Bobcat Model UN Takes On SF Competition
April 2nd, 2025 | Saman Bajpai, Ashwin Bhat
The Bobcat Model UN team reached out to The Prestige to provide some testimonies in support of their club.
Model United Nations is a speech & debate club focused on building leadership, confidence, and awareness of the world’s geopolitical climate. We simulate the proceedings of the actual United Nations in committees, representing the countries of the world. Some of our past topics include Universal Regulation of Social Media, negotiating a fair end to WWI, and administering the 2nd Partition of Poland. We also host fun committees like Avengers: Civil War or Game of Thrones. Additionally, we compete alongside other teams in conferences across the nation.
Membership is open to all interested undergraduates at UC Merced! We meet every Tuesday, 5-7 PM.
Saman Bajpai, MUN President
Prestigious competitions are no strangers to UC Merced’s travel team. Yet even we were a little daunted when we received a personal invite from Berkeley’s president to the largest & oldest intercollegiate competition in America.
Right from the start, the salty smell of sweat and tears choked the room. Rapid fire speech after speech thundered from the podium as delegates hurried to hand urgent messages across the room.
My committee was tasked with ending the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes, initiated by unfair pay, worker exploitation, and the scare of artificial intelligence replacing important roles in the entertainment industry. Actors, studios, executives, and networks struggled to come to a compromise as they knew they were losing millions every day. Live updates on the situation, performed by the crisis directors, offered an amusing way to gauge our successes and failures. No one dared take a break in those hours, lest they miss critical information or a golden opportunity to change the room’s opinion.
But at the end of the day, we knew how to have fun. Tight-lipped, professional smiles were discarded for smirks and careless giggles. Thousand dollar suits were swapped for t-shirts, shorts, and baseball caps. The city lights painted bright a bustling nightlife where one could shop for bargain clothes or taste an overpriced meal from any cuisine in the world. The final lunch brought home the travel team for a sweet, delectable closing to the weekend trip, where we snapped splendid photos and shared stories of our unforgettable experience together. To think we do this four times a year- in Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and- in April- New York!
Ashwin Bhat, Political Science 1st year
Being able to travel to San Francisco for a Model UN tournament was an absolute blast! UC Berkeley were great hosts, and I learned a lot during the competition from other schools, as many teams were ranked nationally. I genuinely feel like I improved as a speaker, debater, and thinker. My committee tackled worldwide vaccine equity through the World Health Organization, where I got to work with economic powerhouses of countries, while also focusing on low and middle-income countries’ need for public health awareness and vaccine distribution. By the end, we passed a resolution to establish regional distribution hubs ran by the WHO throughout the world, while working with national and local leaders across countries to promote public health in their communities.
It was really fun to meet so many new people and make friends who each had their own individual stories, strategies, and advice, while also connecting with my own team more than ever. I was able to have the opportunity to explore San Francisco in my free time, where my fellow delegates and I went to Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 39, Chinatown, and Downtown SF. We also enjoyed some amazing food like Japanese BBQ, Indian cuisine, SF Pizza, and specialty ramen. It was also SICK taking Waymo (the self-driving cars) and electric scooters across the city. I feel great about my performance and cannot wait to get back out there with my team in the Big Apple!
