It is clear from the way her eyes light up and her hands move as she talks that junior Aishwarya Natarajan is truly passionate about Model UN.

She joined Model UN at the beginning of her sophomore year and now serves as the club’s Conference Logistics Manager. Natarajan is responsible for matters like booking hotels and transportation. To her, Model UN stands out from other clubs on campus because it allows students to tackle important global issues.

“It makes me feel like I have a strong voice,” Natarajan said. “It’s nice knowing that you actually have enough knowledge to formulate opinions and come up with solutions.”

Natarajan believes that because Model UN is not as popular as other clubs on campus like FBLA and DECA, it provides members with more opportunities and attention when it comes to preparing for conferences.

Last year, the club attended three conferences, but plans to compete at four this year, which will take place at Stanford University, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and Santa Teresa High School. Though all four are important, the club spends the most time preparing for the competition at UC Berkeley because it is their biggest conference and they have the most time for preparation. Below is the process the club follows in preparing for the Berkeley MUN.

“The goal is to present the idea in such a way that it convinces people to join your side of the argument and compromise with others to form the right solution,” Natarajan said.

For Natarajan, the Santa Clara Valley conference was her first and her experience convinced her that Model UN was something she wanted to continue doing for the rest of her high school career. It allowed her to meet all kinds of people from different parts of the state and country.

“It was really interesting to hear different perspectives on the issues we discussed,” Natarajan said.

According to Natarajan, in order to be successful at a Model UN conference, one needs to execute very thorough and exhaustive research in order to be able to bring up specific examples at any given moment. She also explained the importance of being willing to compromise and open to having ideas altered. It is very rare for a delegate to leave a conference having the same ideas as when they first entered.

“The most important thing though, is to stand out,” Natarajan said. “In a committee with 300 other delegates, you need to seem different in order to win.”