Dear Delegates,
Welcome to the UN Peacebuilding Commission (UNPBC)! My name is Grant Dubler, and as your Chair, it is my sincere pleasure to welcome you to the 26th Ivy League Model United Nations Conference. In addition to writing your background guide and answering any questions you may have, I am here to provide you with your greatest (and first!) Model UN experience ever. This committee may be for novice delegates, but we will not fail to impress. During the four days of this conference, you will develop solutions to international challenges, gain a command of parliamentary procedure and the rules of the UN, and make lasting friendships while debating topics and collaborating on resolutions.
A little about me: I am currently a junior studying Political Science and Diplomatic History at Penn. I am active in student government, have served in several leadership positions in my fraternity, and am currently “studying abroad” in Washington, D.C. in order to do legislative work for my Congressman. In my spare time, I enjoy tracking Congressional races, playing basketball, and watching reruns of The West Wing. My future plans include law school and an eventual run for the House of Representatives for Florida. This is my third year working at ILMUNC, and I am excited to be serving as a committee chair for the first time. In past years I have been an Assistant Secretary-General and Vice Chair of SPECPOL.
It is my hope that your experience in this committee inspires you the way my experience as a delegate at ILMUNC in high school inspired me. In 2007, my friends and I were motivated to take action against the genocide in Darfur as a result of a committee that one of us had served on at ILMUNC. Since that conference in 2007, our non-profit organization (For Darfur, Inc.) has provided hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of aid packages for refugees in Sudan and Chad through our partnership with Doctors Without Borders. We were also lucky enough to be able to team up with Kanye West and Rihanna in May 2008 to host an awareness concert and fundraiser in that helped spread the word about the horrors in the region to the whole South Florida community. When we started For Darfur, Inc., none of us was older than 17 and most of us were novice delegates at ILMUNC, so you never know when the crazy ideas you come up with at ILMUNC are going to end up having an impact around the world!
At conference, please let me know if you have any questions about the background guides, the conference, or college life in general (I will try my hardest to get you into Penn, but I have absolutely no connections in the Admissions Office). I am looking forward to a fun and productive weekend and to meeting all of you in person. Get ready for some diplomacy!
All the best,
Grant Dubler
Chair, United Nations Peacebuilding Commission
Ivy League Model United Nations Conference XXVI