Latest Update: April 15, 2020
The COVID crisis has been a challenging situation for everyone. Parents need to ensure the safety and health of their families, adjust to working from home, and now, learn how to homeschool their children. Students should be finishing up the academic year and celebrating the end of middle school, high school, or college — or their final MUN conferences — and instead, many are trying to stay engaged academically and stay connected socially.
For the MUN Institute, the COVID crisis has made it challenging to organize summer programs. Many of our host universities have recently announced they will not host their own summer programs on campus, and instead they will transition to virtual classrooms. Like many small businesses, we are trying to navigate the crisis’ economic impact.
And yet, we believe in our mission more strongly than ever: to empower students to lead through Model United Nations. We believe that MUN is needed more than ever, to help students understand the current COVID crisis and prepare them to be leaders in a changing world. Despite the crisis, we remain more committed than ever to educating students in world issues and global leadership.
We teach students to “bring out the best,” especially in challenging situations. We hope to bring out the best in this situation by continuing to provide students with an opportunity to learn Model United Nations this summer.
The Virtual MUN Institute
This summer, the MUN Institute will transition to a virtual classroom. Students will have the opportunity to learn Model UN, practice public speaking skills, debate world issues, improve their self-confidence, and make new friends from the comfort of home.
- Live Classes: Students will step into the shoes of a world leader and enjoy 15 hours of live classes led by our MUN Mentors, all of whom are leaders at top-ranked MUN programs. The classes will be hosted on Zoom.
- Leadership Skills: Students will develop their skills in public speaking, negotiation, research, and leadership. They will receive a digital MUN Guide.
- Personalized Feedback: To help them learn and connect with other students, students will be placed in breakout groups of 10 or fewer students where MUN Mentors will lead public speaking practice and provide personalized feedback.
By the end of the weeklong program, students will walk away with new skills, new perspectives, and new friends. They will also receive a digital certificate of completion.
On April 27th, we will officially open the Virtual MUN Institute for public enrollment. The price of the Virtual MUN Institute is $299 per week ($399 for crisis programs). We offer multiple weeks of programs at different levels of experience (novice, intermediate, advanced).
Options for Families
Over the next two weeks, we will contact families who are currently enrolled at our programs, and transfer their enrollment to the Virtual MUN Institute.
Families will be able to apply existing payments to the Virtual MUN Institute. Families can sign up for one week or multiple weeks, and receive a refund for the difference.
We understand if families would prefer to wait for in-person programs to return, in which case they can choose to apply existing payments towards next summer.
We also understand if families would like to request a refund, as this is a financially challenging time for families and small businesses like ours. We’re unable to offer a complete refund because of costs already incurred (venue deposits, transaction fees, labor, and more). Our current policy subjects refunds to a $250 cancellation fee. However, we want to work with families to provide flexibility. As we contact families over the coming weeks, we will provide additional options for refunds.
We will contact all families who are enrolled at the MUN Institute over the next two weeks. For any questions, please email support@bestdelegate.com.
