The road to state begins Saturday as Redhawks in Model UN gather for the district meet at Grand Prairie High School. At competitions, students represent delegates from different countries around the world.
“The basis of MUN is that you’re preparing something about your country’s stance on a certain topic – it’s a mock United Nations,” undersecretary of conference and delegate trainer sophomore Jiya Sharma said.
The District meet is the first competition of the year, and freshmen delegates first chance to compete.
“Since it’s my first competition, I don’t really know what to expect, so I’m just gonna try my best and do well for my school,” freshman Peishan Li said. “[As for awards], I only know of 2 of them – I think one is ‘outstanding delegate.’”
To get ready for the competition, the delegates practiced their speeches weekly.
“You have to learn what each individual specific part is and how it works, and I think there’s just so much that goes into that which is why we start preparing resources so early. Every Thursday we do practice speeches to help improve their public speaking skills, because MUN is very much impromptu,” Sharma said. “We do everything with them, and I think the Liberty delegates are very prepared.”
Though it’s history teacher Amanda Peter’s first time being a MUN sponsor, she too feels secure in the fact that students are prepared.
“This is my inaugural year serving as an advisor, so I’m still getting acquainted with the specifics of any changes from last year,” Peters said. “However, I can confidently say that our students have been dedicatedly preparing all semester for tomorrow’s competition, showing remarkable commitment and enthusiasm.”
For senior delegate Shruti Bhoyar, the goal this year is to pass her knowledge on to the next class of delegates.
“I think that winning awards and having that kind of incentive when being in MUN is really important to some people, and not so important for others,” senior Shruti Bhoyar said. “I think it would be cool to win, but my goal this year is to just have fun and help out the younger delegates, because I know [this] can be a pretty nerve-racking experience.”
