Model United Nations is one of the largest and most decorated clubs. Every year, the Chantilly chapter hosts their annual conference, the Chantilly Model United Nations Conference also known as CHMUN. On Jan. 6 and 7, they hosted their twelfth iteration of the prestigious conference.

“CHMUN is a great opportunity to represent Chantilly Model United Nations, especially with the collaboration and the leadership that goes with it,” director of technology for the conference and junior Sai Gurrapu said.

CHMUN allows students to become engaged and work together toward a common goal. Also, it allows individuals to have the freedom to take the lead and step out of their comfort zones.

“The fact that it’s student run and [the whole club] is putting in so much effort into creating an experience like this is just really exciting,” Secretary-General of the club and junior Jennifer Cheung said.

In preparation for the conference, Cheung conducted meetings, delegated tasks to other officers and coordinated with the club sponsors social studies teacher Frances Coffey, social studies teacher Stacey Schweppe and social studies department chair John Downes.

As secretary-general, Cheung plays a significant role in ensuring that CHMUN runs smoothly.

Even though CHMUN was held in January, preparations for the event started as early as July of last year. The board of officers, also known as the secretariat in MUN, had been working non-stop for the big event.

“I am in charge of making sure that our staff is ready for the committee, so we had weekly meetings since early November,” co-director of crisis and senior Munis Thahir said.

The members of the secretariat had to hold themselves accountable for many tasks as they had to create and regulate the committees as well as order all of the hospitalities for this conference. There is many positions in the secretariat such as the Chargé d’affairs who handle all the school registrations to the director of publication who creates all the working papers for the conference.

In order to have a successful conference, the club required a lot of manpower and volunteers to help with preparations.

“Each department has a specific role to fulfill and we all collaborated together to make CHMUN the best conference,” Gurrapu said.

CHMUN gave student delegates the opportunity to discuss world issues such as the Syrian Civil War and the War on Drugs. It allowed individuals to express themselves in ways different from how they would in traditional classroom discussion.

“It was enjoyable to work in the crisis committee,” sophomore Prithvi Kinariwala said. “I like to see how the student delegates have to adapt with the problems that I throw at them.”

Students acted on behalf of a foreign country on a specific topic. Students represented their assigned nation, researched and analyzed topics such as immigration and terrorism. Student delegates discussed these topics and worked together in order to reach a resolution.

“I’m very proud of my students for adapting to the restricted circumstances and still pulling off a quality conference.” Downes said. “CHMUN was a tremendous success.”

Throughout the years, Model United Nations has grown into one of the most successful and largest student-led organizations here at Chantilly. After the successful conference, the club hopes to build upon that success for the future.