Being the president of a U of T club is no easy task, especially when the club is as large and active as U of T’s United Nations Society (UNSOC). It takes incredible dedication and ability to simply keep the society running from day to day, let alone maintaining a world-class Model UN team. Few people would be able to manage it, but Katie D’Angelo, the society’s current President, is that rare dedicated, ambitious, and warm-hearted individual who is more than willing to take on that work out of love for the society and desire for its success.
Growing up in Richmond Hill, Katie attended French-language elementary and high schools. She was first introduced to debate in her high school, which had no Model UN team but did have a parliamentary debate team that also doubled as a mock trial team. “We were really small, and there was no funding,” she says. “I went to one competition… in grade twelve, actually at U of T. I placed with my partner. We got… the highest score for partners.” Her involvement continued into university, where she attended meetings for the Hart House Debate Club, was part of Woodsworth’s student council, and was one of the founding members of StudentPAC, an opposition platform to the UTSU last year. Katie also participated in WalkSmart for four years, and currently works as an event facilitator at the Munk School, a job she enjoys for its connection to world events. She has also worked as a day-camp coordinator for the town of Richmond Hill, training future counsellors. “It only seems like [a lot] when I list it like this” she jokes.
When asked where she’d like to be in ten years, she answered that she’d like to have a doctorate in IR or economics. Her vision of her future is mostly focused on what she hopes to do, and where she might like to work: at UNICEF, an international think-tank, or a women- or child-based NGO. “It’s because women and children are not getting the opportunities they should be getting. In these countries, if a girl is educated up until grades five or six, then the number of children in her family goes down by, like, fifty percent; there’s less rape in [these] communities, their GDP goes up, and that’s only from the girl being educated.”
Her real love, however, is UNSOC, which she has been a member of since the end of her second year. “Which is much later than everyone else,” she says. “Which is why, when people join…. there’s no reason to be that intimidated! Because I joined so late comparatively, and I did one competition debate in grade twelve, and never again, so it’s not a matter of experience.” Currently in her fifth year, she has been UNSOC’s President since the end of last year. “I ran for President because I have an undying love for UNSOC,” she says. “I have a love-hate relationship with it. It’s a lot more work than people realize.”
“[As President], I do everything- admin, quality control – I need to make sure that the finances are going to the right places, [that] the socials actually make sense… and that every other IR [International Relations] society around the world knows who we are, so that they invite us, and that they know that we’re good.” She also has to hold meetings, office hours, and make sure that training sessions are helpful for members. She also works with the rest of the executive: “I manage all their portfolios [and] meet with each of them once a week. It’s very time-consuming. They send me their portfolios and I approve them or not, and then we go over them together.” Every four weeks, she also has to book time slots for twice a week training sessions.
“It’s a hard job,” she says. “It’s a lot of work. I get frustrated when people underestimate how much work I do, because I need to be thinking about it constantly. Despite all of that work, however, she’s very committed: “I just really want it to succeed.”
She also notes that Model UN isn’t seen as the asset it should be. “International schools take Model UN much more seriously than we do in Canada. Like, to apply for a job in the States, and say you were on a Model United Nations team – [it] really means something. Where in Canada, they don’t understand what it is, they don’t really think it’s a big deal, and that’s kind of discouraging. And it’s frustrating, because when I tell them I was president of Model UN, I won these awards – it doesn’t mean anything. I can tell in their faces it doesn’t mean very much when I tell them I’m the first female president.”
This is a more important accomplishment than many people might realize. Increasing numbers of female students at U of T hasn’t been reflected in UNSOC’s executive. One of Katie’s goals is to change that. “I go out of my way to talk to the girls at UNSOC. There aren’t enough girls in UNSOC.” What are her other goals for this year in UNSOC? “I want to make sure that it’s not just people like Yale, McMUN [McGill], and NCSC [Georgetown] that know we’re good.” She adds: “We place amazing; we do amazing; we carry the U of T name.” She hopes for recognition and excitement about UNSOC’s achievements among U of T students.
Not all of her goals for UNSOC relate to name recognition and conferences. There is room for improvement in UNSOC itself. “For next year, what would be hardest is maintaining a much larger base membership. The problem with UNSOC is that very good debaters come and go, but it’s [harder] to make them stay. It’s hard to keep them challenged, because we always debate against each other.”
What advice does she have for those joining UNSOC? “It’s the same thing I tell all the first-years that are so nervous. People were telling me that they’re nervous to go against schools like Harvard and Princeton, and I keep telling them that, actually, Harvard and Princeton don’t do very well, and we do better…We’re one of the best schools on the circuit, and that takes practice. That’s why it’s important that executives debate against normal people, against the new people. If they know that we’ve won Best Delegate awards, they know that if we’re saying it, then it’s okay to say.”
And what is the appeal of Model UN over other forms of debate? What draws her, and so many others, to it? “In parliamentary debate, you can argue that black is white, and part of the reason I left parliamentary debate was because who are you to argue that black is white? But in Model UN, there’s no such thing. You can’t just do whatever you want. You can’t pledge a trillion dollars to a famine fund if you’re Vietnam; it just doesn’t work that way. But I like it better that way. It’s harder. You can’t just say whatever you want; people can catch you and say you’re lying. I feel like it makes you smarter, and more empathetic.”
UNSOC hosts training sessions on Wednesdays from 7-9 PM and Fridays from 3-5 PM. To find out more about Katie and UNSOC, please visit www.unsoc.org
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Toronto chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.