Life Update

It occurs to me I haven’t done a general ‘update’ blog about what I’ve been getting up to in a while! So this semester has mainly been working and MUNing (I’ll explain later) and spending as much time with my friends as possible before I leave. I also, of course, have been researching for my dissertation which is theoretically the main point of studying Stateside!

MUNing (Model United Nations’ing) has rapidly become my favourite hobby. I joined Leicester University United Nations Society in my first semester of my second year at Leicester University, but never got the chance to attend a conference with them before I left for my year abroad. When I realised that the University of Texas at Arlington had a Model United Nations team I jumped at the chance to travel across the United States, meet new people, and improve a wide range of skills. Model United Nations is complicated, but if I had to explain it concisely I’d say delegates to conferences essentially shadow the work of the United Nations and aim to find diplomatic solutions to problems facing the world. (At least in General Assemblies and Specialised bodies, anyway!). It’s great fun and I’ve been lucky enough to have attended three conferences this semester, in San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Dallas. Model United Nations has made me even more interested in global issues, and I’m so excited to throw myself into MUN life when I return to Leicester.

Aside from my job as office assistant, I’m also working as a student document coder for the exciting (to me, but I’m a nerd) Responsive Government project within the Politics department at the University of Leicester. The researchers aim to assess the extent to which governments respond to their citizens, and I currently work coding news articles to assist them with their research.

I guess the most exciting thing that has happened to me since we last spoke is that I’ve been selected for the World Merit ‘Merit360’ summit in New York and Pennsylvania in late August and September. I’ll be returning stateside for two weeks over the long summer to participate in Merit360 and collaborate with other young people across the world towards the UNs Sustainable Development Goals! This is such an exciting opportunity that I’m so grateful to have!

So that’s really all that’s new with me, I’m just focusing on finals and packing ahead of moving back home to England.