First-year political science student Anastasiia Stelmakh’s past experiences with European Union youth councils and with activism and community projects at home in Ukraine encouraged her to organize a Model UN club (MUN) on campus.
 
It had been several years since Mount Allison had MUN, which sees post-secondary students from around the world come together for diplomacy and international relations simulations. Stelmakh moved quickly, forming an executive team of six students — five first-year students and one second-year student, representing a diversity of academic disciplines — and held a very well-attended welcome and information session in November.
 
“When you consider everything happening in the world, I am not surprised that there would be this burst of interest within our Mount Allison community,” says first-year physics student and MUN executive team member Raphael Gatti. “MUN really attracts people looking to be global citizens.”
 
Recently, 20 Mount Allison students were delegates to McMUN — organized each year by McGill University it is Canada’s largest Model UN conference and attracts more than 1,000 delegates from universities around the world.

Delegates represent countries at UN General Assembly sessions and committees. They also assume roles as countries and individuals in specialized agencies and crisis committees, including simulations that tackle both historic and modern cases. Two Mount Allison students, including Gatti, were delegates to an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) committee. The ICAO is a specialized UN agency with its headquarters in Montreal and students were able to debate in its assembly hall.
 
“The Mount Allison McMUN delegation consisted of students from all four years, various nationalities, and fields of study,” says Stelmakh. “Even though each delegate attended a different committee, our team was very collaborative. We worked together in the weeks leading up to the conference, helping each other research our countries, learn things like UN procedures and how to write position papers, practice our public speaking, and discuss how to collaborate on resolutions. At the event itself, we held evening debrief meetings every night. Most of us had never participated in MUN before and here we were alongside students from places like Harvard that had attended a dozen conferences so far this year. I’m proud of all the work our team did in a short period of time since forming the club.”

Funding from the Frank McKenna School of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics supported the participation of delegates and the group is incredibly thankful for this financial support.
 
The revived MUN at Mount Allison is only getting started. In March, delegates will attend a Model UN conference at Dalhousie University, the club has been invited to attend international conferences, and the group has ambitions to host a future conference on campus.
 
Follow Mount Allison MUN on Instagram (@mun.mta) or by email (mtamun@mta.ca).