Amina Samreen Salahuddin | Asst. Features Editor

May 15, 2014

In the current world, where there is injustice and a disregard of basic human rights prevailing abundantly, getting to know civil rights, food security and making the world a better place to live seems to be the need of the hour.

This is what the Riverside City College Model United Nations team teaches and promotes. It acts as a source to give students the power of knowledge, skills required and a channel to prove the students’ capabilities.

MUN also helps the students get familiar with international issues and understand the workings of the United Nations.

This year, the MUN team won outstanding delegation award at National Model United Nations New York conference in April and also won a Position Paper.

RCC allows its students to understand the political workings of the world and provides an opportunity to participate in the world affairs and also have opportunity to win awards.

“The students are groomed in three aspects: public speaking skills, writing skills (wherein the student needs to learn about the history of the country they represent) and research skills, before finalizing the student delegates for a conference,” said Argie Hill, the MUN head delegate. “The main idea of the program is to train and educate students and make them capable in a way that they themselves help the agencies or government fix issues.”

In order to join MUN, a student needs to enroll in Political Science 10A during the winter session and should hold a valid passport to travel to international conferences if need be.

The course teaches students the dynamics of multilateral diplomacy and enhances student’s skills in negotiation, public speaking, leadership, research, writing and teamwork.

“I had joined RCC in the year 2012 as a freshman, and came across RCCMUN since I was very much interested in politics but did not know how to channel my interest,” Hill said. “MUN gave me a good platform to get more politically aware of the world around me.”

In MUN, students are often given the opportunity to travel the world to international conferences, all paid for by RCC.

There are four conferences each semester, three regional and one either national or international depending upon the schedule. Students can actively participate in these regional conferences as well, one of which is hosted by RCC itself, and some conferences are a two-day event.

At the MUN conferences, students assume the role of diplomats, each representing different countries in different committees and programs of the United Nations. They discuss different topics ranging from terrorism and nuclear security to the environment and
human rights.

“It is good because students get a fairly good amount of exposure and experience, which they can utilize later, like me,” Hill said. “I am a strong advocator of human rights myself, and have also helped agencies at the grass root level on the issue of violence against women and learned a lot through my research skills here at RCCMUN.”

According to Hill, some of the former students of MUN obtained jobs as staffers of congressmen and have found other opportunities in politics.