At 12 a.m., Nathan Lee ’27 heard a knock at his door. Four days into the annual National High School Model United Nations (NHSMUN) conference, the team captain was ready to sleep. He’d already been through multiple busy days jam-packed with resolutions and caucuses, alongside New York sightseeing and late-night card games with the 12-person team. 

But the knock beckoned him forward: a conference staffer told him there was a developing crisis, and as part of the delegation of the United States, his presence was requested in a midnight meeting of the UN Security Council.. 

Lee raced to the elevators, met with his partner Alexis Choi ’27, and made it to the conference room. The midnight crisis—a special MUN event simulating global emergencies—had officially begun. 

The NHSMUN conference is the largest event that Nueva’s MUN team attends each year. With fellow delegates arriving from roughly 300 schools, Lee was delighted to meet students from Oman, France, and Ecuador, and to hear Italian, Spanish, and German in the elevators. 

“It’s really enjoyable to see people have such unique perspectives in talking about global issues, as typically the Bay Area is a bubble and you aren’t able to see that [as much],” Lee said. 

This year, the conference also gave students a chance to ask former Vice President Kamala Harris questions during the opening ceremony. From there, students progressed through several mock committee sessions, representing a country’s delegate serving on the World Trade Organization, the United Nations Children’s Fund, the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and more. 

Elin Randolph ’28, who represented the Minister of Law in the Bangladeshi Interim Government, is a huge “improv speaker,” meaning that she devises her speeches on the spot.

“[In committee,] all of a sudden you have one minute in front of 100 people to talk about the economic difficulties in your country,” Randolph said. 

Since MUN committees can run late into the night and the speeches after speeches can get boring, Randolph likes to use a common tactic called a hook: a funny or unexpected intro that captures the attention of the delegates while still maintaining a sense of professionalism. Some of her favorite hooks she’s heard or devised include emphasizing fruits as symbols of national importance, Heated Rivalry jokes, and mimed stabbings with plastic knives. 

“MUN has beaten the fear of public speaking out of me with a stick,” Randolph said. “And that just made me so much more confident [in] talking to people I don’t know, giving presentations, talking to my friends—literally everything. It’s so helpful.”

Randolph’s trajectory is one that Lee has consistently seen in many of his peers and the underclassmen over the years. MUN pushes students out of their comfort zones—whether it’s with research, public speaking, or navigating ideological diversity.

“MUN has really taught me that, in some ways, you don’t really have any enemies, just misguided friends,” Lee said. “If you’re able to negotiate or you’re able to help people understand your point of view, there’s always some way that you can actually build alliances rather than conflicts.”