On December 10, 2023, Moorestown Friends School hosted the sixth annual Quaker Model United Nations Conference, also known as QMUNC. This year, QMUNC had a historical attendance with a total of around 60 delegates from seven different schools.
Maya DeAndrea ‘25, one of the two Secretary Generals (Sec-Gen) of the delegation, explained that QMUNC was started “as a senior capstone project and was designed so that there were six committees and each one represented one of the Quaker SPICES. DeAndrea continued, “This tradition sets QMUNC apart from other conferences, and we’re always so excited to incorporate our school’s values into conferences.”
Co-Secretary Generals Maya DeAndrea ’25 (left) and Haila Desai ’24 (right) pose with a gavel during the conference.
Planning for the December conference started early at the end of the previous school year. Haila Desai ’24, the delegation’s other Sec-Gen, stated, “Planning started by deciding what committees there should be and who the chairs would be so we could get started in the summer, making background guides and planning out what the committees would actually look like.”
Desai continued, speaking about the collaborative nature of QMUNC: “This year a lot of [new delegates] have been learning [how Model UN works], and a lot of our chairs have been really awesome at teaching others … and we’re even seeing interaction in between committees like people from one committee going into another and talking to them which is really exciting … this really enhances the Quaker perspective.”
This year at the conference, Sarah Clark of the Quaker United Nations Office of New York came to speak to all of the delegates at the start of the conference. DeAndrea really appreciated Clarke coming to speak and said she “did an amazing job.”
QMUNC started at 8:00 AM on Sunday, but despite the early start time, delegates still had creative ideas and enjoyed their committees.
Justin Lewis ’26 stated, “To be honest, this whole week I was dreading [QMUNC], but now that I’m here I’m having a pretty good time and things are starting to get interesting. You really have to play into it, and kinda accept it for what it is, so you can’t go into it [the conference] with a super negative mindset, so it’s been pretty fun … [My favorite thing about committee] is the fact that I have two good chairs, Charlotte Nesevich ’25 and Ava Patel ’25, and I have some of my friends in my committee, and we’re having a good and serious time today.”
For some delegates, such as Miles Wilkins ’25, QMUNC VI was their first conference: “My reason for joining was because someone in my friend’s committee dropped out and [I had to] step in for them. At first, I was really scared because I had no idea what I was doing, but now that I’ve been here it’s been a really fun experience and I’m more intrigued to see what MUN is.”
Alex Aronson ’25, a Friends Central delegate, agreed. “This is my first Model UN conference and I’m in the Covid-19 Specialized Committee playing Starbucks and I’m really enjoying it, and everyone is super nice … and it’s super fun learning how to utilize moderated and unmoderated caucuses in different ways and developing public speaking skills.”
Avani Verma ’24, the delegation’s Under Secretary General of New Delegates and Chair of the G20 Summit with the SPICE of simplicity said “In the beginning, [my] committee was a little slow because we had a few newer delegates. But as it progressed, people were starting to get more comfortable and they were having an easier time speaking … so I think the next few committee sessions are going to go very well, because a lot of people have very interesting ideas, and I’m excited to see how they configure it in a working paper.”
Clark Thomson, the adviser of MFS’ Model UN, is very proud of how the conference ran this year: “The conference is running very well, and there’s a lot of great energy and the people in their committees seem to be really enjoying it like those from other schools and those from ours.”
