Secretary-General's Welcome

Hello Everyone!! 

Welcome to EmpireMUNC XIII, NYU’s Premier High School Model United Nations Conference. 

My name is Sahaana Venkat and I am overjoyed to be serving as your Secretary-General for EmpireMUNC XIII. I’ve been doing Model UN for 8 years now (gosh it’s been a while) and it is an activity that has fundamentally changed my life. I am so thankful to the skills that it has taught me, the friends that it has created, and more importantly the confidence that the activity allowed me to discover. Through Model UN I discovered a version of myself that was unapologetically me, and I hope this conference does the same for you. 

I believe the most valuable thing that Model UN can offer you is how it can fundamentally reevaluate your own perceptions of how you can change the world. Whether you’re a delegate in our general assembly committees who will learn about how international organizations can and should affect concrete change in the world, or a crisis delegate who will be amazed at the degree of significance a singular person can have on a series of events, Model UN shows you that your actions have value in a sphere that is far bigger than yourself. 

EmpireMUNC XIII is poised to be our biggest conference yet, welcoming over 600 delegates to NYC. Our topics range in genre and realism but throughout they have been completely staff pitched - ensuring that what you’ll be learning about and debating stems from the passion of the folks running your committee. 

This EmpireMUNC, if I can offer you any advice, allow yourself to discover your capacity to affect the committee and consequently the world around you. Don’t enter with a perceived notion of a rigid way of debate or a “correct” way to win but rather truly try to branch out of your comfort zone and explore what it is that makes you passionate and what makes you uniquely influential in committee. 

I hope you all have the most wonderful weekend with us and learn, grow and explore. If you have any questions at all feel free to contact us at empiremunc.nyu@gmail.com

Yours Truly, 

Sahaana Venkat

Secretary-General of EmpireMUNC XIII