Beaver Country Day School is an independent school in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Since 2014, numerous students from Beaver have attended the MUN Institute, where they studied Model UN and brought their new skills back home to share with their MUN team. According to advisors Randall Northrop and Sumaya Ibourk, “The MUN Institute has helped our students and advisors learn about everything MUN-related from writing speeches, writing resolutions, tips on how to give speeches, research tips, and so much more.”
This year, the Beaver MUN team had about 30 students, and they attended four conferences: BUSUN (Brown University MUN), BosMUN (Boston University MUN), NHSMUN (National High School MUN), and CAMUN (Concord Academy MUN). They were awarded Best Small Delegation at BosMUN for the fifth year in a row, and they were also awarded an Award of Excellence at NHSMUN.
Northrop says that their team stands out because even though they operate as a campus club instead of a class, the students are very dedicated. “The students who join the club are incredibly passionate about the club’s success. As a club, there is an institutional knowledge that is passed down through mentorships. The club is student run and the leaders identify the skills that delegates would most benefit from and implement activities to practice these skills.”
Read on to learn more about the Beaver Country Day MUN team!
What is your MUN organization’s philosophy when it comes to training and preparing for MUN conferences?
The Beaver MUN team cultivates a practice of design thinking when approaching all preparations for conferences. Delegates identify the real-world problems that exist in model UN work and set themselves to create realistic solutions. An important step that makes this possible is that students practice, not only in MUN but across their academic disciplines, this process of design thinking. They take sides on an issue and speak with urgency to solve real-world problems.
What challenges did your MUN team face this year? How did you overcome them?
A continual challenge that faces our team is finding more time to meet as a group. It can be difficult for students to prepare and practice skills for conferences while also juggling the academic workload, sports, and college preparations. Ways that we have worked to overcome time restraints is to find little slices of time during the week. Model UN delegates work in mentor relationships during lunches or before school. Students are incredibly passionate about the club and so they somehow make time for it.
What would you consider your MUN organization’s biggest accomplishments from the past school year?
This year the Beaver MUN delegation was awarded an Award of Excellence at NHSMUN. We are also very proud that our team was awarded Best Small Delegation at BosMUN for the fifth year in a row. These delegation awards have also strengthened our sense of model UN as a team endeavor; with each club member working to best prepare each other.
Thank you to Randall Northrop and Sumaya Ibourk for contributing information used in this article!
Want to learn MUN skills to share with your school’s team? Check out the MUN Institute!
