The Girl Behind the Gavel
A quick Q&A with Secretary-General Hannah Fu.
Being Secretary-General is no easy feat. It is especially hard when you are the head of the revamp— tasked with the paradoxical responsibility of respecting tradition while bearing the burden of preparing new resources to welcome this institution to a new age. Yes, this job is a big one but it’s important to see the girl behind the gavel. THIMUN Singapore Secretary-General Hannah Fu handles her role with grace, beauty and too much modesty – get to know her down below in this exclusive one-on-one interview.
Q: Tell Us A Bit About Yourself.
A: “My name is Hannah Fu and I’m a current senior at International Bilingual School at Shinju Science Park. And I guess I’ve been doing MUN for around six years, and it is an honour for me to serve as the Secretary-General for a time in Singapore this year.”
Q: So How Did You Get Involved With MUN? What Made You First Sign Up?
A: “So I actually signed up by accident. I mean, not really by accident, but it was just kind of random. So when I was in sixth grade, because our school hosts an annual conference, I looked in and there’s the opening ceremony, and people started to come in with professional suits. And I just managed to bump into that. And I was like, oh, what event is this? This is so cool! And they’re also professional— I just want to be like them. So then I joined the next year! I just joined the MUN club, and I also started working in our school’s annual conference as an admin. I thought that MUN would be a great opportunity to improve my public speaking because I used to be really shy and didn’t really want to talk with people I didn’t know.”
Q: Do you have any tips for first-time delegates?
“I think generally, a lot of people tell delegates to look at the manual. I mean, obviously, the manual is very helpful, but I feel like sometimes it’s very overwhelming, especially because the manual is very, very long. So I think the general things that you should do, that you can probably do without knowing a lot of procedures, is do a lot of research about your country’s stance, because it’ll serve the faces for everything else, and try to know the procedure at least, like the flow of debate. It might be hard if you’re not in a club where they can teach you what the flow is like, or you’re not able to do mock debate, but I think there are some videos online which are good representations. when you’re doing your first conference as a delegate, it’s always very overwhelming. I remember my first time as a delegate. I didn’t speak. I spoke once, and it was a POI. So I think you can start with something you feel more comfortable with, either an amendment, where you can prepare fully, you can prepare your speech, and you can also prepare your amendment, obviously, but then if you want to keep it short and you’re very nervous about doing something wrong, then you can just start with a POI. I think that’s usually pretty easy.”
Q: How did you become Secretary General at THIMUN?
A: “Hmm, I don’t know exactly. I started as Admin, and then I was a delegate in different conferences. I started chairing in around 10th grade. And then I also became DSG for our school’s conference. And then this year, we just finished our annual conference, and I was a parliamentarian, which is like an equivalent to the Secretary-General. Before that, I just tried to apply for the Secretary-General position, and I thought maybe it’d be a better experience if I could expand my MUN circle a bit and meet more people. It’d be a great opportunity for me. So I just tried, and unexpectedly I got it! I’m very honoured to take this position.”
Q: What is the most unexpected challenge or benefit that you are expecting as Secretary General?
A: “I think the most unexpected challenge will be that there’s a lot of things that we get to decide because Singapore hasn’t been in person for quite a long time— four or five years— ‘m not sure how many years, but it’s been quite a long time. So I think as the executive team, we make most things from scratch, which means, for example, if we’re doing chair briefings, we also need to start that from scratch, and then also need to clear our own student officer manual, stuff like that. So that was a challenge that we had to overcome. I think the perk is also kind of related. It’s because there’s so much, there’s no precedent that I need to follow, I will be able to accommodate what we believe in as a team and set our own rules. And, yeah, that’s quite nice, because we got to discuss and do it the way that we believe would be better for everyone.”
Q: What is your vision for this year’s conference, and what specific initiatives are you taking to achieve it?
A: “I mean, generally, I really would like this conference to be a great experience for all the participants, whether it’s directors, delegates or chairs – that they know what they’re doing and they’re having fun and also experiencing a productive time debating these issues and enjoying their whole week. Probably I would also want them to maybe step outside their comfort zone and learn more about either their country or their issue or just meet others. It’s always great to socialise and you get to learn from different cultures and people. I would say that’s what I have envisioned.”
Q: If you had to describe the energy of the conference in one word, what would it be?
A: “That word would probably be enthusiastic. I don’t even know that’s the right word, but I would want the energy to just be enthusiastic. Everyone can just be very collaborative. It’d be really nice to see that happen.”
