As everyone was adjusting to the beginning of the school year, Model United Nations members were getting ready for one of their biggest conference of the year: the Stevenson Model United Nations Conference (SMUNC).

The general members of Model United Nations (MUN) are assigned different countries. They then proceed to research current issues about those countries and present them at the conferences.

SMUNC was an opener conference, Samara Silverman, MUN sponsor, said. It was held so people who were new could get a sense of how MUN was run.

“MUN helps students in many ways,” director of MUN communications Ruhee Singh ’17, said. “The biggest, in my opinion, is helping students learn to speak in front of big groups. Speaking is one of the most important forms of communications and this essential skill doesn’t come easy to many students.”

The SMUNC was run as an “ad-hoc training conference,” which means that the students didn’t get any information about which countries they were assigned until they got to the school. They then got an hour to research and present their information.

“[The SMUNC] is not really a day of being ‘on policy’ or the best in the room, like a typical conference – it’s about learning and developing your skills,” Mary Polupan ’19 said.

According to MUN’s policies, in order to be in MUN a student has to have a love for international politics, the ability to speak publicly, and dedication to research.

Although students were only given a limited time to research, Silverman said the conference went well.

“The students were in charge and made all the preparations,” Silverman said. “The students did pretty well.”

This conference and MUN in general has assisted many students in life. Devanshi Gupta, ’19, has been a MUN member since the second semester of her Freshman year and has found it advantageous for many reasons.

“MUN has helped me grow and improve in many aspects as a student,” Gupta said. “Being able to create relations and connect with others in a new environment has allowed me to build upon my social skills.