Students ranging from grades six to 12 and from 15 to 20 public and private schools around Northern Virginia descended upon Marshall late last month.
The students came to take part in the 10th annual My First Model UN Conference on Saturday, Oct. 19.
Marshall hosts MFMUN to raise money for the Model United Nations club to be able to attend other MUN conferences at colleges like the University of Virginia, the College of William and Mary and the University of North Carolina.
The objective of this conference is to let first-time MUN members to attend workshops in order to learn the basic structure and process of a real Model UN Conference.
“We hoped to get people interested in Model UN by making this mock conference fun,” sponsor Ilsa Tinkelman said.
Students were split into groups that rotated through a series of workshops that taught position paper writing techniques, public speaking, MUN etiquette skills and effective ways of researching.
“It takes a lot to be a good delegate,” sophomore Tom Freebairn said. “The Model UN style takes time to get used to.”
Different countries were assigned to each of the registered delegates. The assignment was to research basic aspects of their country and some specifics on the assigned topic: the World Food Crisis.
After the morning workshops and lunch, students went into assigned groups of 30 in classrooms to practice the skills just taught in a two hour-long committee session.
“The goal of MFMUN is to help students become competitive delegates and who can properly represent their countries,” secretary-general and senior Taruni Paleru said.