Cross-Cultural Blog

Alisa Yushchenko:
The Model United Nations community is one of the strongest at our Academy. KSAEL Debate club exists since 2000.
I`ve been a member of the Club for 4 years already (since the first year of studies). Since March 2008 I`ve been the President of the club.
During all this years MUN has been my favorite University activity, a hobby and beloved part of my life.

I have found here many good friends who have the same interests as me (in international economics, politics and social sciences). We meet twice a week and discuss different UN topics in English (and is a great opportunity to practice foreign language). This sessions help not only to learn more about international affaires, but to learn to communicate with people, to listen and to find arguments and practice public speaking.

We also do community service. Each year we arrange New Year parties for children from city’s orphanages. Each year we have social projects we create and carry out by ourselves.
In 2005 – 2006 we had our first big social project “Smile”. We taught English to handicapped children. It was my first experience of this kind and it was unforgettable. This lessons helped children not only to improve their knowledge, but to become more open and sociable. And this was the most important result for al of us. So, we decided to keep on creating and carrying out various community service/social activities.

In 2006-2007 in the frames of project “Tolerance” we delivered lectures on tolerance at Khabarovsk secondary schools. We created costumes of different cultures and told children about other traditions and customs. We also played games and encouraged children to participate and share their cross-cultural experiences. So, this lectures looked more like seminars and it was of great interest to all.
Last year we arranged a project “The Way to See the World”. We taught orphans English and Japanese. This project was the most serious for me as I took a role of a manager. I was in charge of establishing relations with orphanage administration, finding volunteers, organization of project activities as well as public relations. It was a great experience which I appreciate a lot.

Besides regular sessions and social activities members of our Debate club participate in national and international MUN conferences.
This is my favorite part of MUN life))) I was lucky to participate in various international MUNs. Among them are 3rd Asia – Pacific Model UN Conference in Incheon, Republic of Korea; Moscow International Model United Nations conference 2008 at MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia; Imagine Peace Model United Nations conference at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies, Kyoto, Japan; European Week Eindhoven, Eindhoven, the Netherlands; Harvard Annual World Model United Nations conference, Beijing, China.

I have also been a Chair of Historical General Assembly at International Symposium “Youth and Its Initiatives in Economy, Law and Politics of APR Countries” at Khabarovsk State Academy of Economics and Law in 2007. It was a new and outstanding experience for me.

This year I am going to chair UNEP at Geneva International MUN 2009. This will be my first international experience of this kind and I am looking forward to doing it.
All the conferences I participated in made me a part of international MUN community. This community is very diverse in cultural background. Thanks to it I have friends from different continents. We all are different (we look different, speak different languages, eat different food and dress up differently). But at the same time we have very important feature in common – we all are interested in international relations and learning about other cultures. During MUN conferences we learn about others, but at the same time we discover ourselves too. We see, we compare, we analyze and make conclusions.
I believe that MUN community is a chance for youth to see the “differences” and to learn to respect them. As people from different counties communicate, establish relations and become friends, they will always have a chance to find common solution of the problem. And in the times of globalization this skill is hard to overestimate.