BSB students won awards at SISMUN Oct 2024

Introduction

Ten BSB students participated in the Shekou International School Model United Nations conference (SISMUN) from 18^th to 20^th of October, some experiencing their first MUN conference outside of Beijing. SISMUN, held in Shenzhen, consisted of 200-250 delegates from different schools all over China, Guangzhou, Shanghai, and Beijing.

The BSB Team

• Year 8 students Alec, Bruce, Chris, Eric, Keira, Oscar
• Year 10 student Jai, and Year 12 students Jihyeon, Lily, Wendy
• Teacher Mr. James Cusack, English Curriculum Lead and Ms. Lara Massaguer Soriano, Global Languages Curriculum Lead

Student Experiences

For three days, students actively engaged in fruitful debates, crafting speeches, creating resolutions, and submitting amendments. This allowed students to develop their public speaking skills, whilst collaborating, communicating, and connecting with a multitude of international students from a range of diverse backgrounds, from South Korea and India to South Africa and Canada.

Oscar (above): “I made a lot of new friends, and one of them was named Oscar too. We collaborated to craft a great resolution. During the conference, I could also feel increased speed in writing resolutions.”

Student Achievements

Our BSB delegates were given positive feedback. The Chairs complimented them for their passion, improvement, confidence, and diplomatic skills. Three of our students received an honourable mention and two won awards!

Honourable mention - Eric (Y8), Lily (Y12), Wendy (Y12)

Keira (above 3rd from right) - Award for Most Improved Delegate of the Youth General Assembly

Jai (above 1st right)  - Award and Most Diplomatic Delegate of the Economic and Social Council.

Let’s hear from some of our students what they’ve learnt from this experience.

• Eric: “Because it was my first time attending an MUN conference, I was not expecting to win any awards or honourable mentions. Nonetheless, I am very excited and astonished that I won an honourable mention, and I am proud of myself. Now my goal for the next conference is to get an award.”
• Lily *(above right) : “Joining the Security Council provided an excellent opportunity to learn from advanced delegates. I gained a deeper understanding of conference rules and was impressed by their ability to craft well-structured speeches. Additionally, SISMUN was an inspiration for me to implement similar strategies in our upcoming BRITMUN event!”
• Wendy: “Getting an honourable mention in the World Health Assembly,  I now recognise that although intricate and high-level debate may be stressful, the experiences and takeaways are priceless.”
• Keira: “I was very pleasantly surprised by winning the Most Improved Delegate award. [My greatest improvement was] that I learnt that when you’re making your speeches, you have to be confident while speaking, to captivate your audience and get them to listen and agree with your points.”
• Jai: “Through winning the 'most diplomatic delegate' award, I learnt an extremely important thing, one of the major components of public speaking. I finally realised that making a speech doesn’t entirely regard how well prepared you are, but rather the charismatic aura of the speech. The ability to hook your audience in so they are engaged, and genuinely listening to your points is more important than anything, especially in MUN.”

We look forward to the upcoming BEIMUN Jr. and WLMUN conferences in November.

Photos and updates from Y12 students Lily and Wendy