The Prague Student Summit is a unique project that educates high schoolers and university students about the problems of today’s world. It was founded in the middle of the 90s as The Prague Model of the UN by a couple of dozens of university students who wanted to gain more knowledge about the international happening. For more than two decades this happening has grown into a project that deepens knowledge of more than three hundred high schoolers and college students from six European countries systematically every year.
On the base that was built during the first seasons of the project AMO was founded. It belongs to one of the most important nongovernmental organizations in the field of analysis of the international relations and is the organizer of the Prague Student Summit. It organizes a number of other project that are aiming for support and development of education and civil society. Thanks to the professional background and years of experience, the AMO can offer a very integrated view into the field of the international relations, human rights, environment or economy to the participants of Summit.
The medium for educating participants is a diplomatic simulation. Students sit in authorities that copy the structure and the agenda of the real international organizations with from fifteen to sixty colleagues. Each student represents one of the countries of the international commonwealth that was assigned to him. His goal is to defend its position as realistically as possible on a simulated diplomatic ground. During five preparatory meetings they are continually educated about the problems from a couple of thematic areas by almost seventy college volunteers. The summit of this process is the Final Conference where the students negotiate. In April 2016 the project culminated for the 21st time and currently the preparations for 22nd season are running.
How can I participate?
The admission procedure to the UN, the NATO and the EU Models is what starts the program of each season. It runs from the September 1st to the middle of October and the students are signing up for the countries they wish to represent during the year. They have to send an admission paper that is judged by a team of members and collaborators of the AMO. Last year there were 542 candidates out of which only 53% were picked into one of the three models.
Czech speaking high schoolers can sit in six committees of the Model UN. They make from three to five membered delegations with their friends or schoolmates. The high schoolers who want to deepen their language skills can try to apply to the Model NATO which sits in English. The Model EU that faithfully simulates negotiations in the EU Council is offered to college students. The youngest group is the of the Visegrad group thanks to which the PSS gets an international dimension. The Model V4+ is offered to not only Czech students but also their colleagues from Hungary, Germany, Poland, Austria and Slovakia who come to Prague only for the time of the Final Conference.
Thank you so much for the whole Summit, it really changes lives. It was wonderful, see you next year!
Model UN participant Tweet it Pass
How does it all take place?
The participants come to Prague during autumn and winter where five preparatory meetings are held. In the morning part there are guests from various fields, panel debates and thematic seminars. Summit is not only about deepening factual information. The project offers involvement to the interactive seminars, discussions and to find and formulate their positions. The participants are given a chance to develop their rhetoric, communication, argumentative, negotiating and language skills that they can apply in their future study and professional carrier. The guests with whom the participants could have discussed in the last season were for example Jiří Dientsbier, Josef Šlerka, Radek Špicar or Dominik Feri. In the past following figures spoke on the preparatory meetings: Ladislav Špaček, Eliška Coolidge Hašková, Erik Tabery, Martin Bursík, Jan Železný, Jiřina Šiklová or Vladimíra Dvořáková.
The Final Conference (unlike the preparatory meetings) is completely led in the spirit of intensive negotiations. In the past there were appearances by many guests at the opening ceremony, for example Václav Havel, Bohuslav Svoboda, Petr Pavel, Lubomír Zaorálek or Karel Schwarzenberg. The ceremony is followed by three days during which the participants become diplomates and use their knowledge that they gained during the preparatory meetings.
If you are a high schooler or a college students who is interested in international happening, do not hesitate to sign up to one of the models in September. The Summit is waiting for you!
