By Ethan Wang
Staff Writer
The gavel slams on the wooden table, its sharp thud the sole sound reverberating throughout the still, crowded classroom. One by one, delegates rise to deliver passionate speeches, each representing a different country. The 2025 San Gabriel Valley Model United Nations (SGVMUN) conference commences as the delegates engage in an ardent discussion of international relations and global politics.
One year later, TCHS MUN is preparing to host the third SGVMUN conference on March 14, where delegates from Temple City, Arcadia, San Marino, Walnut, Westridge and other schools outside of SGV compete in seven designated committees. Five of the committees will address real-world issues where delegates represent countries, while two specialized committees allow delegates to deliberate on fictitious or historical scenarios.
“Our mission is to provide a conference that is local and accessible to the delegates because there isn’t really a conference in SGV that is nearby,” Under-Secretary General of Committees and Logistics junior Rosetta Li said. “The closest one I would say would be UCLA, but that’s 40 minutes away. We wanted a local conference so that people can attend and gain experience.”
A group of secretariats from the competing schools plan and oversee the conference, advised by University of Southern California PhD student Saranyan Uthayakumar and math teacher Carol Zurla.
Preparations began in Oct. 2025, consisting of chair member trainings to organize committee sessions and grade delegate performances. Communication between the secretariats and chairs is a central focus this year, along with effective and strategic organization of the conference.
“For the past few years, we weren’t sure how this would go,” Li said. “I believe it was pretty chaotic in the first year since we did have to organize and budget stuff. This year, everyone has been getting their tasks done, so I feel like the conference will be a pretty good event.”
Members of the TCHS MUN team who are not affiliated with the conference’s organizing committee will also be competing.
SGVMUN introduced two new specialized committees this year, one where delegates will represent media corporations, and another where delegates will represent the three estates of 18th century France. To make the conference more accessible, several returning committees were broken into novice and intermediate divisions to make competition less daunting.
“It’s a novice-friendly competition, and there’s a really friendly atmosphere,” sophomore Zibo Zhang said. “The chairs make sure that nobody gets spoken over, so it’s a really welcoming environment. I would highly recommend people give it a try.”
Delegates win various honors, including awards for position papers, or research papers submitted prior to the conference and best delegate awards, which recognize the top-perfoming student in a committee.
“I’ll probably do [SGVMUN] in the future too,” freshman Arthur Niu said. “It could be pretty cool debating and trying to find solutions. I feel like MUN can really help me out in the future and build on the soft skills I want to hone.”