Join Model United Nations

For more information about Model United Nations at JCCC please visit the following website: https://blogs.jccc.edu/mun

The United Nations is about gathering together different cultures, political systems, and peoples, and giving them the opportunity to try and make the world a better place for our future generations.

Model United Nations is an authentic simulation of the U.N. General Assembly, U.N. Security Council, or other multilateral body, which catapults students into the world of diplomacy and negotiation. In Model U.N., students step into the shoes of ambassadors of U.N. member states, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe to debate current issues on the Organization’s vast agenda. The students, better known as “delegates” in Model U.N., prepare draft resolutions, plot strategy, negotiate with supporters and adversaries, resolve conflicts, and navigate the U.N.’s rules of procedure-all in the interest of mobilizing “international cooperation” to resolve problems that affect almost every country on Earth.

Before playing out their ambassadorial roles in Model U.N., students do research on the particular global problems to be addressed. The problems are drawn from today’s headlines. Model U.N.ers learn how the international community acts on its concerns about

	peace and security
	human rights
	the environment
	food and hunger
	economic development
	globalization
	and more.

Model U.N. “delegates” also look closely at the needs, aspirations, and foreign policy of the country they will “represent” at the event. The insights they gain from their exploration of

	history
	geography
	mathematics
	culture
	economics
	and science

–contribute to the authenticity of the simulation once the actual role-playing gets under way–and ensures a lively and memorable experience. 

For over 50 years now, teachers and students have benefited from and enjoyed this interactive learning experience that not only involves young people in the study and discussion of global issues but also encourages the development of skills useful throughout their lives: 

The popularity of Model U.N.ing has contributed to the rapid growth of this activity over several decades, and today upwards of 200,000 high school and college/university students participate in a Model U.N. each year. Some are classroom exercises, others school-wide, and still others regional, national, or international. Those in the last group are called “conferences” because of their larger sizes bringing participants from all over. Many conference participants are “repeaters,” since the spirit and substance of these simulations create an appetite for this activity more commonly known as “MUN Fever”. Those with MUN Fever may continue on as adults to seek out “intergenerational” simulations. 

In fact, quite a few of today’s leaders in law, government, business, and the arts participated in Model U.N. during their academic career-from U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and World Court Justice Stephen M. Schwebel to actor Samuel L. Jackson (Pulp Fiction, A Time to Kill). And yes, Chelsea Clinton is a Model U.N. veteran as well. 

(See JCCC MUN YouTube video) 

For more information about Model United Nations at JCCC please visit 

MUN News

Johnson County Community College
Press Release

3/15/02
Story by Peggy Graham

JCCC Initiates Model U.N. Team with Chinese

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. – The Chinese model United Nations team from Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, China, will be at Johnson County Community College March 19-25 in preparation for combined participation between JCCC and NPU students in the National Model United Nations, March 25-30, in New York. JCCC is the first American college or university to initiate a model U.N. team with a foreign country.

The JCCC-NPU team will consist of 29 delegates – 23 JCCC students and six NPU students. The joint team will represent China and the International Red Cross at the NMUN. Toward this end, JCCC sponsored the establishment of a model U.N. team at NPU, the first-ever model U.N. team in China. The JCCC U.N. team faculty adviser, George Belzer, went to NPU during the winter break to conduct two weeks of model U.N. training for the Chinese student delegates. For the last two months Chinese and JCCC teammates have prepared for NMUN using the Internet.

NPU students received a scholarship from NMUN to defray the $300 registration fee for New York and funding from their university. A rigorous process was used to select the six NPU team members from a field of 100 applicants. These six students will return to NPU and train a larger team in future years.