Reaction NY NHSMUN: Carlos Gómez

What it takes to be a Model United Nations Delegate

Wanted alive YOU an MUN Delegate

There are those who contend that you either got it or you don’t, while many claim that they imbued you with knowledge, skills, and qualities. Still, others say that the parent or teacher, at best, is but one of many factors. Fortunately, there is no need to dwell on this when we ask:

So, what does it take to be an MUN Delegate?

Well, time, for one thing, because you have to devote plenty of time to becoming a delegate. You must read thousands of words within a period of three months.

The same goes for writing. You have to write and rewrite a great deal of assignments and papers, which means that you have to be self-critical to be able to improve upon what you have written. You must do research and go beyond your first findings, like a persistent investigator who looks for details as well as their surroundings, for the big picture and its background, who wonders, analyzes, and compares, and then looks for more information, follows up on clues, only to go through the whole process repeatedly. You also have to come up with sound arguments, as well as with counterarguments. You must be creative throughout all the cycle of reading, researching, thinking, and writing because you must come up with solutions plus their implementation. A creative scientist, inventor, artist, writer, or MUN delegate does not give up when an idea seems impractical, unrealistic, or impossible. The challenge is to find the twist that makes it practical, realistic, and possible.

Furthermore, an MUN Delegate has to be objective like a scientist; insightful and persistent like an inventor; visionary like an innovative leader; and thorough like a specialized writer who digs up facts, develops ideas, and watches word choice, sentence composition, and discourse buildup.

The delegate must be driven by humane, ethical feelings and by the conviction that every human community, regardless of place of birth, residence, and condition deserves to live in peace and with quality, with its own lifestyle and in harmony with all the other communities of the world, a sample of which you will experience at the NHSMUN event in New York, where you will interact harmoniously with peers from the most diverse parts of the world.

This Model United Nations Delegate must also have diplomatic speaking skills with which to develop empathy, express sympathy, and be assertive as well as persuasive.

All of the above, you must possess, or develop on your own, patiently and with hard work, as well as with the aid of peers, experts, and teachers, but mostly by yourself, as all of the greatest have done, whether dead or alive.

By Carlos Gómez S.