BIFU Hosts Second Model UN Conference

Dozens of parents and delegates in formal suits file into the front office, waiting to be checked-in and to be led into the MPR. It’s 8:30am on December 6th, 2025, the morning of BIFU’s second annual Model UN conference.

The Model UN club at Basis Independent Fremont Upper School, run by Alyce Moy, has been among the most successful clubs at BIFU, with students winning hundreds of awards at local conferences since 2020. With 50 delegates at the upper school, and another 25 in the lower school, the club actively introduces and trains a great number of our school population in research, diplomacy, international relations, public speaking, and problem solving.

Delegates attend conferences where they role-play as diplomats from different countries around the world, acting as diplomats in their positions in developing global frameworks to address complex issues before the committee chairs hand out awards to the most influential and best researched delegates. Typically, conferences last around one day, with the opening ceremony taking place in the morning, and the closing ceremony ending in the late afternoon. During this short period, delegates must find a way to implement their planned policies in committee, by convincing others of the merits of their solutions, allowing delegates to practice soft power. By the end of the day, delegates gain new knowledge, and new friends.

The second BIF Model UN Conference (BIFMUNC II), though only offered to middle schoolers, took extensive planning, with the club’s executive board beginning the process in early April. It was also a significant expansion on the first conference, which had only 35 delegates across two committees. BIFMUNC II had 67 delegates across five committees, with attendance from Stratford and Hopkins too. The conference had the honor of receiving a talk from Mario E. Baez, a retired UN director who worked primarily in South America. He touched on many areas concerning the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, and how the UN collaborates with national governments to execute projects founded in General Assembly resolutions. Delegates then addressed agricultural reform, repatriation of cultural artifacts, international trade policies, misinformation in combat zones, and also, a “comeback era” for the Dreamwork Animations Villains. They partook in extensive debate, and by the end of the day, passed resolutions and directives on specific action items that could mitigate the pervading problems at the root of the topic. Chairs handed out 20 awards to delegates, and just like that, BIFMUNC II came to a close.