Interviewing the Director of the ACMUN, Mr. Pieter Derluyn

By Achilleas Vrantzas 

What is it like to be a first-time director of the ACMUN?

It is very exciting, very tiring as well, because when you are doing something for the first you think you have prepared everything really well, but there are things that happen at the moment right there, right then and you can’t actually prepare them and it is something that I need to let go of it sometimes. I feel like a week before the conference started, I was thinking “what will happen?”, I felt this insecurity. This week however I felt relaxed because I had accepted the fact that it is organized well. I am pleased with it.  Of course things can improve, but the most important thing was that this week I was relaxed.

How has being involved in various MUNs enabled you to learn about how students see the world?

I have been an advisor many times for MUNs and I have noticed that an advisor should never underestimate a student’s opinion, but he should also never underestimate a student’s interest. Sometimes I see students in the classroom and I am not sure if they are interested in what I have to say. Ok, I sometimes get carried away in classes as well, but I have noticed that in some cases when I really explain what is going on and I answer questions or we start debating on a topic then students are actually interested as long as they get a proper explanation. I think it is amazing that we tend to think that sometimes the students are not that interested when they actually are.

What do you think about ACMUN compared to other MUNs at which you have been an advisor?

Each MUN is different and I cannot judge our MUN to other MUNs because I am working from the inside now. I think our MUN is very well organized but I have the impression from other MUNs as well. Some MUNs are really well organized. I remember I was amazed with the Junior MUN this past November. They inspired me to make some changes as well to our MUN. I love also the Paris MUN because it is a huge MUN. There are so many MUNs that are really well organized. It is so hard to judge them because each MUN has a different style, a different format. The nice thing about the MUNs after going to different MUNs is that you take ideas for your own MUNs and you try to make something that pleases you.

Students benefit from the Model United Nations conferences. Do you think advisors benefit as well?

I think advisors do as well. As an advisor you look into things, you have to prepare students, you give them advice, so you find out a little bit more about the topic but the biggest benefit for me is seeing some students who are in a different environment less outspoken and all of a sudden in an MUN you see a boy or girl to flourish, to improve so much. You give a student the opportunity and they do not only take the opportunity and do something with it but they also excel with it. These things are some that when I get home I tell my family “Today that student did something that I would never expect it from them”. When you see students to put your advice to good use then there is nothing more an advisor could wish for.

What is the source of your own personal interest in MUNs?

The source of my interest in MUNs is international politics and history. I am a bit of a history buff, my students know that, they don’t always like it, I know but I feel like if you look into history, into politics, into geography, into economics, MUN combines all of them in one and you can actually teach all of these. Of course, I am not an economics teacher or a history teacher, but I have some knowledge about it and I can actually talk to students about it; this is what I like the most. Then students give me feedback and all of a sudden I get a new side of something because students somehow make connections that I have never made before and that is what excites me the most about it.