By: Ariel L. (’23)

The IASAS MUN team took to their laptops to join the 2020 IASAS MUN conference hosted by Jakarta International School last month from Nov. 19 to 21. The 12 delegates and their coach, Mr. Anthony Ives used Zoom to take part in the conference.

The conference was originally going to be held at JIS; however, due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, they switched the conference to online. Such changes made communication between the delegates harder as they experienced multiple technological issues throughout the conference. 

“That kind of slows down debate and makes it a little harder to communicate with people,” Abigail Cho (‘22), one of the IASAS MUN delegates for the TAS team said.

Luckily, the team was able to adapt to any technological issues as they practiced using Zoom during their preparation sessions. “I think my favorite part about this year’s team was how well they adapted to preparing for the IASAS MUN conference to be done over Zoom for the first time,” Mr. Ives the team coach said.

Although the conference was not the first conference the delegates attended, many of the delegates were still nervous for the high-level challenging conference. 

For example, prior to the conference, Abigail wanted to make sure everything ran smoothly for herself. “You also want to make sure that everything runs smoothly, and you’re not a burden to other people.” she said.

One of the obstacles that the IASAS MUNers faced was meeting the requirements living up to expectations of being in an IASAS team. 

“I think the hardest part is just the expectations that your teachers or your teammates have of you because you’re in a IASAS team, and it’s just that external pressure,” Abigail said. “But again, I think in every conference, everyone works really hard.”  

The TAS MUN team practiced twice every week starting on Sept. 16. Because of the multiple practices, the team was able to bond together, which is a common goal of all MUN teams at TAS. 

The amount of time the team spent practicing also ensured strong results. “I think because we input so much time, we often get good results.” Abigail said.

Although they have received awards in the past, the TAS team did not manage to take any awards home this year.