From February 13th to the 16th, Seminole High School’s Model United Nations (MUN) team proudly represented us at NAIMUN LXII, one of the country’s most competitive high school MUN conferences. With over 3300 students and 41 committees, NAIMUN brings together people across the globe to participate in problem-solving, debate, and diplomacy.
NAIMUN stands for North American Invitational Model United Nations and is held annually at the Washington Hilton, Georgetown, Washington D.C.. Now in its 62nd year, Seminole’s MUN travel team brought home many awards, making the school proud. The participants this year were Akshitha Pinnamaraju, Soumya Bodhnapu, Vasundhara Muralidharan, Aanya Shah, RIshab Suresh, Gautam Dronamraju, Andrew Ni, and Mihir Kelkar.
They tackled a multitude of issues in committees, ranging from the World Health Organization’s tasks (WHO) to hypothetical conglomerate embezzlements.
Akshitha Pinnamaraju, an IB senior, shares her experience.
“I love that NAIMUN has people that are committed to their passion. It’s a really fun conference and I got to meet people from all across the world. For my committee, I was in the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), representing Afghanistan.”
The CSW, one of the many committees at NAIMUN, seeks to resolve the most urgent and desperate needs of underprivileged women across the globe. This year, the topic focused on the protection of women’s rights in the informal economy.
Another delegate from Seminole, Andrew Ni, an IB junior, gives his perspective.
“This was the first time I was able to go to NAIMUN, but it was a great experience and Washington D.C is a very nice city. We were able to visit a lot of places around the area, and I made a lot of good memories. As for my committee, mine was the New York City Advisory Commission: 2022. The goal was to tackle issues with housing and labor within New York City while managing the 2021 mayoral and city council election.”
In addition to CSW and the New York City Mayoral Advisory Commission, there were committees like the Disarmament and International Security Committee (DISEC), the Economic and Financial Committee (ECOFIN), the Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Committee (SOCHUM), the International Criminal Police Organization (INTERPOL), typical general assemblies, in addition to plenty of crisis and non-traditional committees.
Though NAIMUN is an incredibly competitive conference, our MUN travel team held its ground and won a variety of awards. Congrats to everybody who won!
Best Delegates Outstanding Delegates
Akshitha Pinnamaraju Soumya Bodhanapu
Rishab Suresh Gautam Dronamaraju
Verbal Commendation Book Award
Aanya Shah Andrew Ni
Outstanding Small Delegation
Seminole High School