<p>I've been doing Model UN for three years (including middle school), but it's starting to bug me that everything, after all of the hard work and caucuses and resolutions, is just a simulation. It doesn't affect anybody. We argue about the victims of human trafficking but we don't do anything meaningful to stop it. Some delegates at conferences claimed that they joined the club for culture. We don't learn about any culture. At the end of the day, we're all middle class Americans arguing the same topic. I knew this when I joined the club, as I just wanted to be more informed about the world, but now it's starting to bug me that I'm not doing anything about it. I'm not bad at Model UN either, I'm fairly good and if I continue practicing and becoming better, I would probably regularly win Best Delegate.</p>
<p>Now I joined Multicultural Student Union last year. My school is culturally homogeneous and I come from a very diverse place. I have a lot of ideas to combat the cesspool of regularity at my school, like an International Food Night, or a cultural exchange where students go to other student's houses for holidays. Although I'm not fighting human trafficking, I do think that I'm changing my school at least in a little way.</p>
<p>I'm interested in going to Georgetown SFS as a Culture and Politics major, and I'm worried how the adcom would view my quitting MUN for MSU, as MUN is my only strictly "political" club. Would it make sense? I'm not "quitting" my interest in politics or debates, I read the Economist regularly and I read my dad's old college political theory books. I even regularly email this professor at a reputable liberal arts college. I'm a sophomore by the way. </p>
<p>I guess, in a sense, I'm now more interested in indirectly impacting my community instead of joining the stereotypically political clubs like JSA or MUN that don't actually change their world.</p>
<p>Sorry for the long post, I'm just worried about how if it's a mistake to quit MUN. Also, should I move this to the Georgetown forum?</p>
<p>I am experienced and decorated in Model UN, and feel the same way about it as you do. It is a debating society of wannabe politicians who at the end of the day don’t end up doing anything. It seems like the solution to every conference is to create a new agency, a new committee, or something like that, that will solve the problem for us.</p>
<p>If your major is Culture and Politics, it would do you well to continue in both, if possible. The Multicultural club would open you to culture, and you can use that education in MUN. The two clubs can complement each other, and cover both parts of your desired major. But if you have to choose one club, it would probably be best to stick it out with MUN, as you are on your way to achieving in the realm.</p>
<p>I would stick with Model UN. It looks very good on college applications, especially if you are good at it and are a “decorated delegate.” My biggest regret from high school is that I didn’t pursue it more aggressively. I would advise that you stick with it, because even if you aren’t accomplishing anything now, it will help you to get to a place where you CAN someday help the victims of genocide and human trafficking. The world needs more people with good ideas who are passionate about actually helping the world! If you can somehow be a member of both then that would probably be best but definitely do not quit MUN if you are good at it and have years of experience already.</p>
<p>Another thing I forgot to mention was that the Secretary General of the club started the Model UN club last year (I moved schools if you couldn’t tell) and lacks the experience to really drive the club. I have a feeling he’s only doing this for his college application, which is another reason why Multicultural Student Union is looking that much more desirable for me right now. </p>
<p>Plus at the beginning of last year, everybody just stopped going to the meetings because of the Secretary’s lack of agenda. Being the founder and having like 5 members total is really keeping my hands tied. Another member confessed to me that he’s going to leave the club if we don’t get enough members, so basically if I leave, he leaves. I’m considering being b*tchy enough to make the Secretary give me more power/listen to me or I walk away and his club basically dies. Eh, I’m just not sure putting in all this effort in a barely active club with a sucky leader is worth it.</p>
<p>Yes it would be weird to show up only to conferences. And there won’t be any conferences if your local club deteriorates. But conferences are only as good as local delegates.
Maybe you could do some recruiting for MUN and strengthen the club. Instead of complaining about lack of leadership in your club, offer help to make it better.
I’ve never heard of Multicultural Student Union though I would suspect it is interesting to you.
MUN is multi-cultural–when you are given a country to represent you should be representing them AS that country–political, socio-economic, historically. That takes a lot of research to do it well. Maybe not enough effort is being put in for you to feel you’re learning from the experience. Does your MUN have a strong mentor (I would guess not)?
One of our local HS has MUN as a regular class which counts for history credit. They travel the US for competitions and regularly win best delegation.
MUN is on many college campuses so it is one club which you could continue with on a higher level. My son is in college MUN and they travel to other universities for competition as well as host and design HS competitions. It’s been a great experience.</p>
<p>^i agree that it really is a great experience. I hope to continue it in college. Dont let go of it so easily. </p>
<p>One of the goals of an MUN is to spread awareness. Spreading awareness is believe it or not a huge step. When i walked into my first conference, i was shocked by all the things going on.</p>
<p>@gouf78 Technically you can sign up for conferences as a homeschooled/independent delegate, but… Why would anybody do that?
I apologize for coming off as complaining, I was trying to illustrate my various reasons for wanting to quit. If I wanted to stay, why would I list the benefits if they’re already apparent? I did offer multiple suggestions on helping the club, but the Secretary has rejected them… Multiple times. He’s more concerned with doing things his way and keeping his title instead of doing things that yielded better results. Multicultural Student Union is uniting students of different cultures with the community, thus Multicultural Student Union.
Culture, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, “is the customs, arts, social institutions, and achievements of a particular nation, people, or other social group”. It does not include politics, economics, or history. Essentially culture is the things you would learn from staying in the country, not reading about it.
I am definitely learning from the experience, it is fun, but we’re not actually doing anything to affect people in real life. The advisor of my club is a science teacher, I feel she would be great if she were trained, but she’s a bit clueless in this realm, although sweet. @muhammad9211 I don’t know why, but you remind me of the people from my old school in MUN. They made me want to never quit MUN, but that’s not how the people here are like.</p>
<p>MUN is unfortunately thought of as a club where you can learn about other people from outsiders. Once you’re actually in it, you realize that it’s a competition to see who knows more and who’s policy ends up passing. Competitions do get my blood running though. :)</p>