Forty-six students from the Bridgewater-Raritan High School Model United Nations (MUN) team competed at the 51st iteration of the National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) Conference for Session I of the conference from March 7-10 in New York.

The MUN is an engaging and competitive activity where students represent a different foreign country and debate the largest and most pertinent current events of the world’s geopolitical landscape. Our students spent weeks and countless hours preparing and researching for this conference.

The conference was held at the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan. With over 5,000 students from over 70 countries around the world in attendance, the team faced great competition and surpassed all expectations.

On the first day, the team attended the opening ceremony, which included a live performance of “Empire State of Mind” by Alicia Keys and Jay-Z and speeches from various conference staff members. Then, the students heard from the guest speaker: Dr. Felipe Paullier, the Assistant Secretary-General for Youth Affairs in the United Nations Youth Office. Dr. Paullier spoke of the importance of collaboration and diplomacy, and followed it with a Q&A session for students to ask questions. Then, the students were dismissed to their first committee session. Committees are focused groups within the conference designed to focus on different aspects of world events like world hunger and women’s rights, with student counts ranging from 50 to 500 students. Some examples include the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, or more commonly known as UNICEF.

Then the team had a busy second day.

The students had the morning off to roam around Manhattan and have lunch before the second committee session, followed by a quick dinner break to their third committee session. After the third committee session, students hurried back to the rooms to go to sleep as they would be losing an hour of sleep that night for the start of daylight savings.

On the third day, students awoke early for their nine AM committee session four, where most committees presented and discussed their draft resolution papers to be critiqued by their fellow delegates in committee. Following a quick lunch break, the students had their fifth and final committee session where they voted upon their draft resolution papers to be passed by the committee. At the end of the fifth committee session, awards were announced.

For their work in representing Malaysia in the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, seniors Isabel Lu and Harsha Ahmed won the Award of Distinction, the highest honor in a committee. As well, sophomores Meher Dua and Mahathi Karthik won the Award of Distinction for their work as Malaysia in the United Nations Human Rights Council.

For the second highest honor of the committee, Award of Excellence, two more pairs were honored: sophomores Aayush Dhar and Om Shah as Malaysia in the International Organization for Migration, and juniors Hrishi Patel and Viraaj Marathe as Cambodia in the Disarmament and International Security Committee. Finally, four pairs won the third highest award in committee, Award of Merit. These students included juniors Agastya Shahane and Ananya Gupta as Malaysia in the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund; sophomores Daksh Bansal and Shantan Budamakayala as Cambodia in the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime; sophomores Jadon Kim and Jack Lee as Zambia in the United Nations Human Settlements Programme; and junior Ayushmaan Mukherjee and senior Meriam Stroock as Cambodia in the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations of the United Nations.

After awards were announced, the students were allowed to spend the rest of the day around Manhattan or attend the delegate dance with other students at the conference. However, two pairs of students stayed back to prepare their speeches for the closing ceremony.

On the fourth day, the students packed up their rooms and attended the closing ceremony where two pairs of BRHS students were honored by being chosen to speak to the entire population of the conference. This is a tremendous honor and the following students were chosen for their exemplary speaking skills to be the sole representatives of their respective committees in the closing ceremony: Isabel Lu, Harsha Ahmed, Agastya Shahane and Ananya Gupta. There, Bridgewater-Raritan won the Award of Excellence for Research and the Award of Merit for Debate.

When asked about his thoughts on the conference, Viraaj Marathe shared his thoughts.

“I haven’t done Model United Nations in a while, but it was awesome to get back into it with such an intense conference. Going around New York was super fun and I loved the experience overall,” he said.

Then, Harsha Ahmed delivered his comments from the trip.

“I’m extremely proud of our delegates for their amazing performance and I look forward to seeing many more successes from our club! I am also extremely thankful to NHSMUN for giving Isabel and I the opportunity to represent our committee, as well as Ms. Santiago for continuing to support us,” he said.

As well, Ananya Gupta gave her thoughts on her experience in the committee.

“Meeting delegates from around the world was such a great experience and the conference taught me so much about public speaking and diplomacy. I hope to go again next year!” she said.

Gupta’s partner, Agastya Shahane also shared his thoughts.

“It was such a fulfilling experience and I loved speaking and representing to my committee! I’m so excited to go back next year!” he said.

Chaperone, Gloria Lu, also attended and lent her thoughts for this article.

“I greatly enjoyed my time at the conference and watching our students excel in what they do best. Model United Nations is such an enriching and educating experience, and I feel immensely proud of the accomplishments and most importantly efforts of all of our students. I know that every child put their best foot forward and I encourage them all to continue in Model United Nations,” she said.

A special congratulations to all Bridgewater-Raritan students who won and the club looks forward to attending NHSMUN again next year, and hopefully more international conferences in the future. We are BR!