MY EXPERIENCE IN MUN AS AN AUGUSTINIAN
Written by: Camila Peña Rosell
Hi everyone! My name is Camila and I have just finished high school in Saint Augustine School of Lima, Peru. During 2015 and 2016, I was part of the MUN club and this gave me the opportunity to participate in many conferences such as PUCPMUN 2016, USMPMUN 2016 and LiMUN 2016 where I won two ‘Best Delegate’ and a ‘Honorable Mention’, respectively.
My very first conference was LiMUN 2015. LiMUN is organized by “AENU Perú” and is one of the most important conferences in Lima. I got there knowing absolutely nothing about what a MUN conference was. I barely did my opening speech and a little bit of research but I didn’t know anything about moderated and unmoderated caucuses and how they worked. Nevertheless, this experience made a great impact on me because it piqued my interest in the MUN world and pushed me to improve as a delegate.
After LiMUN 2015, I remember someone in my team commented “I think we have so much of the ‘Augustinian spirit’ on us” as something pejorative because of the sense of community and the fact that we are always seeking for the Truth. These profiles could have been taken like something negative because some MUNers are all about winning awards at no matter what cost and tend to be cheaters or ‘backstabbers’, in MUN words, and sometimes you think that’s what you have to do in order to win, obviously, without calling the attention of the Chair.
In my experience in MUN, I’ve been tempted to, sometimes, be dishonest but every time I even thought about backstabbing someone I asked myself: what would make different from others if I do the same things they do? That’s when I decided I had to change the way my own team saw the Augustinian profile and turn it onto something positive.
It wasn’t until USMPMUN 2016 where I got to win something beyond an award: something that really fulfilled my heart and I will always remember it as a reward of always sticking to your ideals. I don’t know if this is something that’s done in all MUNs around the world but in Lima it is very common to have a stand of roses, where you can -anonymously or not- send a rose to a delegate either because you like him/her or just to say thanks. Well, in that conference I got a rose from another delegate with a particular message that definitely made my day and stole a smile from my face. The message was this: 
(in English it means: “For your help in the Block. Thank you, CH.” – “Private: My shyness is my problem, thank you for accepting me in the group”)
From this I learned two things: the first one is to always follow your ideals and beliefs and to never let the world determine who you are and how you behave; and the second one is that if you go to MUNs for a transcendent purpose, you can win something more transcendent than an award and that is the affection of a very new friends.
If you want to enroll yourself in the MUN world, do it bearing in mind what St. Augustine said: “Give what you have to receive what you are missing”. Be humble and always restless to change the world.
“This is not a resolution; it is a revolution.”
Delegate of Syria, Special Conference, THIMUN 2010