Academics
HMUN Tournament of Champions
One of Alan A.’s favourite things about Model United Nations conferences is connecting with new people who are as passionate about MUN as he is. Late last month, Alan had the opportunity to meet a whole new group at the first-ever Harvard MUN Canada Tournament of Champions in Toronto.
“The best part about Model UN is meeting new people who are into similar stuff,” Alan explained. “There’s no barrier; people just come up to you and talk. It’s super social.”
Alan joined top delegates from across the country for the four-day conference at the Toronto Westin Harbour Castle. It was more competitive than most MUN conferences, he said, but still an outstanding experience.
Alan qualified through CAHSMUN, the Canadian High Schools Model UN conference, in Vancouver in April. At CAHSMUN, he represented Russia in the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs committee that discussed space tourism and space resource extraction, and was named Outstanding Delegate. Outstanding Delegate, however, is the second-place award in a committee, and only first place qualified directly to the Tournament of Champions. The Dais – the chair of the committee – was so impressed that he nominated Alan for the Toronto event as well.
The Tournament of Champions is a double delegate event, which means each country is represented by two delegates. Alan represented Egypt in the General Assembly along with a student from Vancouver who he didn’t meet until they both arrived at the hotel. Fortunately they had been able to connect on voice calls to make sure they were on the same page. They were placed on the DISEC (Disarmament and International Security) committee, where the topics were preventing the weaponization of biotechnology and the Haitian armament crisis. They didn’t come away with any awards, something that other delegates said they were surprised about.
“My goal was to try to win,” Alan admitted. “But I also wanted to bring some of that West Coast Model UN spirit.”
Being the Tournament of Champions, the event drew the top MUN delegates from across Canada, and Alan was impressed with the calibre of the attendees.
“I met the best delegates I’ve ever seen,” he said. “It was very humbling. My dual delegate partner was amazing.”
Most of all, the conference was a learning experience in multiple ways.
“It was very informative both from a debate perspective and from the people I met,” Alan stated. “It was the best of the best in one room. The people who won were so diplomatic; that’s who I want to be.”
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