Help the UMaine Model UN Team attend WorldMUN!

My name is Ragan Toppan, I'm a senior at the University of Maine and the president of the Model UN team and International Affairs Association. Our team has recently been accepted to go to the 2024 Harvard University's World Model United Nations Conference in Taipei, Taiwan from March 10 to 14th. Attending this conference would be an honor and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for students in our club. The Conference is full of non-partisan activities focused on foreign policy and building connections between the future leaders of the world. Very much like the real United Nations, students will represent a country or a person in their committee throughout the conference. The University of Maine has a small International Affairs Program, and thus our team works very hard to attend conferences.

Our team qualified and fully fundraised for WorldMUN in 2020, however as a result of the pandemic, the team was unfortunately unable to attend the conference. Since then, this is the first year that we have qualified for WorldMUN, and the first year in a long time where we will be attending two conferences in one year. This is a big conference for a little team, but we believe the UMaine delegation has so much to bring to the conference and will represent Maine well.

Due to the nature of going to Taipei for a week, the conference is expensive. Our team must pay for flights, lodging, food, and transportation. While the University of Maine is an excellent school, it does not have significant funding set aside for the International Affairs Department. The club itself will be fundraising over the next couple of months to raise what we can on our own, but flights are a minimum of $7,200 for 6 students. Money from this gofundme would pay for our flights and any money left over will go towards transportation costs and other fees.

This conference is a massive opportunity for a group of young Mainers to meet people from all around the world and bring that experience back to the University of Maine. Even if you cannot donate, please feel free to share.

Thank you for your support,

Ragan