photo credit: Natalia Favila Inacua
Every year, more than 400 future leaders meet for a weekend of public speaking, debate and most importantly, fun. This club is the Olentangy Model United Nations.
Olentangy Model United Nations (OMUN) is a club that aims to give Olentangy students the opportunity to grow their research, debate and public speaking skills by hosting a three-day mock summit of nations, according to OMUN.
“OMUN is a district-wide club that meets to hold a summit of nations each year, which functions as a mock UN,” former secretary-general and senior Janhavi Kavedia said. “This club is also primarily student-run, so student officers throughout the district organize and plan the summit each year.”
According to Kavedia, the officer body is comprised of 19 students from every middle school and high school in the district. While the officers do not get to participate in the debate, they have a larger role in making sure that the whole year runs as smoothly as possible.
“There is so much planning that goes into the summit that sometimes goes unacknowledged,” former Assistant Secretary General and senior Meghana Boda said. “From the moment the summit ends, officers almost immediately dive into planning for the next year’s summit, and it’s honestly commendable.”
This year, the officer body decided to completely revamp how the summit looked compared to previous years. Compared to the past year’s summit, there were a lot of new ideas and activities implemented into the weekend.
The summit was held Feb. 9-11 at the Columbus Athenaeum downtown. In past years, the club has held it at the school, along with other locations scattered around the Olentangy district.
“The biggest thing that went well about the summit this year was the fact that we were able to host it off-campus again, unlike last year when it was held at the school. All of the delegates (students) got to present their resolutions to the group, participate in a dance, cultural karaoke, a cultural showcase and so much more,” Kavedia said.
Overall, most of the delegates said they enjoyed the summit, with some even saying it was their favorite of all time, according to Kavedia.
With the end of this year’s summit, comes the excitement for the summit next year. After this year, there is a completely new officer body ready to start the work toward the 2025 summit.
“I hope the club will continue to expand in numbers in the future. I also want to work towards eventually making the summit overnight, even if it means that it would have to be after I graduate,” General Assembly President Caroline Mohler said. Mohler is a senior at Liberty and was chosen as the new president for the next year.
Overall, while the summit this year was a success, there were still many things that need to be improved upon. Many delegates enjoyed their time, but also found a few things that need to be fixed.
“I really enjoyed this year’s summit, and I loved the new location. I loved interacting with other countries delegates in trivia and crisis, and I loved that we got a chance to do it all in the formal setting of the Athenaeum,” an anonymous delegate said. But the delegate also mentioned problems with the food offered, as well as the hygiene of the location.
One of the biggest problems that many found with this year’s summit was the food options offered to delegates. Many people with certain food restrictions were unable to eat a lot of the meals offered.
There wasn’t a lot of good food for vegetarians. Accounting for the fact that probably half the OMUN population is vegetarian, I feel like there should’ve been more vegetarian options available for them options for them,” another anonymous delegate said. “Also, for snacks, they should order more cheese pizza next time, rather than pepperoni or just order cheese because there are many people who can’t eat pepperoni.”
With this, the new officer body is using advice from the past officers, as well as the delegates, to make sure that next years’ experience is better than before.
“It is really cool to experience so many people from so many schools collaborating at one event. I’m also excited to make this year the best summit yet,” Mohler said.
