Herstory Vol.2 : Making our seat at the table

Featuring Emily Xin, a junior studying comparative literature and economics at Yale University, originally from Canada.

Herstory

The most valuable experience I have had in college in relation to leadership and womanhood is Yale Model United Nations Korea (YMUNK). Historically, for whatever reason, YMUNK has tended to have more female than male Secretaries-General. For me personally, YMUNK is my first time being in an environment where women are the customary leaders. The conference preparation process thus taught me how to make myself heard and respected as a leader. Extrapolating from the female Secretaries-General from the year before, I developed a method of melding and spurring the team amenable to my calmer disposition. I foregrounded the importance of straightforward communication and presented myself as gentle but firm each time I assigned deadlines or pointed out a problem to my teammates. Most importantly, I made sure to always have a clear and quantifiable vision for both the immediate and longer-term goals of the conference. Ultimately, the conference saw great success, both quantitatively and qualitatively: in addition to being by far the highest-grossing overseas conference for our parent organization Yale International Relations Association to date, YMUNK 223 also received overwhelmingly positive feedback from delegates and parents.

Word of Advice

Be communicative. Mentors, and more generally, individuals with more experience than you need to know what you are thinking in order to give you targeted pieces of advice and help. On the other hand, people who you are working with or trying to lead in a team setting need to know what you are thinking or struggling through in order to empathize with and respect your decisions.