Yale Model United Nations Conference 

What is YMUN?

YMUN is Yale’s Model UN conference for high school students from around the world. Every year in late January or early February, we welcome 66-60 schools and approximately 1200 delegates for a weekend of intense and exciting debate led by a Secretariat and Committee Staff of about 135 Yale undergraduates. Our delegates hail from numerous states and at least four continents.

Committees For Every Level

Every year, we have delegates who have participated in numerous Model UN conferences throughout their high school careers and delegates who have never set foot in a committee room before. Some of our schools have highly formalized and rigorous Model UN programs and others simply show up at YMUN to learn. We welcome and cater to all ability levels. For novice delegates, we offer new delegate training before the first committee session. We have several large General Assembly (GA) committees with a high proportion of novices and chairs in these committees will often take time to explain rules of procedure and the finer points of debate to the delegates. We also have fast-paced and highly dynamic committees for our advanced delegates such as this year’s Imperialist Congress, Press Corps and Security Council. These small and often crisis-based committees are modeled off the committees that we use at our college conference (SCSY) and introduce older high schoolers to the world of collegiate MUN.

Dual Goals of YMUN

YMUN aims to do two things: introduce delegates to Yale while training them in the skills of MUN such as negotiation, public speaking, and compromise. To further the first goal, we offer tours and access to Yale professors during Yale Day on the Friday morning of each YMUN. We are working to build Yale Day into a major component of YMUN that lets all high schoolers who wish to have interaction with Yale professors and Yale students. Many past YMUN delegates do go on to attend Yale (including past Secretary-General, Amy Zwanziger) so the exposure to Yale is definitely valuable. With regards to furthering delegates MUN skills, YMUN strives to offer a well-planned conference with staff who are dedicated to helping their delegates learn. We give our chairs a lot of input into deciding which committees we will host because we want them to be dedicated to the work that they are doing. And we insist on a high standard of professional conduct and honesty from both chairs and delegates in order to foster a positive learning environment.