Phillips Academy Model United Nations (PAMUN) won the Outstanding Large Delegation award at the Boston Invitational Model United Nations Conference (BosMUN), a highly competitive MUN competition hosted by Boston University. The conference took place from February 6 to February 8.
Led by the club’s Co-Presidents, Alexandra Barr ’15 and Nolan Crawford ’15, 23 students attended the conference, and six students took home Best Delegate. Claudia Meng ’18, Marcello Rossi ’16, Sadie Holmes ’16, Shoshi Wintman ’17, Barr and Crawford all received Best Delegate in their respective committees.
Additionally, John Koobatian ’17, William Humphrey ’16, Abdu Donka ’18 and Zizo Bahnasy ’17 received honorable mentions, and Arzu Singh ’16, Peter Rossano ’17, Tejasv Arya ’15 and Akhil Rajan ’17 were named Outstanding Delegates. Kristy Lam ’17, Grace Rademacher ’18, Cam Mesinger ’16, Sara Kowdley ’16, Noah Wintman ’16 and David Zhao ’17 were given verbal commendations.
Crawford began participating in MUN his Junior year at Andover; this is his fourth year attending BosMUN. “You have a whole different feeling about how [BosMUN] goes [as Co-President]: you want everyone to do well, you want everyone to have a good time; you’re not just focusing on your own achievement or your own enjoyment,” he said.
“Since we did so well and were able to add another trophy to the Andover trophy case that’s really storied and full of history, it was a really great way to cap off my career in Andover Model UN,” Crawford continued.
Students were chosen to participate in BosMUN based on previous performance and interest in the club, even though they all had varying levels of experience with MUN.
Shoshi Wintman, who won Best Delegate in her committee, was new to Andover this year and decided to try MUN for the first time. She came to campus wanting to participate in a debate club, and her love of current events led her to MUN, she said.
She said, “I don’t think I talked the most in my committee, but I think, combined with the amount I talked, and…gathering a lot of support in my committee [helped me win Best Delegate].”
Shoshi Wintman was a delegate from the Democratic Republic of Congo in a World Bank simulation, where she focused on two different topics. The first was deciding how to help Brazil improve its economy, and the second was whether the World Bank should continue to give loans to countries that still have discriminatory laws in place.
She said, “We were specifically focusing on countries in Africa that have anti-LGBT laws, kind of like in Uganda, [and] whether we should continue, as the World Bank, to give them loans, as they are discriminating against some people.”
Holmes began her MUN career as a freshman at Choate Rosemary Hall. “I actually don’t know why I first joined [MUN], but I remember two of the coolest seniors were doing it at Choate, and I really looked up to them and they really inspired me,” she said.
Holmes went to several conferences her freshman year and “didn’t do all that well,” she said, but continued with MUN when she came to Andover because she liked it so much.
Holmes was placed into a simulation of the Yalta conference, which originally only involved the United States, the United Kingdom and the USSR, but, in this simulation, had 25 countries, including Brazil, Holmes’s assigned country.
Her committee focused on WWII and discussed war operations, the punishment Germany would receive, how to divide Germany and Poland and the reconstruction of the German government.
The one resolution that her committee passed was to establish the United Nations.
Holmes said, “I definitely was leading conversation. If I would bring a topic up other people would respond to it. That’s sort of a big thing about MUN is directing conversation and getting your ideas on the table.”
