Changing the world from the classroom

In our country, it is normal to wear your own clothes to school, since there are no rules on uniform. So why did I
and a few members of my older classmates spend two days wandering around the school in business suits
speaking English?

In fact, during these two days, a rather special event was taking place: our MUN Conference.

MUN stands for Model United Nations, and it is a conference made for young people who want to see how the
United Nations really works. The students get a chance to represent a country, maybe one they don't know
much about, and debate with other students from different schools about real issues which the world is facing
now. The aim is to write a resolution at the end, which will help solve the problem.

The theme of our conference was 'Transcend Borders: Discover Peace', which meant that the students would
be looking at issues which divided communities and how to overcome these boundaries. 'Transcend' is just a
longer word for 'crossing' or 'overcoming'.

However, the students didn't just focus on physical boundaries between countries, but also breaking down
boundaries between different genders, different sexualities and different nationalities. Of course, this included
how to help others whose homeland is elsewhere, since all the students were very concerned about the
refugee crisis.

Not only was the conference a challenge in thinking about difficult global issues, but also because everyone
had to speak in English! On top of that, the students had to use the correct debating language too. Tricky stuff!
But of course this was brilliant practice for everyone there, and after a while, you couldn't even tell the students
weren't speaking in their first language!

I'd really recommend joining a conference if you get the chance, and sharing your ideas. It's the best way to
make new international friends and to think about how to make the world we live in a better place. We learned
that the UN certainly has a lot of work on its hands!