TECHMUN: The Model UN Endgame?

ANNANDALE, VA - As the date approaches for the 28th session of the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology's Model UN conference (otherwise known by its acronym, TechMUN), so too does the apprehensive wait as renowned delegates and skilled speakers from schools all over Virginia and beyond prepare to convene at the last conference of the MUN season. Longfellow's team of eighteen delegates wait to compete, one last time for this season, with other Virginian schools such as Rachel Carson, Cooper, Rocky Run, and Frost.

Although unfortunately cancelled last year due to COVID concerns, TECHMUN will be opened once more virtually, featuring a double-delegation battleground in its General Assembly committees: the Disarmament and International Security committee (DISEC)-- in discussing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)-- the alleviation of global wealth inequality. Also featured in its single-delegation Specialized and Crisis committees are the International Panel on Climate Change and the race to Mars.

As tension rises with delegates racing to prepare their best for the last conference of the season, the stakes are high -- to rise glorious is one thing, and as Longfellow exemplifies continuously, to find experience and memory is another. And the stress lies not only with Longfellow delegates. Delegates from Rachel Carson Middle School find anxious the wait and step to the final battlefield as well, such as Aarna Bhamidipati and Kavin Murugan. Most of all, Longfellow delegates look forward to meeting their former bloc buddies and other renowned competitors, such as Chinmayee Yerraguntla and Rohith Yelisetty from Rachel Carson, and Dhruv Chandna from Robert Frost.

"I'm screwed." Bhamidipati says. Murugan agreed soon after. "It's war," Victoria Zhang, student Chief of Staff of the Longfellow team, declared. "They're calling for war."

And to most 8th graders, TechMUN will be a final farewell from the MUN stage in middle school.

"I believe the MUN season started this year with quite the bang," LMS Under-Secretary General Megan Zhang says. "TechMUN will be my last middle school MUN experience, along with I believe many others -- so I hope to take a bow from this stage with fireworks."

Article by by Notroli J. Bidome, Honorable Guest