More than 1,750 high school students descended on Baltimore for the Johns Hopkins University Model United Nation Conference (JHUMUNC), the largest number of attendees in the conference’s history. The conference hosted a record four international high schools and one Baltimore public school.
The conference, which has doubled in size over the past four years, began last Thursday evening and ended on Sunday afternoon. The four-day event was run entirely by a staff of about 130 undergraduate students, with 200 faculty advisers from 100 schools in attendance as well.
“Through four years, the things I’ve learned from JHUMUNC I don’t think I would have learned anywhere else at Hopkins. The leadership aspect, the business side of it, the marketing, how to get schools, inform schools why JHUMUNC is such a great opportunity for them, as well as just the people I’ve met,” Secretary General senior Michael Kimmelman said.
Visiting high school students were invited on Friday morning to the Homewood campus for an admissions breakfast and series of tours, after the opening ceremonies and committee sessions Thursday evening.
A cappella groups, such as the AllNighters and the Octopodes, performed Friday evening before a long night for most students, as the much-anticipated “midnight crisis” was staged early Saturday morning, lasting nearly until daybreak.
Following lunch and more sessions, a delegate dance took place
Saturday night while closing ceremonies were held Sunday afternoon.
“This year’s conference was bigger and better than ever, we had more than seventeen hundred high school kids from around the world come,” Director of Specialized Committees Robert Locke said.
“Our expectations were high coming in to the event, we put a lot of work into it, and sure there are always logistical difficulties along the way organizing such a big conference, but it went very well. I was pleased with the way my committee ended up working out.”
This year a record four international high schools attended the JHUMUNC conference, which can be attributed to the low cost of the conference.
“We haven’t really changed the way we raise money, we raise it through a delegate fee, and a school fee. Unlike other conferences, we don’t have an advisor fee. One thing that we do pride ourselves on is that for a conference of our size we are one of the cheapest out there, one of the most cost effective,” he said.
In addition to the four international high schools, the staff made a concerted effort to have a Baltimore Public school at the conference.
“We made a push to make sure we had a Baltimore City Public School, which can be difficult to do based on funding and we were able to help them come financially. And so we’re very happy about that because we try to give back to the University and we try to give back to the city as well, any way we can,” Kimmelman said.
Kithmina Hewage, Undersecretary-General of General Assembly Committees, was impressed with the level of debate that took place amongst the high school students.
“It was quite good. Obviously it was quite strenuous for us, we didn’t get much sleep, but overall the feedback was quite positive, the kids seemed to have enjoyed it and learned quite a lot about it, and even when you look at resolutions, it seems that there was quite a lot of lively debate in the committees and they seemed to have grasped what the UN is all about, and the realpolitik that goes on in the UN,” Hewage said.
Hewage talked about how one of the points of the conference was to recreate the first General Assembly of the UN. One of the committees also had to come up with a new charter that altered the powers for the Security Council.
He and others noted that JHUMUNC attracts a broad range of undergraduates from an array of departments and with a variety of interests.
“I would say is that there is a huge misconception that only IS majors or political science majors do it, which is not true. People who get involved in JHUMUNC range from IS students to BMEs. You’ve got a good variety of people and particularly the committees that are involved, also reflect that change,” Hewage said.
“We had a committee about the Game of Thrones, so you don’t have to be an IS major to know about the Game of Thrones.”
With the number of high school students participating rising rapidly each year, the conference plans to move to the Hilton Baltimore Hotel next year.
“A lot of times friends who don’t really know a whole lot about JHUMUNC say like, well why do you spend a weekend debating things and coming up with fake solutions? And I tell them, there’s more to it than that. Granted, we’re not the United Nations, but I feel like I’m a better person for having done MUN for the past six years now and you learn invaluable skills like cooperation and public speaking,” Locke said. “We all care about world issues in one or the other. This is a way to bring your collective energy together.”
The conference ran very smoothly this year, however the staff is always looking for new ways to enhance the experience of the high school students.
“We run a pretty good show, I’m not going to say it’s perfect,” Locke
said. “I think it’s the right time to look internally and try to focus on communication within the organization. We already [do that] pretty well, but even when a lot of things do go well, you can continue to work to become better, and I think we can become larger, reach out to more schools, even on other sides of the country, other sides of the world, and I think if we bring in a more diverse, talented pool of delegations that we can have a more dynamic experience.”
