When the Model United Nations team’s spring conference was canceled due to the pandemic, Dr. Rebecca Flavin designed a simulation to take the place of the conference. The members of the team formed task forces to study the many ways the pandemic affects the world and make recommendations to the United Nations General Assembly about wise courses of action. The simulation took place on a videoconference. We talked to a few of the students who participated in the simulation to learn about their experiences.

1. How did you prepare for the simulation?

Ogwu: To prepare for the simulation, My committee, the human right task force, and I brainstormed talking points that highlighted the ways that Covid-19 and the responses to it could infringe on Human rights. Afterward, I researched the talking points I had picked, referencing the United Nation’s statements about their concerns about the infringement of human rights during and reported past action committed by nations that could’ve been considered an infringement. This information was then all complied into an outline that I then used in conjunction with a visual aid on web ex to present the simulation.

Jones: The best tool I found to help me prepare for this brief was the UN Wire. It is a free United Nations news brief. Dr. Flavin would forward them to the class a few times a week, and if I felt any article pertained to the security aspect of the COVID-19 discussion I would read it. I was amazed by how many different aspects are affected by COVID-19. I believe I almost crashed my computer with the amount of tabs I had pulled up at one time.

Ma: I think some of the most surprising amounts of  information that I have learned, came more from the humanitarian point of view, in relation to human rights through all of the task forces. I learned about how developing countries are currently being aided, the different international programs set up to help countries who are more in danger of poverty, and especially learning about the rising amounts of domestic abuse, happening while people are all forced to stay home. This process is a lot more about just a healthcare aspect, but it involves how our climate has been changing during this time versus when everybody is out, it highlights a lot of different holes within multiple different governments around the world, and an overall review of the preparedness of Member States in the world. I believe it is true that much of the world is driven upon the economy, and much of the motivation for people during this time have a lot to do with money, and the distribution of those resources, and I feel like that focus often overshadows a lot of the other important aspects as well, such as those who are suffering in a place where they already lack so many resources. I think it’s important to study each area to gain a better understanding of how each task force operates during a crisis like this. Although there’s such much negative news and chaos going around in the news, I think it’s also important to focus on organizations through the United Nations because it does give us an important sense of hope, to see how many of these areas have been noticed and analyzed so people out there can help one another and learn from an experience like this to prepare for the future.

Jillson: Dr. Flavin had assigned each of us to a specific task force, and I was assigned to the World Health Organization task force. After we got our assignments our group discussed how to further break down areas of study within WHO. I decided to research into data collection from member states by WHO regarding COVID-19 cases. I did some research on WHO’s website about what they were considered a confirmed case, probable case, and a possible case. I then looked more into exactly how countries were being asked to report their statistics to WHO.

2. What was the most surprising thing you learned from the simulation?

Jones: Honestly, my topic was fascinating to me. I focused on Supply Chain Management and how it is being impacted by COVID-19. It’s not even a COVID-19 problem, but it is impacted by the behavioral changes of the consumer (panic buying). I also learned that while we don’t always see the effects of our own panic buying (besides a short toilet paper hiatus), it is actually impacting poorer Member States. I also thought that Jonathan Chew’s explanation of the spread of misinformation was fascinating. He talked about how places like Russia and Iran are accusing the United States of manufacturing the virus.

Ogwu: The most surprising thing that I learned from the simulation was how ineffective so many country’s responses were to Covid-19, despite there being multiple countries offering a good example in their response and information regarding the seriousness of the virus.

Ma: From my perspective, this was different from an in person simulation because it did take a little bit of the formality from an in person simulation, such as the typical structure and process that we go through to essentially modeled the United Nations and how they would talk and respond, out. We didn’t gather in groups to represent specific member states to come up with single resolutions, but more-so sought out to see how each Member State was handling the pandemic crisis, and also seeing the effects of different methods that are effective/not so effective, around the world. The simulation was set up more as a class project, all of us were assigned to a specific task force within the United Nations to analyze not just one member states, but analyzing the global response and also what the United Nations had set up through this pandemic. Nonetheless, it didn’t take away from any of the learning, or the experience through our simulation, I believe that every student was truly interested in their research, and the research of our peers, to truly understand at hand, how the world and the United Nations is responding during a time of panic.

Jillson: There were a few surprising things I learned, but I was especially surprised by the fact that lack of healthcare data sharing among nationals or even regionally has been an issue in past virus outbreaks. The lack of data sharing regionally in Africa has played into some of the Ebola Virus outbreaks. I was surprised to see that this is an ongoing issue that is very vital to fighting health emergencies, yet there has been no good solution put into place yet. The WHO did a great job of making resources available to member states to help them in collecting data and inputting their own data into a system that can be shared with other countries.

3. How was it similar or different from an in-person simulation?

Jones: It honestly didn’t feel that different from an in-person simulation. I would say the only difference was that we ran out of time to ask questions and we couldn’t break out and have conversations in smaller groups.

Ogwu: I felt that both were effective in the goal of my committee brainstorming, researching, and presenting a topic. However, part of the value of model UN is that you have to present in front of people, so I missed that experience. Also, I don’t think that everyone was as engaged as they would’ve been in person, and the online format really affected the cohesiveness of everyone’s presentation.

Jillson: This was similar to in-class simulations in the work I did to prepare for it, yet it was different because if it was in person there probably would have been more collaboration and more of a teamwork feel to it among the task forces.

Ma: When the simulation was first announced, it was something that was required for class members but optional for club members. This was my first semester being a part of Baylor MUN and I was a club member. Along with my busy schedule with numerous other courses, I still wanted to take part in this simulation because it was something that had been talked about every single day while the world was in crisis mode. I thought to myself, what better way to do more research into a global pandemic thank while in the middle of it? Especially analyzing how the world handles the pandemic and gaining a better understanding of what and how the United Nations Would respond, in addition to the other Member States around the world aside from the United States and major countries that had constantly been on the news. I had been following the news every single day, reading as many news articles from day today about the coronavirus, and I felt like some news stories were much over-shadowed by others. I’ve always been interested and wanted to be involved with the learning process of what it is like for different sectors of the world. I think it is really important for people to understand how other sectors of the world handle a global pandemic like this, and with an organization like the United Nations, they are there to help aid areas around the world through many different programs, history and experience, and through different areas of need. One thing I do hope prospective students take from this learning process, is that there is so much more than just what we see every day on the news. It is important to stay hopeful and do the proper research to understand how the world is handling a crisis like this, and also to be able to bring peace in their hearts and the hearts of people around them, knowing that people around the world truly are taking action to help one another in times like these. Proper research and education is extremely important. The news tends to always highlight the negatives, which although are there and true, it is important to gain an understanding of what’s being done to help extinguish and solve our current problems in the world. Being a part of Baylor MUN, with a team of very driven and passionate people who strive for a well-rounded education and knowledge about what’s going on in the world, especially in relation to the United Nations, is a blessing to be a part of. It gave me an opportunity to explore, understand, and bring to light what the full-picture and reality of the world is right now. And that’s not one that is driven by fear, but of strength and hope.

4. Is there anything else that prospective students might want to know about this learning experience?

Jones: I think what is special about this form of learning is that you get to focus on areas that interest you while also learning about new areas that you might have never considered. It pushes you to really want to understand the topic, because you become the teacher. You are the one everyone is listening to probably quoting to family and friends after class finishes.

Ogwu: This is a really interesting topic because you are getting educated on a topic that is unfolding in the present. This experience serves as a springboard for research on a personal level, and at the very least gives you some stuff to make conversation about.

Jillson: This learning experience was really unique in the fact that your preexisting personal opinions might not form the suggestions you give as a part of a task force. Many times in education you come up with an opinion or hypothesis and then you find research to support that, but with this assignment it feels more like the research comes first leading you to a conclusion that might actually be different from what your first impression of the topic was. Like many things done in the model UN, you start first with gathering facts and information and then you come up with recommendations or solutions based of of your research of a topic as a delegate.