Lloyd Weber: Our Chair for the BERMUN2

After World War II, it is believed that Model United Nations (MUN) societies started to pop up in the United States in the late 1940’s. The MUN is a student-run organization where students are allocated UN member states in advance of a debate and are asked to research their member states’ stand points on specific preannounced topics regarding for instance Human Rights, Environmental or Disarmament issues. It challenges students to take a stance on an issue that they may be otherwise against and to put themselves in the shoes of another country they may have never even visited.

Of the current four years that Lloyd has been with us at Institut Montana Zugerberg, three of them have been spent as a member of our very own MUN, IMZMUN, and he discusses why he joined in the first place.

“A lot of my teachers recommended joining the MUN and after discussing it with my father and the fact that I like debating, I decided to try it out and I ended up really liking it. The fact that there are so many different perspectives you can take and really debate in any way you like is one of my favorite things about the MUN. Students should participate in the MUN because you gain skills in public-speaking and debate - all skills that are really useful and help you for class and your profession, but overall, it’s just a really fun activity.”

The selection process to become a chair of a MUN conference is quite selective and included Lloyd having to write a letter of motivation and going through a few rounds before being ultimately selected as one of the chairs for BERMUN2. As he remembers it, “It was an interesting experience and I reckon it will come in handy to have such an experience for future job interviews.”

The Institut Montana Zugerberg Model United Nations (IMZMUN) was founded back in 2009 in order to combine the educational value of academia and the recreational aspect of an afternoon activity. Every year, IMZMUN students attend MUN conferences around the world, most recently one in Geneva in January and later this year in Berlin.

In November 2017, IMZMUN launched its own MUN conference where more than 100 students from 39 countries joined to debate on “Developing Opportunities for Women.” Last November, the topic was “Defining Human Dignity – Immigration in a Globalised World.” This year, IMZMUN will be hosting its third annual debate on the topic of “global climate change” in October 2019.

When asked if other students should join the IMZMUN, Lloyd said, “Absolutely! If you want to do the IMZMUN, just join. It’s a fun experience, you gain new skills that are valuable for the rest of your life and did I mention it was fun?”