Junior Willis Arnold, who has been involved with Arkansas Model United Nations for five years, was the secretary general for the 46th annual AMNU conference, a conference held each year at UCA.
The conference activities began Nov. 18 in the Ida Waldran Auditorium where students from 25 high schools from Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida met and continued into Nov. 19. About 400 high school students and teachers participated in this year’s conference.
The staff for the conference was composed of 40 students from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Harding University, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and UCA.
Arnold was a sophomore at Conway High School when he first became involved with Arkansas Model United Nations.
The conference is designed to mock the actual U.N. headquarters, which are in New York, Arnold said. High school students study and research countries and their background. The conference serves as a learning experience for the high school students.
After the students research the backgrounds of different countries, the schools meet at an annual conference to report the countries’ history, economy, political state and policies, financial procedures, security concerns and other issues.
“AMUN forces students to think on their feet and portray a country with very different views from their own,” Arnold said.
Arnold became involved with AMUN when he was signing up for classes his sophomore year in high school. He said his dad, who was a political science teacher, recommended the class to him.
“When I first joined, I didn’t even know what the UN was. I was really nervous but I kept participating as a high school delegate because I wanted to be part of the staff,” Arnold said.
He had to research other countries and “pretty much become that country” in high school and report his findings to his committee.
As secretary general, Arnold shadows Chief Administer Mark Mullenbach, who is an associate professor of political science and the director of the International Studies Program at UCA. Their job is to make sure committees are running smoothly.
Arnold said making sure every committee has the supplies it needs to function while at the conference is their “primary focus,” as well as reading the position papers the committees submit.
Deputy Secretary General senior Matthew Peterson said each school functions as a committee for the countries it represents.
Arnold said, “A school can take as many countries as it can handle.”
Peterson said schools choose their countries through a lottery-like process.
Faculty advisors pick out whatever and however many countries they want for their school’s committee from a list.
Peterson said the conference is very successful each year with attendance and how much the students report back, “especially because the conference was designed as a learning experience.”
“Judging from the response of new membership, you can tell they’ve been studying for months. Many come back to volunteer or join staff after they graduate,” Peterson said.
Every year, high school students meet during the conference to create new committees and provide new topics for countries.
Arnold said he hopes to find an international job that relates to what he’s done with AMUN after he graduates. He also said he plans to stay involved with AMUN after graduation.