Aryan Arora
I wanted to try something new and something that I have never experienced before, and my main goal was to learn how to interact and communicate with new people. CAS in grades 11 and 12 gave me the opportunity to try something that was not familiar with, which in this case was the FS MUN 8.0. A MUN is a simulation of an actual United Nations conference, where students are tasked with solving a global issue through research, drafting, lobbying, and debate to pass a suitable ‘resolution’. Taking part in the MUN included me communicating and interacting with new people about the global issue which was the Afghan crisis which in the end bought us to a resolution. The overall experience was great and I had a lot of fun while debating and in the socials as well. The skills that I improved while participating in the MUN were research skills, communication skills, and active listening skills.
LO1:- During the MUN my strengths were my research skills that helped provide my ally countries with points and support them and the only weakness that I had was that my country was not at all related to the Afghan crisis hence I had fewer points to make. Now that I am aware of my strengths and weaknesses I will work upon them so that I can have a better experience and make better inputs in the debate. It is very important for us to know our strengths and weaknesses so that we can work upon our weaker areas in the future. I’d love to work upon my weakness as working upon it would help me immensely in the upcoming MUNS.
LO2:- The most challenging part of the MUN was that it was my first time and I didn’t have any idea of how it was supposed to work or what am I supposed to do at any given time, hence I got nervous every single time someone asked me anything. It was challenging because of a lack of practice and no experience at all. I overcame this challenge on the second day of the conference where I was somewhat aware of how things are supposed to work in a MUN hence I was able to make a few points. Undertaking this challenge was a great opportunity for me as it helped me overcome my fear of talking to new people and also it gave me a chance to experience something new which will also help me with my resume. For me undertaking new challenges is very important as it helps us overcome our fears which in the future will help us a lot.
LO5:- Working with others is generally easy for me as I tend to gel up with others easily, so for me working with others isn’t that big of a deal. During this activity working with others for me was easy as I was able to communicate with others and I am an open-minded listener hence I was able to work with them as a team. I didn’t have to work with anyone difficult. it is important to be able to work collaboratively as it helps us work in a team together with different people. In this particular case, teamwork was important as we had to come to a conclusion unanimously hence working as a whole was important.
LO7:- The ethical issues that were involved in this activity were that we had to come up with a resolution that was agreed upon by everyone. The ethical issues affect us directly when the crisis took place in the MUN. The issue made me feel like there was a huge problem piled up in front of us and the only way we could get out of it was if we worked together. My opinion about the issue before the activity was nothing as there was no issue but after the activity, it drastically changed as I wasn’t aware that something like this could even happen in a MUN.
My final takeaways from this CAS experience were that it wasn’t hard for me to work with new people as a team but I still need to work upon my communication skills so that I could be more confident while speaking my points. The learner profile attribute that I showcased during this activity was risk-taker as this was something I had never done before and still went for trying it and the other learner profile attribute is communicator as I had to communicate with other people. Taking part in this activity was a lot of fun and was a great way to socialize with new people and overall was a great new experience.
