VRMUN: Over 80 GHC MUN delegates take a group picture after a successful event.

By Hilda Rico Valdez

On February 3, the GHC Model United Nations (MUN) hosted the fifth annual Valley Regional Model United Nations (VRMUN) conference on campus.

The event garnered over 400 middle and high school students from all over the valley. This year’s guest speaker was Shruthi Mathur, the president of The UN Association of Los Angeles, California. Delegates engaged in 12 unique committees, each with topics from STEM education to Ukrainian refugees.

The GHC MUN students were on campus from 7:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. to ensure the conference was successful.

In MUN, students usually attend conferences hosted by colleges or other schools where they emulate United Nations delegates and debate the most pressing global issues. VRMUN, however, was hosted at GHC. VRMUN is fully run and organized by the student delegates of the GHC MUN team.

“Being the only MUN conference in the Valley, VRMUN provides a stepping stone for local MUN teams to get their start,” Deputy Secretary-General Ayush Singhal said. “It’s also a great place for seasoned delegates to hone their skills in preparation for more competitive conferences.”
Participating in VRMUN is a great opportunity for these students to experience what it’s like to plan for large events.

Preparation for the event began in May 2023, and the team worked all throughout summer vacation, the school year, and winter break to put this event on. Committee chairs were in charge of writing their own background guides for their committees, comprehensive guides on the topic of the committees, which outline what delegates are expected to debate.

They can lead their committees through debates or work behind the scenes in the conference’s secretariat.

The students are in charge of finances, food, award ceremonies, gathering materials, and creating research guides based on their chosen committee topics.

“My team and I, which includes Roman Flores and Alana Cable, worked on developing things like school allocations,” Chief of Conference Management, Stephanie Dinh said. “Every time a new school applied, we distributed them through our 12 committees to try and balance out each school’s individual power.”

VRMUN is helpful for students in MUN because it allows them to learn about real-world issues and interpersonal skills.

Students develop more of their presentational skills, gain more confidence in themselves, and grow as delegates.

“I’ve gained the confidence and skills to captivate a room to listen to my solutions and ideas,” Crisis Director, Ryan Co said. “Furthermore, being in MUN has helped me understand global politics and pressing issues like climate change, deforestation, cybersecurity, and women’s rights. They’ve broadened my lenses and made me more aware of problems that we can work together to solve.”

VRMUN is not the end of GHC MUN’s hard work this semester. In March, they will be attending SCMUN at USC, BMUN at UC Berkeley, and NHSMUN in New York City. They begin prepping for VRMUN 2024 this May.