Masters Hosts Second Annual Model UN Conference

12/13/2023

The votes are in. Teamwork was the key to the success of this year’s Masters Model UN Conference, aka MASMUNC II, held at Masters on Saturday, December 2.

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Faculty co-advisor Brittany Farrar, who serves as co-advisor to MUN with Ben Thorn, called the event “quite the triumph,” and noted that attendance jumped to a booming 200 this year from last year’s 60.

“We needed help from facilities, security, dining, tech and special events,” she explained. “And we had so many students helping out, from sixth graders folding placards and packing folders to upper school students assisting newcomers who were nervous.”

Thorn added, “All the students have worked incredibly hard and performed at a high level and a very professional level to do all the work necessary to get this conference off the ground.”

The School’s Model UN team hosted middle and upper school delegates and faculty from 10 local schools: High School for Mathematics, Science and Engineering at City College (HSMSE), The Chapin School, Nanuet Senior High School, Verona High School, Grace Church School, Hastings High School, Irvington High School, The Ursuline School, Leman Manhattan Preparatory School and The Storm King School.

Secretaries-General Violet Paull ’24 and Lucas Seguinot ’24, Director-General Sophie Moussapour ’25 and Secretary-General of Middle School Committees Bobby Callagy ’24 led Masters’ Secretariat team.

The team began preparing for the conference this summer. Seguinot was thrilled with the results. “It went so well,” he said. “We received excellent feedback from both delegates and advisors. We were so proud of all of the teams’ efforts, and it felt amazing to see all of the work come to fruition.”

Committees ranged from General Assemblies (United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, and World Health Organization) to Specialized (Paris Peace Conference and Silicon Valley Bank Crash) and Crisis (US, China, Russia). The Middle School committees included G20 Summit, Star Wars, and Vogue: High Fashion.

For the past three years, Callagy has been chairing and mentoring the middle school team and is proud of their progress. “Tackling research, having strong public speaking skills, and coming up with viable solutions on the fly are the main foundations of Model UN,” he explained. “We teach them how it all works and how to apply it in actual committees, and they did really well.”

Kudos to the middle school students who took home the following accolades:

Willow Hicks ’30, Honorable Mention, G20 Summit
Sebastian Tomas ’30, Best Delegate, G20 Summit
Auden Griffiths ’28, Outstanding Delegate, Star Wars
Jack Barek ’29, Best Delegate, Star Wars
Angus McCallum ’29, Honorable Mention, Vogue: High Fashion
Annabelle Vest ’29, Outstanding Delegate, Vogue: High Fashion

Next up for our MUN diplomats is the Columbia Model UN Conference and Exposition (CMUNCE XXIII) in January.

Farrar is optimistic about the future of this talented group: “I think we’re a team that can walk and chew gum at the same time, in that we compete well, we host well, and we like each other.”