At the University of Virginia, there’s no talking about Model UN without mentioning Mariam Parray and Calvin Pan. As second-years leading the charge in UVA’s International Relations Organization, they’ve gone from being high school delegates to running entire conferences and doing it together. Mariam is double majoring in Global Public Health and Economics. She’s always been a go-getter. In high school, she was MUN president, led MUN events, and was all about community leadership. Calvin, also a second-year student, is the current President of IRO. He spent part of high school in China, where MUN was huge, bringing that energy back to UVA.

I met Lukas Bryant through mutual MUN circles, the kind of person who somehow manages to be humble and wildly accomplished. He’s a senior in high school from North Carolina, and he's been running his school’s MUN club since sixth grade. “I went to my first conference as an independent,” he told me.

What if your MUN passion didn’t end after the closing ceremony? What if it became your job, your purpose? That’s the life Nathalie Urrutia is building. A Panamanian MUN organiser and logistics consultant, Nathalie is living what many MUNers would call a dream: turning her love for Model UN into a full-time career. But her path wasn’t always obvious, and it definitely wasn’t easy.

After countless Flixbus trips to The Hague, I’m pretty sure I’m an honorary member of LeidenMUN by now, though I won’t claim that without their say-so. But anyway, let me tell you about Pieter – he’s honestly one of the coolest people I’ve met in the MUN world. You know how some people just get MUN? Well, Pieter is definitely one of those. But his path to MUN greatness is kind of unexpected.