Shimwa Nyanchera Omanwa

Shimwa Nyanchera Omanwa (Shi-Shi) is in her first year of a dual degree program at IE University. Choosing to combine her interests in diplomacy and international relations would help open the door for a future career in interpreting at any level. Shi-Shi felt confident that the Dual Degree in Business Administration and International Relations would serve as a solid starting point to reach her professional goals.

It was early before enrolling that Shi-Shi attended an informative Zoom session about clubs and activities on offer at IE University. Her interest was especially piqued when she heard about the IEU Debate Club. “One of the people who spoke to us was actually in Geneva at the Geneva Model UN conference when they were talking to us about the Debate Club, which I found very cool.” Shi-Shi had no more doubts about her choice to study at IE University. Plus, she immediately became a member of the IEU Debate Club upon arriving at campus—a decision she couldn’t possibly regret.

One of Shi-Shi’s best experiences so far was attending a three-day Model United Nations (MUN) conference in London with her debate club team. The event had an excellent turnout—which is one of the reasons she remembers it so fondly—gathering delegates from Toronto, Oregon and Belgium, just to name a few. She enjoyed making new friends and seeing old ones.

Although the preparation prior to the conference felt challenging to her team, especially as they had to research a lot of topics in a short amount of time, Shi-Shi felt it all paid off at the competition itself. In fact, for someone who is not a law student, Shi-Shi bravely embraced challenging topics given by the Legal Committee—so much so that she was awarded honorable mention for her representation of Ukraine in the Legal debate. The committee pushed the delegates to debate things such as national sovereignty and international law, as well as the prevention and punishment of genocide. This helped her master her research skills and gain more knowledge about these issues and how intergovernmental organizations relate to them.

Overall, the MUN conference offered Shi-Shi and her team a new perspective into what the world of diplomacy really looks like. It’s a world with many moving parts, and this was proven true as her team witnessed other topics being approached, including space debris and satellite crises.

Shi-Shi said that she appreciated the support offered by IE University throughout this experience with MUN. The university covered some of the students’ travel expenses and gave the students excused absence from their classes. Leading up to the MUN conference, Shi-Shi and the IEU Debate Club spent time improving their speech writing, procedure and tactics skills, among others.

For future students interested in attending a MUN conference, Shi-Shi advises to “join the IEU Debate Club to meet like-minded people who you otherwise would never meet during your time at university.” She particularly recommends the club to students pursuing a degree in humanities, as they would benefit from having the opportunity to put into practice what they learn and use the extra knowledge they get from researching in future class discussions.

While it may seem intimidating for some students to participate in smaller debates like the MiniMUNs, Shi-Shi explains that it’s a normal feeling and encourages them to do it anyway: “Everyone has to start from somewhere, so you might as well try”. She also advises that the debate training sessions on offer at IE University in September are a great way to start—they aren’t intimidating and they give students the chance to gain confidence in public speaking and speech writing through fun activities that challenge the status quo.