As evidenced by the throngs of well-dressed highschoolers meandering across the Green, Dartmouth Model United Nations hosted its seventh annual conference this weekend, drawing 500 students from 33 high schools across the country for the largest conference in DartMUN's history.
DartMUN, which originated as a conference of 140 delegates in April 2006 and has since grown to include almost 400 participants, aims to provide high school students with an opportunity to discuss international issues, meet other students with similar interests and learn public speaking and diplomatic skills.
Delegates arrived for the three-day conference on Friday afternoon for the opening ceremonies and their first committee sessions. On Saturday, the conference ran for 12 hours, starting with committee sessions at 9 a.m.
The conference did not have a specific theme but covered a wide range of topics in its 13 committees, according to Chief of Staff Emily Tomlinson '13.
Despite the serious aspects of the conference, the DartMUN staff also planned twists, such as the kidnapping of the prime minister of India from the Pakistani War Cabinet before the vote on a United Nations-sponsored cease-fire.
Students involved in the conference said they were excited about the event, citing the conference's relatively small size and professional atmosphere as its positive features.
Less-experienced Model UN students said they appreciated DartMUN's manageable size.
"DartMUN is better because everyone can talk [in committees]," Ana Stolle, a junior at the Wheeler School in Providence, R.I., said.
Burlington High School senior Cormac Chesbrough, a Model UN veteran, has traveled to conferences as far as Berlin and Genoa, Italy, but called Dartmouth his favorite because "it has the best size, rules and chairs." Like Donovan, Chesbrough credits Model UN for influencing his academic interests.
"[Model UN] is one of the big reasons I want to study international relations and business," Chesbrough said.
Kate Covintree, the faculty advisor to Model UN at the Wheeler School, said the candidates are professional and take the conference seriously.
"[The participants] are impressive," Covintree said. "They work very hard, and they are good at getting interested and involved in the proceedings."
DartMUN is an entirely student-run organization headed by a nine-person secretariat, or executive board, and 35 additional staff. The planning process began last April for DartMUN Director General Sid Sathe '14 and DartMUN Secretary General Sean Donovan '12 and continued throughout the fall and winter with hiring and research, according to Donovan. On the days of the conference, DartMUN enlisted an extra 12 volunteers help with logistics.
"It's a lot of work for a three-day conference a lot of texting, blitzing and Skyping," Sathe said.
The all-student organization also has a philanthropic component and has raised roughly $20,000 to fund student programs at the Dickey Center through the annual conference. Each year, DartMUN also sells lollipops and t-shirts at the conference in order to raise roughly $1,000 to donate to a charity of their choice.
This year, DartMUN will donate to the microfinance organization Opportunity International, Tomlinson said.
Most of the DartMUN volunteers at the conference were involved in Model UN clubs at their high schools.
"It's rewarding for us who were involved in MUN in high school to see it from the staff standpoint," Donovan said. "It helps shape what you want to study in college."
Donovan's high school experience in Model UN influenced his choice to become a government and economics double major, he said.
Kenneth Yalowitz, the former director of the Dickey Center, began the conference with an opening speech that focused on the former Soviet Union. DartMUN staff strived to find a speaker to reflect the tone of the DartMUN conference, Sathe said.
"Of course, the speaker has to be related to international politics but also fun for the delegates to listen to," he said. "We had to listen to enough boring speakers in high school to get that."
