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Model UN at UCLA




BruinMUN 
Nayiri Artounians
December 12, 2017




Shouts of “Moderated Caucus” and “Motion To…” are what is heard in the air in MUN’s ambience of fun and intense competition. Hundreds of delegates, tons of walking, hours of intense political debate and presenting solutions to today’s pressing international problems: these are just some of the many actions that take place at a typical Model UN conference. The Pilibos Model UN team had the chance to experience the hustle and bustle of MUN life themselves at BruinMUN on November 11 and 12. BruinMUN is UCLA’s Model UN conference for high schoolers and is also one of the bigger conferences in the country. Before the conference, delegates had been assigned various committees, such as the GA Plenary (General Assembly), SOCHUM (Social and Cultural Assembly), and UNDP (UN Development Program), which are modeled after the actual UN. They were then assigned topics within their committee, which they had to do extensive research on in order to formulate their country’s policy and solution to the presented issues. Pilibos delegates had the honor of representing Armenia, the Russian Federation, Italy and Chile during the conference. Our delegates’ hard work and dedication paid off as Pilibos won several awards- the most we have won in a single competition! Harout Darzian won an Honorable Mention, while Nayiri Artounians and Veronica Mkhsi-Gevorkian combined their forces as a team to nab another Honorable Mention. However, the highlight was Aelita Arshakyan’s and Rosie Oganesian’s Outstanding Delegate win; this win was made possible by the duo’s quick minds and their attempt at forming (completely seriously) a Soviet Union 2.0. Told by their teammates, including myself, that it would fail, the plan did a complete 180 when it garnered the support of around 15-20 countries. Although a new Soviet Union is likely not in the near future, it is proof that anything can happen at Model UN.

You Know You’re In Model UN WHEN…
  1. You always voted for the unmoderated caucus.
  2. Your name was the name of your country; no one knows anybody by their real name.
  3. Everything started with “Point of…”
  4. You are very familiar with the phrase “Decorum, delegates!”
  5. You constantly passed notes to other countries.
  6. You put a bunch of NGOs as a last resort for your solution.
  7. You know all the MUN puns and pick up lines.

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