SUA Students Attend MUN Conference in Spain Irina Punga [2010] Irina Punga interviews MUN Conference participants Ruchi Kishore [2012], Andrew D’Ambruoso [2011] and Andy Cheong [2011]. Pearl: What country did you represent and in which committee? Ruchi: Italy in ECOSOC Andrew: Republic of Brazil in ECOSOC Andy: Russian Federation - Security Council Pearl: What topics did you discuss and what conclusions/resolutions did you reach? Andrew: The topics were: "Financial Crisis: Measures to prevent global economic meltdown" and "Trafficking in Persons: Measures to prevent and suppress the trafficking of children for the purposes of converting them into child soldiers and/or sexual slaves." We identified one major problem as being the lack of accurate information regarding the whereabouts of trafficked persons due in large part to the government documents that are forged in order to smuggle human beings across borders. Pearl: How were the dynamics of your committee? Ruchi: My committee was active till the very last session of the conference. Every country made an effort to contribute and bring forth their country’s position. Delegates debated in a healthy manner and incorporated others’ viewpoints in forming draft resolutions. Even with the hectic daily schedule, ECOSOC was productive and energetic till the end. Pearl: What do you think of the organization of the conference? Ruchi: This was my second conference and it was completely different from the first one that I attended. I feel that this conference is great for beginners as it is relatively small and more personal. It allows delegates to explore and grow without any hesitation or intimidation from other delegates. Pearl: What was the funniest event of your conference? Andy: Our crisis was Georgia bombing Moscow (I represented Russia). I fought every other delegate in the committee and asserted my awesomeness.
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Pearl: What was your achievement? What did you gain from the conference? Andrew: I won the best delegate award in ECOSOC (although I felt Tommy deserved it). Soka's delegation was also pictured in a Spanish national newspaper, El Mundo, in an article covering the conference. Andy: Best Delegate; Friendships, experience, and love
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Pearl: What would you recommend about MUN for prospective members? Andrew: Read the news at least three times daily! Simply researching UN documents is not enough to be a heavyweight in committee sessions. You MUST be current on world events, because more often than not, events relating to Trafficking in Humans (for example) are not far isolated from continuing violence against migrants in some countries. I would recommend the following: For those of you who use Firefox, there is a neat little add-on called "Morning Coffee" in which you can save the URLs of all your favorite news sites and access them all at the click of a button. In my "Morning Coffee," I have the New York Times, the LA Times, BBC, Xinhua, China Daily, Taiwan News Online, Human Rights Watch, Japan Focus, Asahi Shimbun, El Pais, Al Jazeera, and Arutz Sheva. Also, there is a brilliant (and free!) email subscription to the "UN Wire" which sends news updates about international news every other day. It's lovely. Andy: If you care about what goes on in the world, want to be creative with possible solutions, want to make friends, and become more worldly, but are willing to put in the work, then MUN is for you.