Regent's International School, Bangkok

MUN (Model United Nations) is a simulation of The United Nations where students from schools participate and represent themselves as delegates of a given country. The delegates participating in MUN conferences have to work together to tackle real-world issues around the world and must use their public speaking and debating skills for their best interests. ThaiMUN is arguably the biggest MUN conference that is ever held in Thailand, and ThaiMUN 2017 is ThaiMUN’s 4th conference. The magnitude of this conference is shown by how there are a total of 240 participants from 30 different schools, and some participants even come from overseas. Since this is my 4th time attending a MUN conference, I was thinking that this conference was going to be the conference where I display my improved skills and perhaps even rise to the most experienced and most proficient of delegates in a MUN conference. However, I was proven wrong because I was put into the Historical Crisis Committee, where it was a completely new experience to me. Nevertheless, this new experience was undeniably the most fun and the most weird for me. Our issue was on the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, and my “committee” was COMBLOC, a cabinet consisting of Russian and Cuban leaders. Instead of speaking for the country each delegate represents like typical MUN committees, we were supposed to work together and achieve the best outcome for our supposed nation, The Soviet Union. However, this was not easy, as we also had to take a course of action while appeasing our enemy, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) , which was another committee that was a part of the Historical Crisis Committee. The entire 3 day conference for me was a splendid mess, as we did things such as discussing battle plans for a war (made-up) between The USA and Cuba, causing enough confusion in NATO to the point of paranoia, and then ultimately end up with a nuclear fallout, thus making us responsible for the formation of “World 2.0”. Overall, ThaiMUN was a truly amazing experience, and such conferences fuel me with the desire to continue participating in more MUN conferences and perhaps even make me have a passion for pursuing a career in International Relations.

– Jung Seok, Year 12

This year, 9 of our students represented the school at the Round Square International Conference. The conference took place in Germany from the 10th to 16th of October.

Read what our students had to say about their experience at the conference.

Yasmin:
Through this conference i was able to understand why internationalism was one of the ideals of round square. From the different nationalities that i encountered, I have expanded my knowledge of the global issues surrounding us. In our Barraza groups, we were also able to share our personal experiences and opinions without disrespecting each other’s race or beliefs. We grew so close in a number of days. That was definitely the best part of the conference for me, because each one of us came from different backgrounds, and the ability to connect and share a part of my journey with them has truly been a sensational experience.

Earth:
The Round Square Conference 2016 in Hamburg, Germany has been a remarkable and enjoyable trip. Full with exciting activities along with our barazas group, in which help making us knows each other, both about their identity and their home-country culture by communicating with them during an activity or at our own free time. I’ve met many unique and interesting individuals around the world, such as from Kenya, South Africa, Singapore, Canada, British, Morocco, India… and the list goes on! Also full with various keynote speakers around the world talking about their passions and their valuable life lessons, which we could learn from and use as a guidance in guiding us to grow and become who we actually are. Truly a journey that makes us!

Understanding Diversity is vital for students to gain a wider perspective of the world. Because Regents International School has many nationalities we used this as an opportunity to allow staff and students to celebrate this. The day itself focused on some key issues such as; race, age, gender, religion, disability and nationality.
The day started in small tutor groups discussing what equality and diversity means to them. Students were then given a list of occupations and asked to draw them. Students then looked at some people who hold these occupations and were asked to compare them to their original drawings. From this activity students were able to see that our ideas of the “type of” people who take certain occupations is not always accurate and you should not limit yourself because of your preconceived idea of the “type” of person you are.
The fantastic prefects then delivered a session in the auditorium. Here they lead interactive games to question their peers knowledge and opinion on diversity and issues that have arisen in today’s world. The category game was highly effective as it allowed every student to see that even though we have some differences we sometimes can share similar opinions with Ms. Edwards being a clear winner of the students favourite teacher!!
To complete the day students took part in a discussion on where we originated from with help from an important video from LetsOpenOurWorld. This video used science to show some volunteers their actual heritage. Students thoroughly enjoyed this and some even said it should be made compulsory for everyone to do.
As diversity is all around us, it is always important to take some time, reflect and celebrate our differences. We feel as though this theme day contributed to the promotion of diversity awareness in an engaging and active way.