceremony concluded with pictures being taken and the seniors being sent off with posters as gifts.

Sophomore Agastya Shahane, who was promoted from the Secretary of Conference Planning to the co-chair, reflected on the event.

“The banquet was an amazing experience, as it allowed all members of the club to join together for one last time this school year and celebrate the achievements we’ve worked towards,” he said.

Sophomore and new member Marko Gvozdenovic said that the banquet, “was an exciting event to take part in, and made me personally reflect on my first year in the club. I realized how much fun I had during the conferences and mocks I attended, getting to meet new people and demonstrate my skills.”