SCIMUN brings back face-to-face conferences

As SCIMUN’s Secretary General, Janice Kim, reached the podium, she glanced over the sea of audience watching her: over 80 delegates representing 120 countries in 5 committees, 11 chairs, over 30 volunteers of administrators and press team members, and advisors from 11 different schools. The public speaking did not intimidate her, she was intent on leaving a perfect first impression on SCIMUN, QSI Shenzhen’s own conference that she has been involved with her entire high school career. The planning of her final Southern China International Model United Nations conference began with a simple WeChat group call. Anxious to start and determined to make the conference incredible, the 7 Secondary students had spent more than half a year until the opening ceremony of the conference at Fenghua theatre finally got underway.

Model United Nations, as the name suggests, is a simulation of the original United Nations. Often organised by students at high schools and universities, the aim of MUN is to get to know how the UN works, as well as becoming aware of current global issues. Skills such as public speaking, debate, critical thinking and becoming internationally open-minded are also developed through such debates. Structure and requirements vary, but in a typical MUN conference, a student would be a delegate by representing a country on a debated issue, and later would work with other delegates on writing a resolution on the topic.

SCIMUN was established in 2016 by a QSI senior and a teacher advisor under the motto: “student-led, student-initiated, student-involved” and the core values- student-led, global connection, cooperation, professionalism, sustainability, and development. The conference has become a staple event among South China international schools and has been successfully held 6 times since its inception, even braving COVID restrictions with only the 2022 edition taking place online.

To make the conference more affordable for the delegates to participate, the SCIMUN Cabinet had decided to move the conference from a luxury hotel to QSI’s Secondary Campus and the neighboring theater.

For SCIMUN 2023, the cabinet was the youngest in conference history with only 2 seniors: Secretary General Janice Kim and Chief of Staff Fasing Pei; further members were Deputy Secretary General Caroline Zu, Sam Zhang, Alexandra Gutnik, and Vic Chen, who were the Secretary, Chief of Marketing, and Chief of Finance, respectively, all juniors, and Artem Skorobogatov, a sophomore. However, the secretary general’s initial concerns regarding lack of maturity were proven inessential as the cabinet exhibited exemplary expertise and efficiency in planning and executing yet another successful SCIMUN conference.

When the conference started, the cabinet members admitted that unfortunately, there were more struggles ahead of them. Janice began: “I did anticipate that we would encounter problems […] but because the cabinet worked incredibly diligently for the past 9 months to plan out this event […], we were able to maintain a professional attitude and encourage each other to boost morale”. In quick responses, the cabinet has successfully persevered through all the hardships, once again following SCIMUN’s core values.

After 3 days, SCIMUN VIII was drawing to an end. In retrospect, those three days looked different for everyone involved. For runners—the conference’s admins—the days consisted of rushing back and forth across the halls, helping with passing notes, ensuring the right use of technology among delegates, and smoothing out the edges of the conference schedule procedures. For delegates, the conference went by participating in fruitful debates, raising and answering questions about significant issues, creating strong arguments through speeches and submitting amendments, and possibly being sleep deprived from writing resolutions. For those who managed the ongoing debates—the chairs, it mostly consisted of multitasking; switching between voicing the debate and keeping track of the delegates’ performances was also a tough job, though it was rewarded with daily milk tea due to chair privileges. Advisors were patiently waiting, while supervising the debates and delegates’ general condition. Lastly, for the cabinet members and this year’s SCIMUN advisor—Mr. Ty Duan, the three-day conference consisted of a little bit of everything: running around, contacting and updating everyone about the schedule changes, delivering food and milk tea, and consuming and digesting lots of stress and caffeine. Nevertheless, it’s safe to say that even with the presence of chaos, changes, and disruption, SCIMUN was yet another major success in 2023.

As SCIMUN’s Secretary General was approaching the podium of the Fenghua theatre for the final time, she was about to deliver a speech that wouldn’t just mark the end of SCIMUN 2023, but the end of her MUN career. She was overjoyed with all the contribution of making her last conference so memorable. She said: “as a graduating senior, I feel melancholic that my high school MUN journey is coming to a close. Yet, I am honoured and delighted that the conclusion to this journey was serving as the Secretary General of SCIMUN 2023. […] Thank you very much”.

With a grandiose conclusion, Janice Kim passed not only the microphone to her deputy, Caroline Zu, but also the proverbial torch, as Caroline will follow as Secretary General to organize an equally successful SCIMUN IX in 2024.

When talking about the main organisers for this year’s conference, Caroline reflected: “It was an absolute honour to work alongside our wonderful SG Janice and COS Fa Sing. They showed me what it is like to be a true leader and take huge responsibilities and carry them on your shoulders. Fasing and Janice were the living example of exemplary time management and organisation, which ensured that our nine months’ worth of effort did not go to waste. I have learned so much from both of them.”

Deputy Secretary General’s hit of the gavel has officially concluded the end of SCIMUN, another highly successful event organized by QSI Shenzhen talented student body. Gleaming faces of the organizing team, cabinet members and all participants spoke testament to the excitement and learning that this event had brought to all.

For more information, please visit SCIMUN’s website: www.scimun.net, and SCIMUN’s official WeChat account: SCIMUN2022. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again in the upcoming year.