SSUNS 2016 Interview Series: Deputy Chargee d’Affaires Anuradha Malik

We sat down with Deputy Chargee d’Affaires Anuradha Mallik to discuss SSUNS 2016.

Clementine: How did you get started with SSUNS?

Anuradha: I got involved with Model UN when I was pretty young. I enjoyed it so much in high school and when I came to college I told myself i wouldn’t get involved. In my first year I said “I’m totally going to stay away from Model UN” and “I’m going to try and do other things with my life.” Somehow I ended up tumbling into applying for being a vice-chair, so that didn’t work out very well. It was really the group of people that I surrounded myself with, we’re all super into it and they encourage me to do it. I don’t regret it.

Which do you think will be your favourite committee during this year’s conference?

I’m a fan of big committees so I think CSW [Commission on the Status of Women] will be interesting, particularly considering the political climate that is present this weekend. I’m really looking forward to some of the debate that emerges from that committee.

What would you say is the the most important aspect of this year’s SSUNS?

I think the most important aspect this year is probably the theme [“to foster today’s youth into the leaders of tomorrow”]. It is one of the first times that the theme has encompassed the premise of what SSUNS is about. Taking the education you receive today and turning that into leadership to make the world a better place for tomorrow. That is what we focused everything around. The theme, apart from being enormously relevant, is also exactly what SSUNS is about which is inspiring students to take everything they learn now further to pursue what is meaningful to them.

What would you like to say to the delegates, about MUN or otherwise?

Along the same lines as the theme, I’d just like to remind them to take this weekend as more than just having fun, though it is, of course, a weekend of having fun and making friends. Some of the skills that they are going to learn and some of the friendships that they are going to make are going to be valuable in future years, particularly in terms of the skills. What they are doing now can lead to meaningful change in the future and they shouldn’t forget that.

What do you want to do to make this year’s conference different?

So far we’ve done a lot of little innovative things that I hope will make this a conference to remember. Make sure it keeps going smoothly. For example, all the new PR things are pretty awesome, like live streaming. We made it a lot easier; like the maps that we printed out and stuck at the front today, and the placards. There is a bunch of little things that we’ve been doing to make it a really smooth conference. As long as no big issues arise, it’ll be spectacular.

What would you say makes MUN unique at McGill?

It creates, I guess you could call it a cult, wherein everyone who is in it is very into it. It is really nice, because you find a family which is so beautiful. I made so many great friendships through Model UN at McGill, with all of the committees I’ve chaired. There is nothing I could possibly replace that with. We spent the last seven months getting this together, and this entire weekend. It’s wild. We get so close. It is definitely something beautiful. I think that is what makes MUN something special in general.

What is (or will be) your team’s greatest accomplishment this weekend?

If students walk away, at that point, knowing that they want to make the world a better place. Cheesy as that sounds. I know when I was in my first year of high school and I went to a Model UN conference, I walked away saying ‘I’m going to do something about this’ and ‘I’m going to be a diplomat’. It is a real accomplishment to do well in a model UN conference. It is a simulation of life in a certain sense, the diplomacy, knowing how to carry yourself around other people, interact with people, and speak in front of people, it’s important you know?

Is there anything planned this weekend in light of Tuesday’s election results?

There is nothing planned, in particular, but everyone in secretary is keeping in mind the attitudes that can emerge from what is happening. Dexter [Docherty, Undersecretary-General, Committees] actually wrote something [to] remind [us] that, essentially, what the students see is going to be their first experience after they heard this news. Our attitudes towards it are going to affect their own opinions and their own attitudes towards it, so it is important to keep that in mind.