The delegates of Tesoro High School participated in University of California Irvine’s (UCI) 30th anniversary Model United Nations Conference alongside 15 other schools from Southern California, gaining a wide array of awards and notability. Due to the halt of the COVID-19 pandemic, this competition stood as the first in-person Model United Nations Conference that UCI hosted since 2020.
Held in April, the theme of the 30th-anniversary conference was “Reaffirming UN Leadership in Rebuilding a Fractured World." Representing Albania, Australia, Chile, Iran, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine, and Russia, the delegates of Tesoro High School performed both diligently and humanely during the conference. They learned how to further enhance their peaceful diplomacy skills as they solved more current world issues that pertain to the rehabilitation of UN Leadership given by our current global state.
What is Model United Nations (MUN)? It orchestrates a simulation of the UN General Assembly and its multilateral bodies in which students perform an ambassador role while debating topics such as: gender equality, climate action, global health, and more. Students who participate in MUN develop their research, public speaking, debating, and writing abilities to gain a broader perspective of current events.
The notability that Tesoro MUN now holds dwarfs its early self from the 2021-2022 school year. Secretary-General of Tesoro MUN, Isa Helton (senior), took matters into her own hands by establishing a student body comprised of 30 devoted delegates and participating in various MUN conferences throughout the year, including Capistrano Valley High School’s MUN and Trabuco Hills High School’s IIMUN. Helton, currently a senior, passes the baton to Uma Miskinyar, a sophomore, as she graduates high school.
Miskinyar has big plans for Tesoro Model United Nations in the following school years: “Isa is the person who gave Tesoro MUN a voice, and now I hope to expand it through other Southern Californian MUN’s and establish a reputation based on professionalism and innovative thinking,” said Miskinyar.
“Now that we have an established website and an informed student body,” added Miskinyar, “we need to build on top of this solid foundation.”
The UCI 30th Annual Anniversary Model United Nations Conference presented an enriching process for the delegates of Tesoro High School. In addition, Tesoro MUN plans and hopes to return to UCI’s MUN program, along with various other county-wide conferences, as the years progress.