American University prides itself on the expansive opportunities for education-based competitions and involvement with political science organizations it offers. The School of International Service (SIS) is one of the most popular schools within AU, enrolling 3,000 of the over 13,000 students enrolled in the university as a whole.
The American University International Relations Society (AMIRS) acts as an extracurricular activity for students within SIS, and other schools, to engage with international relations concepts and events. I sat down with the leader of the Model United Nations team, a subset of AMIRS which is the collegiate competitive aspect of International Relations at AU. Lizzie Williamson has led the competition team to become the #1 delegation in North America recently! They have made a name for themselves and for AMIRS not only on our college campus but around the world as well. I heard from Ms. Williamson and got to know all there is to know about what these organizations are like.
HerCampus: Hello hello! Please introduce yourself and tell me a bit about your role in Model UN here at American University.
Lizzie Williamson: My name is Lizzie Williamson, I’m a junior majoring in International Studies with a focus on environmental sustainability and global development, and I am the Head Delegate of the AU Model United Nations team which is a branch of the American University International Relations Society. One of the largest, if not the largest student organization on AU’s campus.
HerCampus: Okay, and what does being the Head Delegate entail?
Lizzie Williamson: So…should I just break down the entire organization? Okay so, the Model UN team is a branch of AMIRS, so the Model UN team itself focuses on the competitive aspects of Model UN. Meaning that we are a team of about 42 people at the moment who compete on the collegiate Model UN circuit to represent AU, and are ranked alongside other universities and colleges. As a Head Delegate, I am the one who manages the team on, like, a logistics and a financial level, but then also on a cultural and knowledge level. So I facilitate trainings, but I also make bookings for conferences, I handle the payments, and I also, you know, am involved with helping build social events and bringing the team together.
HerCampus: Nice! So you’re like a team captain, essentially.
Lizzie Williamson: Yes, yes.
HerCampus: Like, if you’re really going to boil it down.
Lizzie Williamson: Yes, it’s like a team captain. Or, if you want to put it in a more normal, executive board sense, I’m like a president of that branch.
HerCampus: Like a CEO.
Lizzie Williamson: Yes.
HerCampus: Interesting, thank you! What relationship does MUN have to AMIRS, and how would you describe AMIRS?
Lizzie Williamson: So AMIRS is an organization with, kind of, multiple levels of involvement that a student could take for individuals who are interested in exploring international relations, international issues, world politics in a more up-close, applied, in-depth sense. So that means that AMIRS often has speaker events where we invite ambassadors or important government officials to speak to those at special events. We also run a high school Model United Nations conference; actually two, one of them is educational and one of them is kind of a large scale, revenue-driven conference that helps bring awareness to global issues to high school students and teaches them the skills to be able to navigate college and the world beyond. And then, of course, within that there’s the team that kind of allows you to, uh, if you’re a competitive person to…unleash that competitive side and have the opportunity to travel throughout the country on behalf of American University.
HerCampus: Awesome! That’s great. How much of the AU population would you estimate gets involved with MUN? Is this number different in terms of the SIS (School of International Service) population specifically?
Lizzie Williamson: Let me pull up those stats.
*pulls out computer*
HerCampus: Oh! We’re going to get actual numbers, folks.
Lizzie Williamson: So, I can’t get exact numbers, but what I can say is we are one of the largest student organizations on campus because of the reach of our organization within Model UN. In terms of the Model UN team itself, over 200 individuals signed up to try out for the Model UN team, only 16 people made it onto the team. And then AmeriMUNC, which is the high school conference that we run, regularly has a staff to run the conference of over 200 people to 300 people on huge, in-person years. And then in addition, if students are not involved with that, AMIRS as a whole has a very large body of students that attends speaker events. So I would say probably the body of AMIRS is around 500 individuals, with about 200 to 300 as especially dedicated members.
HerCampus: Okay, so there are more members who participate outside Model UN and less competitive members?
Lizzie Williamson: Yes, so the Model UN team is the most…I don’t want to say exclusive, but it is the most closed-off portion of the club because there is so much interest and the team can only financially support so many team members at once so it is the most restrictive point for AMIRS.
HerCampus: Absolutely. That makes sense, that definitely makes sense. How do Model UN and AMIRS contribute to the overall undergraduate student experience?
Lizzie Williamson: I would say…I’ll speak personally here, I think that AMIRS and AU Model United Nations team is really important to the AU community and really important to students who A, have an interest in international relations or international issues, and they want to take an opportunity to explore those issues with interest, outside of the classroom. So instead of just diving into the theory or the readings that you’re discussing in class, you get to learn about the on-the-ground experiences of ambassadors from a range of countries, and I think it also allows students to break out of the shell of their niche of the international studies major, where everyone has their kind of specific path that they go down in SIS. And because AMIRS is so all-encompassing, as an environmental sustainability-focused person, I can still listen to talks on national security or cybersecurity or conflict and peace.
HerCampus: Okay, interesting.
Lizzie Williamson: So then, secondly, it’s a source of community for a lot of people. I know personally, I have met a lot of my closest friends through participation both on the AU Model United Nations team, but then even more importantly, like staffing AmeriMUNC and being involved with AMIRS. My co-chair when I staffed AmeriMUNC my freshman year is now one of my closer friends. We sat together in Writing, not really knowing each other, and then we were paired together as staff and then we just became really close after that. Same with somebody else within the organization, so it’s really a sense of coming together over this shared interest, and being with a group of people who are competitive, passionate, and diligent.
HerCampus: That was great! If someone was thinking about joining the international relations society, how would you suggest they go about that?
Lizzie Williamson: So, I think it’s very easy to join the international relations society at large. There are several opportunities to do so. The best time is at the start of the year when we’re doing our greatest recruitment push because then you can also have the opportunity to staff AmeriMUNC. But really, any time throughout the year you can become a member of AMIRS by attending any of our speaker events. Right now they’re online, but you usually, in an in-person context, they would also be in-person. And there are great opportunities to just kind of, like, integrate yourself within the greater society and become more involved as you become more interested.
HerCampus: Awesome. If you had to sum up your experience in Model UN in three words, what would they be?
Lizzie Williamson: I would say…community, second one would be…passion, and the third would be experience.
HerCampus: Nice!
Lizzie Williamson: Because I think that beyond just engaging with your passions you get a lot of experience in writing and speaking and everything like that.
HerCampus: Absolutely, absolutely. What has been your absolute favorite part of being involved with Model UN specifically?
Lizzie Williamson: Ooo! Uh, I think I really like the kind of dynamic team culture that is always created, because the team can only be, you know, so big given the constraints that we have as an organization and as a club. You’re really regularly interacting with 30 to 40 other people on the regular, and there are some really incredible insights, jokes, and fun little traditions that we try to pass on through the years. Like for instance, for every conference we go to we collect a brick and we all sign our names [on it] so that way, no matter what happens at a conference and in a competitive experience, we all have this sense of togetherness and this foundation within the team.
HerCampus: Awesome! Well, that is all the questions I have for you. Is there anything you’d like to add before we wrap up our interview?
Lizzie Williamson: …A lot of people come into American University, especially with an interest in AMIRS with an interest in joining the Model United Nations team. But in many ways, I think that being involved with the organization, either through staffing AmeriMUNC or through just participating in the speakers’ events, and through the fun little kind of bonding things that the organization runs as a whole, is one of the better ways to be involved. Just because I think that AMIRS really allows you to engage with your passions in a really organic way and in a good networking way. What I’m trying to say is that a lot of people, when they think of AMIRS they think of the team, but I think when you think of AMIRS you should think of the cool opportunities you can get, whether you’re on the team or not.
HerCampus: Well, thank you for your time, I really appreciate it!
Lizzie Williamson: You’re welcome!
Following my interview with Lizzie, I was briefly in contact with Ben Holtzman, who is the Secretary-General of the AmeriMUNC IX conference through AMIRS. He told me that “AMIRS has been so formative to my experience at AU. Through incredibly demanding, yet rewarding work, I’ve made friends for life.” Any student, but especially those interested in or involved with international relations in any capacity has a great opportunity to do so with a well-connected and welcoming environment of people who are interested in similar things. Information on the School of International Service and AMIRS can be found using the hyperlinks provided.