by Wajeeha Malik

Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar held its third annual Andrew Model United Nations Conference this weekend.

Ninety high school delegates from around Qatar attended the two-day conference, which mimics the debating atmosphere of the actual committees in the United Nations.

The event was organized by CMU-Q students for high school students in Qatar and saw an increase in attendance from 76 students last year.

In addition to organizers from CMU-Q, students from other universities in Education City also acted as committee chairs at the conference.

“Since it’s the third year of our conference, things are more streamlined,” Secretary General for this year’s conference and President of the Andrew MUN Club at CMUQ, Shahan Ali Memon, said. The club was named after Andrew Carnegie, founder of Carnegie Mellon University. “This year we followed THIMUN Qatar’s format since it is the most practiced format locally among the high schools. Other than that, we did make some minor changes like bringing in new committees.”

The conference began on Friday afternoon and concluded on Saturday evening with an awards ceremony. The high schools present in the conference included the Cambridge School, Al Khor International School, Cambridge International School for Girls and Gulf English School.

“A quarter of our delegates are beginners so we’re trying to encourage them to speak up,” said Cleo Reyes, Co-Chair of the United Nations Security Council and a student at Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar, “MUN is not just about making friends or getting to know people, but really it’s about developing self-confidence and your public speaking skills, which is applicable to any area or sector of life.”

Other committees simulated included the United Nations Human Rights Council and Disarmament and International Security Committee.

Topics discussed in the committees included debates about abolishing the death penalty and the role of foreign bodies in supplying weapons in times of civil war.

“It really helps to build character and gets you ready for life, as you get to know how to speak to people and what to talk about,” 16-year old delegate Omar Alkersch said. “In regards to Andrew MUN, we do intend to expand this conference next year in two ways,” Memon said. “One, by accommodating university students from Education City as well as from outside EC. We also plan to expand geographically next year by inviting other schools in the Middle East to attend our conference.”