I was the Secretary General of FSMUN 5.0 and the core committee of five members including me had organized this project together for a time period of 3 months. Being a new student to this school, I didn’t think I would get such a huge position. I was extremely shocked and happy that I was to be the Secretary General and I was excited to work hard for the success of this event. We initiated this project from scratch- deciding the dates, venue, food, transport, trophees, and other resources, Socials, the tagline of FSMUN including so many things. We also invited other schools to participate in the event and several chairs were also invited from outside the school. We took care of their transport and accomodation as well. One of the biggest challenges was that we had to approve everything we decide to do by the teachers assigned to help us with the event. Since, this was a school event, we had to follow several rules and regulations which limited our scope of creativity and made the task difficult but despite that we did an amazing job. Apart from the management department, I had to also look at the academic aspect of the event. We decided the committees, agendas, countries and their allocations. I also prepared the presentation slides for the beginner’s session. On the day of the event, I gave a speech at the opening ceremony, took care of the flow of the debate and at the end of the event, distributed all the certificates. Overall, this was a successful event. 

Learning Outcomes achieved: 

LO-1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth.

I am a Global Politics student and I have been a hard core munner since Grade 8. I love munning, thus, munning is one of my major strengths which I was always proud of. However, I had never organized any MUN before so I was keen to explore the other side of MUN, that is the organization part. CAS gave me the opportunity to improve my leadership and management skills because I am weak on that. As mentioned in the description above, we had to manage a wide range of things from food, transport and accommodation, to committees, invitations and debate. This event gave me a first hand experience to manage all this and helped me improve my management skills. 

LO-2- Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process.

I had never been given such an important position and managing all these things were very difficult. There were many times where I didn’t live up to my expectations as a Secretary General. At some times, even my teachers were unhappy with my inputs and performance and that made me really sad inside because I took this event very seriously and I don’t know why I couldn’t deliver the results. Although it was a successful event, I think I had failed myself as a good leader, something which I was always proud of. However, this experience gave me the realization that it is alright to fail but the most important thing is to not let it ruin your confidence and learn from the mistakes you’ve made. This experience has definitely helped me to improve my leadership and management, and I am really grateful for this CAS experience. 

LO-3- Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

As this event was to be conducted on a big scale and we began from scratch, it was very important that we plan this CAS experience properly. Thus, we had made a spreadsheet for FSMUN with separate tabs for every specific area, such as opening ceremony, food, accomodation, etc. Furthermore, to keep track of whether we’re going on the right pace, we had given ourselves deadlines for every work we were assigned. This method was so helpful in planning everything and perform our tasks in an organized manner. 

LO-4- Show commitment to, and perseverance in CAS experiences

As we planned this event for 3 months, we had to show commitment and perseverance to this CAS experience as it was long term. Despite IB submissions, I had to make time for working on this event, so I used to sleep one hour later than usual so I could work on FSMUN. Furthermore, we used to come early to school twice a week to work on the project. 

LO-5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively.

We planned and executed the entire event as a core committee of five members. Despite the fact that I was the Secretary General which is the highest position, I made sure that I was not bossy and that everyone’s input and opinions were equally taken. Before coming to a final decision, all of us made sure that everyone or at least the majority of the core committee agreed to it. However, since this was a long process, and everyone had different expectations of each other, there were several fights behind the back and a lack of communication between the members was evident. What I have learned from the experience is that in a group task, communicating your expectations and making them absolutely clear is very important. An event can only be successful if the group members communicate and trust each other. 

LO-6- Engagement with issues of Global Significance 

Currently, the majority of people are completely unaware about what is happening around the world which is a bad indicator. MUN gives a platform to the participants to get out from their life to enter into a new virtual world to immerse themselves into solving problems of global significance from the perspective of world leaders and ambassadors. The reason why MUN has been so special to me is that it gives me an opportunity to be serious about the world problems and challenges me to think about the solutions and do the best to apply some of it in the practical life if possible. Our main motto of the event was to give the participants that space where they can learn about issues of global significance and be a responsible global citizen and we were successful in that. 

There are so many things I learned from the CAS experience which is definitely going to help me in my life. I understood the importance of being a responsible global citizen and helping others to be a responsible global citizen as well which will help create a world of mutual respect and harmony. Furthermore, the most important thing I learned was to accept failure and learn from mistakes rather than cursing the situation and feeling bad about it. This experience gave me a different perspective to look at failure and admit that I am not good at everything.