Guest speakers at this week's meeting were Sean Beiper, Max Walton Briggs and Yebin Yang, who talked about the experience and benefits of the Rotary MUNA program.
 
Sean is a teacher at Berwick Grammar and St Margaret's Schools.  Max attends Berwick Grammar and Yebin attends St Margaret's.
 
Max and Yebin won the 2018 District 9820 competition and went on to the national MUNA competition in Canberra, where they won the Totenhofer Peace prize.  This is awarded to the delegation that is considered to make the best contribution to world peace.
 
Sean began the presentation by outlining his early association with Rotary through his participation in the 'Camp Awakenings' program.
 
As a teacher, he became interested in the MUNA program as a means of providing students with an understanding of and the skills to influence the world around them.  He has taken particular pride in watching Max and Yebin mature through their experiences and success with MUNA, at District and national levels.
 
Max and Yebin then explained how the MUNA program worked. 
 
In the District 9820 competition, they were assigned the role of a Chinese delegation.  The delegates dressed in the relevant national costume and debated six major world issues from the perspective of their assigned country.
 
This involved negotiating compromises that involved both political and personal considerations.  Max was amazed at how the experience changed his perspective on public speaking and helped his self-confidence.  
 
Having won the District 9820 competition, they participated in the national MUNA competition at Old Parliament House, which was a great experience in itself.
 
Yebin stated that they were assigned the role of a South Korean delegation, which was particularly interesting as she was born in South Korea.  They got to talk with the actual Ambassador for South Korea.
 
Yebin explained that it was difficult to vote on the various resolutions due to different country needs and agendas.  As the program evolved, she found the debates becoming more heated and intense.  In fact, they were no longer 15-year old students, they had become special political delegates with international responsibilities.
 
Both students thanked Rotary for providing them with the MUNA experience, which had changed the way they viewed the world and also improved their public speaking and debating abilities.
 
In concluding, Sean stated that the change in Max and Yebin's maturity levels due to the MUNA experience was phenomenal and this was one of the reasons that he is a teacher.  He thanked the Rotary Club of Berwick for providing them with the opportunity to participate.
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