Club Mission:
The Cornell International Affairs Society (CIAS) is an independent undergraduate student organization at Cornell University. CIAS was established to promote a greater knowledge and understanding of global socioeconomic and political issues amongst its members and the wider community.
What does CIAS do?
CIAS aspires to achieve its purpose in three principle ways:
1) by training for, and attending, Model United Nations conferences (simulating the UN and other bodies of international significance) within the collegiate circuit;
2) by planning and hosting our own high school Model UN conference (CMUNC); and
3) by hosting regular meetings to discuss current events of international importance and by promoting and attending other related international relations events on campus.
What is Model United Nations?
Model United Nations is, in essence, a simulation of UN committees (and other similar committees) that meet to discuss pertinent global issues. Students are selected to represent members of these committees, and are expected to accurately express the opinions of these members.
Conferences usually take place over weekends during the school year, consisiting each of three or four days of committee sessions. Conferences that CIAS has attended in the past have been in great cities like Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Montreal, and you'll definitely get the chance to experience a bit of the host city during the conference, too (outside of committee session time, of course!).
Is Model UN for me?
Conferences are organized by universities, and attended by university students with all sorts of backgrounds. You don't have to have debating experience, and most definitely don't need to be studying International Relations or Government. In fact, our club has members pursuing all sorts of majors, including everything from English and APP to Engineering and Pre-Med students. The one thing everyone has in common, though, is a passion for learning about the world around them.
Don't worry if you don't have Model UN experience: in preparation for attending conferences, CIAS actively trains all incoming members through a series of training sessions each fall semester, and hosts its own mini-conference shortly thereafter for newcomers to test out their newly acquired skills!
Click here to join our Facebook group.
**To join our mailing list, please go to the "Contact Us" page and send an e-mail to the president. The mailing list is only for Cornell students.
