Harvard-Westlake’s Model United Nations (MUN) competed at BruinMUN on Nov. 8 and 9. Hosted at UCLA, this conference hosted over 2500 delegates, 25 of which were HW attendees. 10 of the 25 won awards. Opinion Reporter Hailey Kramar ’27 and Luke Rascoff ’27 won the Best Delegate award. Chase Rudoy ’27 and Sam Krieger ’27 won the Outstanding Delegate award. Delegates Dhara Jobrani ’26 and Laila Vasandani ’26 won Honorable Mention. Miro Katan ’28, James Esser ’28, Victoria Wu ’28 and Ella Hammelman ’28 won research awards.
Rascoff said he was happy to win Best Delegate despite feeling doubtful as the competition had many challenges he had to overcome.
“I was excited, but I didn’t know what to expect since I’d never been to a tournament before,” Rascoff said. “I got the hang of it eventually. I was thrilled to win because it was hard to tell if I was going to since there are many objectives you have to do well.”
Rudoy said that though he felt daunted at first, he looked forward to competing and felt satisfied with his work.
“Walking into a room full of people who seemed to know exactly what they were doing was definitely intimidating, but I was excited to compete,” Rudoy said. “After spending the entire weekend at the conference, it was amazing to see our time and effort pay off with an award.”
Krieger said he was content with his overall experience at his first competition.
“I’m proud of [us],” Krieger said. “We worked hard, and it was rewarding to win an award after our first conference. I don’t regret anything because I learned a lot and met many different people.”
Jobrani said he felt gratified for winning the Honorable Mention Award because he and Vasandani devoted time and effort to surpassing competitors.
“I felt prepared and excited,” Jobrani said. “I’m happy that [Vasandani] and I won, as we really did put it all out there, and it was tough. It was nice to get back in the zone after not participating in MUN since March of this year.”
Katan said he felt happy to be able to overcome his nervousness and see his endeavors rewarded.
“Bruin MUN was my first in-person conference, and even though I felt prepared, I also felt anxious because there’s a lot of public speaking and networking involved,” Katan said. “Nevertheless, it felt great to win because my partner and I put in a lot of effort.”
Katan said that despite his initial challenges with taking the lead in his group, he viewed the experience as a window for growth.
“I was nervous to take leadership, but that’s the point of these competitions,” Katan said. “Even though I regret certain aspects of my performance, I see this conference as an opportunity to learn and improve.”
