Model UN: Shining in Second Place at BruinMUN

Model UN Strikes // Celebrating a thrilling weekend at UCLA, Coronado’s six-member MUN team brought home Second Best Small Delegation at BruinMUN. Inspiring future delegates across Nevada, the club continues to prove that even a brand-new team can make a powerful impact. (Photo Courtesy of Kimberly Flickinger)

Against thousands of competitors, students from Coronado’s Model United Nations team competed at UCLA’s Model United Nations Conference called BruinMUN on November 8th, 2025. Coronado certainly made its mark, taking home Outstanding Small Delegation (second place overall) with a team of only six delegates.

BruinMUN is a well-distinguished conference which hosts between 2,000 to 3,000 students annually, challenging them to debate global issues as representatives of countries, UN bodies, and even historical figures. For Coronado, the competition heavily showcased both the team’s undeniable skill and its rapid ride in Nevada’s growing MUN community.

This year, senior Mason Papazian and sophomore Aliyah Benjamin represented South Africa in the novice ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization), while junior Summer Lota and freshman Makenzie LaFavor also represented South Africa in novice IMO (International Maritime Organization). For the school’s U.S. Senate delegation, two senators from North Dakota, Kevin Cramer and John Hoeven, were represented by junior Cheryl Chandra and MUN president, junior Amberlee Ramos. 

Their hard work certainly paid off. The South Africa delegations each earned awards in their committees, helping to boost Coronado to a podium finish among small delegations—defined as teams with 14 or fewer members. With only six competitors, the win was especially meaningful to Ramos.

“I was the one who came to Mandell back in January [Josh Mandell, Advisor] with hopes of starting Model UN here,” Ramos said. “Back then, UCLA was a long shot, but now we’re more confident in what we can do as a competing team, and it just came full circle.”

After months of dedication and hard work, there is no doubt that it has paid off for Model UN and all of its devoted members. This has only amplified the excitement that arose when Coronado was announced a winner. According to Ramos, the moment of victory was as unexpected as it was exhilarating.

“Before the awards, we were talking and saying, ‘We can stand by the exit and just leave quickly so we beat traffic,’ she recalled. “Then we hear ‘Coronado’, and everyone starts screaming, and we all run down, and they hand the award to me.”

Not only was Coronado’s success impressive for its size, but it also set the school apart in the state. Coronado High School was the only Nevada school there that consistently received awards as well as won a team award. With ambition and a tight-knit team, Ramos explains that Coronado’s MUN club intends to become a pillar of the Nevada MUN community.

“There’s so much strong potential that I already see in this team, and I definitely see Coronado being more cemented in Model UN in future years,” she states. “I want people to think of Model UN, and think of Coronado with it.”

For a club that began with hopeful ideas less than a year ago, BruinMUN was more than a competition. Motivated by their passion to make a difference in their community, these Coronado Cougars proved that small starts do not mean small achievements. It is the humble beginnings of this club and their hard work that ultimately sheds a light of hope to other schools wanting to also establish a Model UN themselves, thus proving that the impact of BruinMUN went beyond the walls of this event. Ultimately, the conference was a defining moment for Model UN at Coronado and beyond,; being a sign of the greater things to come.