UNISMUN 2019: Development and Technology

United Nations International School Model United Nations (UNISMUN) is a 3 day, annual conference hosted by UNIS Hanoi. With 20 different international schools from all over South-East Asia participating, there were over 300 international students at the event, including 20 students representing BIS HCMC.

This year’s topic was ‘Development and Technology’; a range of issues were tackled such as: The question of private cyber encryption and security for commercial use; The issue of idle capacity in the workforce stemming from the under-representation of minority groups (gender, race, ethnicity); The influence of technology and social media on adolescents’ education and social life.

All students debated passionately, showing a high level of research and dedication in conveying their country’s stance on the topics. These are issues that our students’ will no doubt face in the future, and UNISMUN gave them the chance to develop solutions and gain understanding that will help them to make sense of the ever-changing world around them.

Here’s what some of our students had to say about the conference:

"UNISMUN 2019 was my first experience as chair, where I served as the Deputy Chair of General Assembly 3. Needless to say, I was very nervous and had very little knowledge as to what the role of student officer would entail. As an active delegate at past MUN conferences, I am well aware of the difficulties new delegates face at their first conference. Therefore, when given the opportunity to chair at a conference, I made sure that I encouraged and supported any and all delegates that needed help. I was pleasantly surprised to see the transformation within all 55 of my delegates in General Assembly 3. After sending countless notes encouraging them to speak, every delegate in my committee had spoken at least once by the end of the three days. I was also very happy, that even during plenary, to see our once inexperienced BIS delegates stand up and make POIs in front of the 360 other delegates present at the conference. I was truly inspired by the innate changes this caucus had brought out in the quietest of delegates." - Vy Nguyen, Year 12

“I had a really good experience in UNISMUN 2019 as everyone was very welcoming and friendly. It helped develop me as a MUN delegate as I realised there’s nothing to be afraid of when you stand up to make a speech in front of the house no matter how short or long it is because you're not the only one feeling afraid. In fact, when you receive POIs on your speech, you feel a fire start building in you to defend your points and a competitive side of you reveals itself. My favourite issues to debate were things related to the environment such as environmentally sustainable materials in the food industry or the preservation of marine environment and ways to stop it from deteriorating further.” - Lolo Pham, Year 9

“I feel like it was a great starting experience for people who haven't been to any conferences before. Contrastingly, since we normally get some time to research and ready our POIs of our resos in school, I did feel like it forced me to critically think when we'd finish the resolutions in such limited time and had to quickly think on our feet about what to ask. Issues such as Nuclear weapons and forced marriages were some of the most interesting for me to think of and debate on.” - Carey Chiou, Year 11

Ms Sian Davies, English Teacher