Hello, thank you for participating in our interview today! So, my first question is:
Who are you and where are you from?
I´m Duru, I´m from Istanbul, Turkey and I´m the Chair of the committee “Human Rights Council.” That´s all about me, I guess.
How did you get to know the OLMUN?
My MUN director told me about this conference last year and that I should surely be a delegate. I was actually a delegate in last year´s OLMUN in the HRC. It was online, unfortunately, but I heard it from my MUN director.
What was your best memory or experience with OLMUN?
For now, it was yesterday´s barbecue. Tom, who is my co-chair right now, used to be my Chair in the HRC, which I think is pretty cool, too. I think the best part of this whole week is gonna be Thursday night probably, the club night, but for now, it´s the barbecue.
What was your motivation behind becoming a Chair?
I would say, I like helping people, I like delegates and I like that I can lead them in a better direction. Also being a delegate is a lot of work and therefore I want to support them the best way possible. As a delegate you have to write a whole resolution, be a co-submitter or be a main submitter, so it´s a lot more challenging. A chair is more of a helping person, so that is why I chose to be a chair.
What do you think you will take away from this experience, also regarding your further career path?
I think I like being in a committee, not a particular one but I just like places full of people. Therefore I really enjoy getting to know other cultures and languages. Also, I´m trying to learn German right now, so I try to speak German with some people, which I think will be very beneficial for me in my academic and future life. And the best part of this whole conference and being abroad is learning about other cultures, getting to know new people and working on my social skills.
Do you also consider working in a political area?
I will actually apply for political science in Berlin because I´m really interested in politics and science. I will also apply to colleges in the Netherlands for political science.
What is the best and what is the worst or hardest part about your job as a chair?
The easier part is that you don´t have the pressure to deliver that many speeches like a delegate has. Since you´re a chair you will still always talk, yes, but there are certain rules that you have to follow. In general, I think you will be freer and do it in your own style. That is the best part of being a chair.
And the hardest, not the worst, but the hardest part would be that it´s so hard to have order in the house sometimes. There are some delegates who are not really into it… not in this committee but I have experienced this before. This committee is so nice and people are so kind and respectful to each other but I have met some people who were rather harsh with their words. I had to keep that under control, so that was the hardest part.
What do you hope to achieve by the end of this week?
Personally, I hope to make new friends and get to know more people. I also want all of our delegates in our committee, the HRC, to be happy about their resolution and their progress. I want to make them feel comfortable in the committee and also to help them grow. For the committee, I'm looking for good progress and good resolutions and fun debating, fruitful times.
What advice would you give people interested in becoming a chair?
When I was a delegate I thought that chairs are some godly people, who were like adults doing serious stuff. I thought that they were amazing people but when I became a chair I just realized that they were all just like us, like delegates, just normal people with normal backgrounds. I would suggest to just be confident in yourself and know that being a chair is not that big of a deal. Learn the rules of procedure and inform yourself! You can definitely do it!
What advice would you give new delegates in your committee?
I would tell them to try their best like we all did today. We had an introduction and the most important thing that we told the delegates was to try because unless you try you cannot fail anything. I mean if you want to be successful at something you have to try first. I would encourage everyone to speak up, even if it´s some sort of stupid question or if they think that people will laugh at them. They should just try because if you talk more, you will get more comfortable with it and also your situation, so it will get a lot easier. I would like to encourage everyone to try.
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