As the second Marriotts Ridge Model UN Conference (RIDGEMUNC) wrapped up on December 9th, delegates reflected on their experiences and what the conference entailed. The Model UN board and its members dedicated themselves through significant planning to ensure RIDGEMUNC II would succeed.
“l think the conference went very smoothly. Our secretary generals Achisha and Utkarsh both did a great job organizing participants into their respective committees. Overall I think the delegates enjoyed it and I know we also had different prizes given out to our best delegates. It was definitely a lot harder planning it this year since there were many more people to account for but everyone did a great job when it came to the numbers we had to get for food, how much money we were spending and overall doing a great job getting all the materials set,” said senior and MUN president Suhas Chokkaku.
The conference and all of its planning paid off since it was a big success with over 180 delegates participating across 12 different schools, more than last year’s turnout which was around 80 delegates.
“RIDGEMUNC was a blast, the number of participants we had this year skyrocketed from last year. Last year we only had about 80 people come to the conference while this year it was close to 200 people,” said junior and Model UN vice president, Utkarsh Mandsaurwale.
To accommodate this large number of delegates, the planning committee had to create five separate committees, so each delegate would be able to find one that appealed to their interests. The five committees included topics about the Hunger Games crisis, the Vietnam War, international drug trade, the rise of the artificial intelligence crisis and educational disparity.
“I chaired the rise of AI crisis committee and I had a lot of fun with the people in my committee,” said junior and vice president Jeremey Jacob.
Most Model UN conferences open up with a guest speaker. Last year the guest speaker was Tom Bonier, CEO of Target Smarts. This year the Model UN board was able to secure Natalie Zeigler, Maryland State delegate to open their conference. Ziegler shared valuable points and advice to the delegates to prepare them for the conference and future events in their life.
“Delegate Ziegler’s speech was so inspiring, she talked about how she got involved in local politics because she wanted to bring change to our community,” said Allie Bonier, junior and co-chair of the Hunger Games committee.
Since last year, there have been some changes made to make the conference run more smoothly such as delegating tasks more efficiently.
“This year a lot of the planning was way better than last year since this year we got a method down and streamlined everything. We had spreadsheets, ensured lots of communication was happening and delegated tasks more evenly than we did last year,” Mandsaurwale explained.
The Model UN club enjoyed being able to continue this new tradition from last year and took pride in knowing that many delegates enjoyed it and that their hard work paid off, with many delegates saying they would continue attending conferences in the future.
“This was my first conference and I think they planned and organized it really well, I will definitely attend next year as well,” said junior Veronica Kumar.
The conference allowed students to practice their public speaking skills through various topics in a fun way. For many students, this practice helps them in school with their presentation skills.
“Model UN conditions you to be able to speak in front of your peers and has an influence on many students’ future decisions,” said, junior and AI committee delegate, Ragib Ahanaf.
Overall, many students enjoyed the second RIDGEMUNC conference, agreeing it exceeded their expectations.The conference was a great opportunity for students to explore the world of international relations and practice their public speaking skills through the various committees available. Students are excited for what RIDGEMUNC III has in store for them k next year.