Cyberattacks, Space Supremacy, Corporate Collapse, Women’s Rights, and U.S. Politics — these are just a few of the many topics tackled by the Bishop’s Model United Nations (MUN) team in New York City in January. The team’s biannual trip lasted from Wednesday, January 15 to Sunday, January 19th. The trip’s focal point was the prestigious and internationally open Columbia Model United Nations Conference and Exposition (CMUNCE).
With eight two-hour long sessions, CMUNCE far exceeds the traditional length of MUN conferences. Having a diverse range of committee topics and a highly competitive environment pushed the team to refine their diplomatic skills and strategic thinking. Selene Wang (‘25), an MUN secretariat member, pointed out the strengths of a conference like CMUNCE, when she said that “the unique thing about having a travel conference, or at least a conference of this scale, is that we’re able to meet a lot of new people from different places, even different countries, and then engaged in debate on a lot of things.”
Despite the intense competition, the Bishop’s MUN team was able to bring back a plethora of awards. The delegation raked in two “Best Delegate” awards, two “Outstanding Delegate” awards, one “Honorable Mention,” two “Verbal Commendations,” and one “Essay Contest Honorable Mention.”
Beyond the conference, the trip gave students the chance to explore New York City; they visited iconic landmarks such as Times Square and the United Nations Headquarters.
But to start their journey through the Big Apple, the team was to first arrive at San Diego Airport by 5:20 a.m. on January 15th for a 7:00 a.m. flight, landing in New York at 3:00 p.m. David Lai (‘25) noted that, upon arrival, the tired students “went straight” to the hotel, taking the subways and then trekking through New York City for 20 minutes.
History Teacher and MUN Co-advisor, Mr. Matthew Valji, revealed that two trips (four years) ago, the advisors chose to arrive the day of the opening ceremony. This led to everything becoming “a bit hectic,” according to Mr. Valji, because when trying to arrive on-time to the conference, the unpredictable train times were not on their side.
Another amendment to the trip was the lack of down time. To rectify this, Mr.Valji and History Teacher and MUN Co-advisor, Ms. Abby Perelman, set aside blocks for students to reset and relax. As such, the team got roughly an hour to unwind before going out for dinner and later exploring Times Square on the first day.
The second day featured what David considers “one of the highlights of the trip” — visiting the United Nations building in New York. Because the UN headquarters is considered international soil, IDs and TSA-like security checkpoints are required for any form of entry, regardless of whether or not you purchased a tour. People are exempt from ID if they are 15 years old or under; but unfortunately, many Bishop’s students didn’t have an ID on them and were above 15 years old. Luckily, Ms. Perelman and Mr. Valji’s quick thinking allowed for the team to enter using post-its with their information as a substitute for IDs.
The tour itself took the team through multiple different UN chambers. Within each chamber, the tour guide would explain what the exact function of that UN branch is, and how it came to be. The pinnacle of the tour was when the team was allowed to walk through and briefly observe an in-progress UN meeting. Before entering the meeting, the tour guide warned the team to duck when passing through a projector to avoid disrupting the meeting. When they entered, a Spanish delegate was discussing the World Bank.
Despite the tour guide’s warning, David recalls that he “kind of forgot” to duck the projector” because as an aspiring diplomat, he was “so shell shocked” to be observing an actual UN meeting. Luckily for David, Emmie Kao (‘25) tapped him on the shoulder and reminded him to duck down in time. David emphatically stated that “Overall, though, I thought it was really great.”
Walking between chambers, the tour guide explained to the team the background of various art works and the UN’s 17 sustainable goals. These are goals oriented towards the creation of a more stable world by 2030, the tour guide explained. However, the guide revealed to the team that all the goals were far from on-track to be completed in time. On that note, the team went to get lunch before attending the opening ceremony.
The opening ceremony was addressed to the hundreds of attending delegates and contained speeches from both the Secretary General of Columbia MUN and the other organizing members. It concluded with a heartfelt wish from the Secretary General to enjoy Columbia MUN, and the customary motion to open debate.
Then, for the next few days, students were tasked with up to nine hours of committee each day. As conferences got more rigorous, managing homework, sleep, and personal time became a concern. Nelson Qin (‘27) lamented, “When we came back on Sunday, we were behind on a lot of assignments and schoolwork.”
Two members of the delegation, Selene Wang (‘25) and Sofia Hayden (‘25) were even involved in a “midnight crisis,” an event almost exclusive to CMUNCE. They were taken by CMUNCE ushers to a separate part of the hotel, alongside other members of their committee, and were instructed to have a committee session during the midnight hours.
Selene thought that the concept of the midnight crisis was great, because it acted as “a more moving part of a committee” and provided “a great way to bond with other delegates more.” However she acknowledged that “it’s midnight, people are sleep deprived after a long day of the conference” so ultimately the “midnight crisis didn’t add too much to the conference experience, it was just really chaotic.”
Despite the challenges, though, Selene said that the “collaborative students and obviously absolutely phenomenal chaperones who made sure that we [the MUN team] were safe, and also that we enjoyed the trip just in general.” Nelson and David agree with Selene, with David stating that that CMUNCE “was really fun, and being able to spend time with our team members was great.” They both expressed that they would “definitely go again” if they could, a sentiment likely shared by everyone who went on the trip.
