CUSMUN VI, hosted by Colegio Cumbres, was held last week at San Fernando Plaza, where approximately 30 Columbus School students participated along with representatives of approximately 10 other Medellin Schools.  

At Model United Nations, students assume the roles of delegates to debate about issues faced by actual United Nations committees. MUN has always been popular at the school, but this time students were more eager to participate than ever.

“I have attended a couple of MUN around the city, and I haven’t seen anything beat CUSMUN 2018 thanks to its quality. Besides, it was the year that I saw most delegates from the school involved,” Eliana Lopez, TCS delegate, said.

TCS hosted COSMUN two weeks prior to this event so our delegates were well prepared and did not hesitate to enroll in CUSMUN once the option was given.

“I was so excited to hear we could attend other models besides the school’s; I immediately signed up for CUSMUN when I heard I could be a delegate once more,” Valeria Sierra, TCS delegate, said.

“What I normally like the least of attending any model is doing the portfolio, because we usually have at the most two weeks to do it. Only because I wanted to live COSMUN all over again, I did portafolio over spring break,” Maria Aristizabal, participating delegate, said.

With over 200 delegates representing dozens of countries, CUSMUN was different from regular models which offer standard UN commissions such as SOCHUM, ECOSOC, SECURITY COUNCIL, DISEC and others. It was a small, local model, which had more obscure UN committees  such as GAU, G-20, Dialogos de Venezuela, among others.

“CUSMUN was innovative; comiitees were different and unique. There were some I hadn’t even seen before at any model. This made the wonder of it, we were all exploring different aspects of being a delegate,” Lopez, said.

Prizes were awarded at the closing ceremony for delegates who stood out during debates in their commissions. The Columbus School crew sat together and waited to stand up and clap when one of them were called up front. This time around, delegates from the Columbus School won at least one prize for each committee.

“We were standing up most of the time during the closing ceremony, clapping for the people of our school who were winning prizes. I think we left a pretty good image of our school,” Aristizabal, said.

TCS faculty advisors Pito Ledsema and Felipe Naranjo, the sponsors visited each committee and were impressed by the performance of each delegate. 

“During the entire model they were very active, well prepared, and very enthusiastic. The results clearly showed their preparation,” Felipe Naranjo, TCS Sponsor, said.

Model United Nations are a space for students to grow as leaders, develop critical thinking and analyze the world from a different perspective. They are constantly challenged by other delegates to find solutions and defend their positions, always giving their best.  

“MUN is another way to relate with knowledge,  it is more shaped to the youth mentality. I’m going to start a debate system in my class, were students who wish to speak must use particular actions just like in MUN,” Naranjo, said.