After a two-year hiatus due to COVID-related complications, the 12th annual session of Concordia International School Shanghai Model United Nations (CISSMUN) welcomed 22 schools from the greater Shanghai area on campus this past weekend. The goal of CISSMUN is to provide a United Nations simulation in which students of diverse backgrounds can hone their research, public speaking, and negotiation skills while cultivating the virtues of active global citizenship and principle-centered leadership.
From its inception in 2010, the conference has grown from a few dozen students (all drawn from the host school) to a gathering of more than a thousand students from around the world. During the conference itself, students role-play as delegates of assigned member states in the various committees of the United Nations and work together in a formal setting to posit solutions to some of the economic, social, and political problems confronting the international community.
For those of us who stumbled through our high school years in a befuddled haze during the height of the COVID pandemic, our future often seems like a nebulous concept. As our lives have been uprooted, so have our understandings of global stability and invariance. For us, the future has become untethered from certainty. Now, with COVID now fading into the foggy mist of collective trauma, our first instinct may be to scramble for a return to normalcy, but CISSMUN XII proposes a different approach. In this era of an undetermined future, it is time for us to create a new normal. Our theme of “Reclaiming the Future” is not a mere nod to moving past the era of COVID. Now that we’ve emerged from the other side of a worldwide crisis, we must turn our attention back to the issues we have neglected during all this time. Wars are still being fought, ecosystems weaken with every passing day, and poverty remains at the forefront of human suffering. As we move forward in this critical era of change, we must look forward, rather than backward, to shape the future we will inherit.
Concordia’s MUN director, Mr. Paulson, shared a stirring sentiment in his opening ceremony speech. Martin Luther King Jr. famously said, “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Mr. Paulson disagrees. He maintains that the arc of the moral universe has no inevitable bend, and it is only our actions that can determine its course. In other words, if the arc of the moral universe is to bend towards justice, freedom, and equality, then it will do so because of our actions and our actions alone.
At this year’s CISSMUN conference, I can’t help but feel a renewed sense of optimism in the actions that we will take to define our own future. It’s no secret that the apathy and inaction our leaders display greatly hinder the progression of our society, so I’m grateful to see that the next generation of leaders will include the passionate, empathetic, and talented delegates that were present at CISSMUN this weekend. The reclamation of our future is no simple feat, but it is a goal that we must work towards nonetheless. As the 12th iteration of CISSMUN comes to a close, we should feel more empowered than ever to tackle the issues of our world with a sense of urgency and commitment. The future is ours to reclaim, given that we have the courage to do so.