Every year, world leaders gather at the heart of New York City—Midtown Manhattan. They discuss the world’s most pressing issues such as climate change, housing, human rights and keeping international peace and stability. Following in their footsteps, for the past three years, Baruchians have been able to meet students from all over the world to simulate these critical discussions and draft solutions for them through the yearly Model UN trips.
Feb. 27 marked the first day of the three day Global Citizens Model United Nations (GCMUN) trip where Baruchians would make their way to the Sheraton New York Times Square Hotel. There, they would meet students from all around the world, whether it be as far as Italy and Egypt or somewhere as close as Long Island, New York, and begin the daunting task of creating solutions for global issues that have puzzled our world for years.
When junior Yuriely Taveras first joined the club, she believed Model UN to be boring. However, her perspective quickly changed when she went to the GCMUN conference.
“Actually going and getting the experience of going to the UN was like one of the best experiences of my life,” she said. “I really enjoyed it.”
Taveras encourages students who are interested in joining Model UN to have fun.
Taveras said, “I know it’s cliché to say have fun, but genuinely have fun. Be ready to meet new people because that’s the most exciting part about it.”
One of the highlights of the trip for Taveras was not only getting to know new students all around the world, but also getting closer to the other Baruchians who attended this trip.
Taveras said, “I was able to realize that we’re all just one big community in Baruch, and honestly, I had a lot of fun getting to know everyone on a more personal level.”
However, for others, the trip wasn’t as smooth sailing. Senior and club president Ariel Amona attended his second GCMUN trip this year, and while his overall experience was enjoyable, he was faced with chairs—the people running it—who were “a bit abusive with their power,” said Amona. “They took bathroom passes from people who were in a room of 350 kids as well as they threatened to turn a diplomatic conference into a dictatorship.”
Amona didn’t let this deter him. Instead, Amona looked for a solution. He spoke out against the chairs, earning applause from the room of delegates.
“I did some research and I found that you can do a vote of no confidence which basically means that you don’t feel confident in the ability of someone, so you want to remove them from power,” he said. “I introduced that to the floor and I got two standing ovations from everybody and they started chanting they want to get them [the chairperson] removed, so I think I spoke for a bunch of people on their behalf.”
Despite the initial challenge Amona and his committee faced, he was left feeling accomplished.
“I don’t really like public speaking, but it felt really refreshing afterwards to hear a lot of people agree with me and being able to represent a lot of people,” Amona said.
Though Amona is not a fan of public speaking, he highlights the importance of communicating when it comes to conferences for Model UN. “You need to be able to cooperate and give something…as well as you need to be a people person,” he said.
While Baruchians had to take the long commute of about 25 minutes via the 6 train to the United Nations Headquarters, students like Lavinia Cimitan took the plane for nine hours from Venice, Italy.
In Cimitan’s time here, she fell in love with the city, having the chance to travel to New York be one of the leading decisions to go on this trip.
“New York is my favorite city for now, I’ve left a piece of my heart there and I really hope to get back soon,” said Cimitan.
In addition to coming to New York, Cimitan joined her school’s Model UN for its academic benefits. Cimitan said, “I love this kind of project because they teach lots of important skills like problem solving and public speaking.”
Like many Baruchians, exchanging cultures with the other attendees was one of the most exciting parts of the trip for Cimitan. “I am very grateful for meeting everyone and to also sharing a bit of our culture,” she said.
Beyond conversation, the cultural exchange even extended to food. According to Cimitan, the food in New York restaurants seemed to taste better than a lot of restaurants in Italy. She said, “It [the food] was amazing…I’ve never ate bad stuff.”
Model UN creates a unique environment where students can work on personal and academic skills alongside getting to familiarize themselves with different cultures and perspectives, and while Cimitans statement may cause uproar between New Yorkers and Italians, it’s nothing that can’t be fixed by some diplomatic discussions.
