UNISMUN IX

For fifteen British International School, HCMC, MUN students Wednesday the 1st of March was an ‘eventful’ day.

Our small group of diligent and passionate MUNer’s had the pleasure of travelling to Hanoi to take part in the 9th Annual UNISMUN conference. We had an eventful start with a fleetingly forgotten suit and a momentarily misplaced boarding pass. Despite these amusing events, overall the trip was a resounding success - with 4 BIS HCMC students winning “best delegate” awards in the nine different councils of the conference, and debate performances to make our two brilliant advisors very proud.

For most of us day one started with a half-day of lobbying; with only a couple of special committees launching into impromptu debating straight away. But as with all MUN conferences, UNISMUN IX began with an engaging and riveting opening ceremony. We were fortunate enough to witness an address from keynote speaker Ms. Yoshimi Nishino from UNICEF to talk about ongoing world issues. This was then followed by the wonderful performance from the United Nation International School’s orchestra and choir.

Following a restless day of speeches, resolution writing and debate, Mr. Gamwell and Ms. Tang-Hales treated our delegates, experts and diligent student officer to an exquisite meal together. The following 2 days were filled with intense debate - BIS HCMC students delivered high flying speeches and challenging POIs, while writing amendments filled with ideas to help improve our world. It can be concluded that UNISMUN prides itself in delivering an opportunity for students to come together in a challenging environment and work on serious problems faced by real life politicians. The output was the creation of a group of students who were brighter than when they entered and better global citizens.

We all look forward to attending next year’s conference.

Jun Won Hwang (YR12) and Ashley Krairojananan (YR11)