Students involved in Model United Nations, an organization which aims to educate students on diplomacy and international relations, will gather at the statewide convention for 3 days, beginning Friday evening after school.  

“We start with having a keynote speaker at our opening ceremony, and then some fun events planned,” Senior and MUN State Secretary-General Trisha Dasgupta said. “Saturday is an all-day debate, and then Sunday there’s about two more hours of debate and then closing ceremonies.”

First-year MUN member, junior Sadhana Dharmmireddy, hopes to improve her communication skills at the event.

“Texas MUN is unique to me in the aspect that we have two resolutions, both of which I’ve never encountered before,” junior Sadhana Dharmmireddy said. “I hope to learn more about world affairs and how to be an overall better delegate, since I’m stepping out of my comfort zone.”

Due to the pandemic, Texas members have not been able to meet in-person up to this time. Dasgupta says she does not take this for granted. 

“This is our first assembly since 2018, which is kind of crazy to think about,” she said. “It’s been about a year of constant Zoom calls, contracting, making sure that we have a lot of people just ready to be there and that are excited to be there. It means a lot to me for it to be in-person, as someone who has benefitted so much from the program.”

Closing out her senior year, Dasgupta reflects on the development of Texas MUN throughout her time in the program. 

“It’s definitely bittersweet for me,” Dasgupta said. “I’ve been in it since 7th grade, and back then we didn’t even have a middle school program. Now that we have our own middle school program, which is reaching about 100 middle schoolers, it’s just really amazing to see how the state program has grown. I’m excited to see everyone’s hard work from this past year come to fruition, as well as being able to see everyone there having fun.”