Model United Nations
- The Model United Nations is a program where students learn the structure and purpose of the United Nations, and then emulate it the best they can. The purpose of the actual United Nations is to unite the countries of the world and come to agreements and resolutions about the worlds issues through discussion, and not war. The Model UN works very well because elected representatives from most of the worlds countries meet and cannot use personal pronouns, and propose solutions that are then discussed and voted on in the most civil way possible. This has pushed forward agreements like the Paris Agreement which are beneficial to everyone. We addressed issues like immigration, refugees, and climate change, which are controversial, but extremely important. I played the role of Bangladesh, and a third world country who is heavily affected by the issues of refugees, and climate change. When addressing an issue like this from the perspective of certain countries who are not extremely influential, you have to keep your countries concerns in the front lines of your proposed solutions. It was very interesting to write in the styles of the Model United Nations, and this pushed the professional manner of the conference. I found the limited time of this project very restraining and difficult for me to produce beautiful work. I worked for hours at home and really pushed myself especially with the papers and proposals. I definitely met a lot of challenges throughout this project, for example, after working really hard on my proposal and resolution, I then found that I did not get the grade that I was expecting. Instead of trying to solve this problem rational at first, I got very worried about my grades and lost sight of the reason I got a sub-par grade. I have never cared so much about my education before this year, and it is amazing, but comes with so many drawbacks. Eventually we found a solution and the problem was resolved, although I could have handled it much better initially. I am so proud that my resolution almost made it into the Model United Nations Conference, and did not expect to understand the protocol so well after such limited time learning and researching the situation. I was very proud of how professional the end exhibition turned out, but could have rehearsed my speech more than I did, so that I would have been more confident at the Conference. I thought that global issues were less complicated than they are, I thought it was obvious that we needed to switch to renewable energy, but seeing the complications of the resolutions and amendments and etc, I understood my misconception. I think I will always be concerned about climate change after really learning about all of its effects, and how much we need change. I will always be someone who is an activist, and this is a very probable cause. I now understand the misconception about refugees, and the way they can hurt an economy, but also now I am educated on my personal stance about reintegrating refugees into a society that doesn’t persecute them for who they are. I really started to understand that to change anyone's ideas about the world you have to go into the conversation without the intention to change their minds, but eh intention to listen and have an actual conversation with an open mind because diplomacy goes both ways. I learned so much about the views of Bangladesh, and the way they handle refugees coming into Dahka at an alarming rate, and I understood the way that other countries view America which was a wake up call.