When Katy Babineau ‘20 decides to do something, she goes all in. So when she decided that Model UN sounded like something she would enjoy, she didn’t worry about finding a team to join; she jumped in as an individual attendee. The fact that this particular Model UN took place at Seoul National University in Korea didn’t deter her; if anything, it simply made it an even more enticing challenge.
The experience was everything she had hoped. “I got put into the best [committee] for me, the World Health Organization,” said Katy. “I got to talk about these topics that I genuinely do care about. Our topics were clean water access and air pollution.” Assigned as the Afghanistan representative, Kaye had to research the issue from that country’s point of view and write position papers for both topics. It was a challenge she relished, and took to heart. Like the other attendees, she found herself saying, “In my country…” and she was speaking about Afghanistan, not the U.S.
For Katy, the adventure wasn’t just the Model UN itself or that it was in Korea, but it also included the fact that she was traveling abroad on her own for the first time. She described the experience as “terrifying,” but the growth that she experienced was phenomenal. “I do find that now that I’ve been overseas by myself on this huge event, I’m much less scared to do other things,” she said. “I really came back feeling ‘I can do anything now.’” Still, she recommended that for most students, starting with the Model UN that takes place in New York City might be the better avenue.
It wasn’t all work for Katy; she did get to be a tourist for a day as well, with Myeong Seon Ban, the mother of Amy Go ‘17, acting as her tour guide. The students participating in the Model UN also had a couple of hours of downtime each day where they could explore the city a little.