André Harris – Delegation 2015|2016

Should you apply for the United Netherlands Delegation? If you’re ambitious, have an international mindset, and are looking for a challenge, then the answer is a definite yes. I greatly enjoy my bachelor’s in international studies, but I was also looking for a challenge and a way to build my skills, and I found that in United Netherlands.

Throughout an extremely busy semester your fellow delegates and your trainers will help you to push yourself in every way. Constant feedback on your speaking and negotiating allows you to improve week by week and being challenged in MUN every Friday forces you to defend your ideas and sharpen your thinking. It’s incredibly rewarding to look back at previous weeks and see how far you’ve come.

But as with any improvements, they need to be tested – and this is where Oxford and Harvard come in. Representing Russia in the Security Council at Oxford was an amazing experience, forcing me to defend the indefensible and drive hard bargains with the United States. It also allowed me to discover that standing firm in a room full of people yelling at me is actually quite fun! Harvard was a whole new experience, as I was put in a very dynamic and fast-moving crisis committee, full of highly experienced MUN’ers. But I was able to put the skills I’d learned into practise representing a member of the cabinet of communist Afghanistan in 1979, and even came away with an Honourable Mention!

But despite how rewarding all of this was, the best part of the delegation experience by far is the people I met. Going through such an intense semester together with a group of 25 others really brings you together as a group, and the capstone to this was spending two weeks together in the US in New York and Harvard. Talking over plans for Harvard, then going out for way too expensive beers and walks in Central Park with people who you know so well (far too well by that point!) is something I’ll always remember

So – are you ambitious? Do you think globally? Are you looking for a challenge above and beyond your usual studies? Then join United Netherlands – and you’ll never look back.