Sergio Lopez at NMUN

Author: Sergio Lopez | Major: Business Economics | Semester: Fall 2022

I am a business economics major, and the NMUN conference was a great opportunity to develop my research abilities, public speaking, networking and writing. The conference consists of a simulation of the United Nations, taking the position and perspective of assigned countries and having to research and defend their position.

I had the country of China assigned and had to represent in on the General Assembly First committee on the topic of chemical and biological weapons and development and disarmament. The preparation research consisted of writing a position paper with all the information of background, current actions and original solutions for the topics at hand, the position papers had to be concise but effective which greatly increased my writing and research abilities.

Furthermore, during the conference, I had to speak and give speeches multiple times, giving charismatic and convincing argument to support my research and my solutions and convincing other delegations, other countries to work with me during the conference. All the preparation and practice for public speaking plus the experience of giving real speeches to more than a hundred other people greatly increased my public speaking abilities and my confidence speaking on public.

Another important aspect of the conference was the fact that we had to collaborate and work with other delegates in writing resolution papers with proposed solutions to the problem, we had to write those on the actual conference and we also had to be diplomatic, being able to maintain the interests of the country that we are representing and at the same time reaching agreements with other countries that had other interests that not always aligned with ours. It was definitely an interesting experience of diplomacy and compromise wile at the same time we needed the strength to maintain our position for the best interests of our country. Not only did we develop our writing skills and diplomacy, but we also had to network, collaborate with other delegations from other countries, during the conference and networking out of the conference getting to know other people with similar and different backgrounds.

As for the trip itself, the conference took place in Washington DC, so I had the amazing opportunity of visiting the capital of the United States for the first time. We where able to visit the white house, the capitol, the library of congress with tours of the three, which was an amazing opportunity to see some of the most important historical building of the nation. Not only that but I also got to see some of the Smithsonian museums and many of the monuments, such as the Lincoln memorial and the WWII monument.

It was not only a great experience, but we got acknowledged for our work, I got outstanding position paper award, and outstanding delegate award. Not only that, but the University of Arkansas got two outstanding delegation awards for both countries that our school was representing, and we got at least one award in every committee. It was definitely one of the best experiences and trip that I had. I learned a lot on a professional and personal level, and I would encourage students to get into the MUN class and to try to go to conferences such as this, you learn a lot and you also enjoy it. It is a lot of work to be sure, but the experience is definitely worth it.