Our Story

Model UN Academy was envisioned by Momin Ahmed in 2024, who first recognized the urgency of global awareness during conversations with his peers. Despite the rapidly evolving international issues that were shaping the world, Momin was stunned to find that many of his friends knew little about them. This disconnect between global events and student understanding revealed an urgent educational gap.

At the time, Momin was serving as an Executive Board Member of his high school’s 114-person Model UN program. He had already qualified for 2 international conferences and earned both a national and an international award—experiences that gave him a deep understanding of the power of Model UN to educate and inspire.

Determined to use that power to bridge the gap he had discovered, Momin began writing original Model UN guides and distributing them for free to local schools. When educators and students responded with overwhelming enthusiasm, Momin saw firsthand the potential of Model UN to bridge educational divides and spark civic engagement.

Motivated by this early momentum, Momin expanded his efforts—authoring more guides, creating example materials, and hosting online webinars to reach students across the country. These grassroots initiatives soon evolved into Model UN Academy.

What began as a local push to bring global issues into classrooms has since grown into a global mission for education, diversity, and collaboration. Today, Model UN Academy offers free resources in over 100 languages, connecting students of all backgrounds to international networks and equipping the next generation with the tools to understand, discuss, and lead on the world’s most pressing challenges.

The Problem

Today, countless students around the world are eager to engage with global issues—but often lack the tools, guidance, or access to do so effectively. While understanding diplomacy, international relations, and critical thinking is crucial for addressing today’s challenges, quality educational resources on these topics are frequently expensive, outdated, or limited to students in well-funded schools and privileged communities.

This leaves thousands of passionate, capable young people—especially in underserved areas—without the opportunities they need to become informed advocates and future leaders on the global stage. Many schools lack trained mentors, up-to-date materials, or multilingual content. Even when students are motivated to learn and take action, they’re often left to navigate complex global issues alone, without support or guidance.

We believe that access to knowledge and the ability to advocate for change shouldn’t depend on a student’s zip code, income level, or native language. That’s why we created a platform to make education about global issues accessible to every student, everywhere.

At our core, we’re not just educating students about global issues—we’re empowering them to become advocates who can shape a better future for all.

Mission Statement

As the world’s largest youth-led educational Model UN nonprofit, Model UN Academy is dedicated to cultivating the next generation of informed global citizens and leaders. Through accessible, high-quality resources and a powerful organizational model, we empower students from all backgrounds to engage critically with international issues and advocate for a more just and connected world—ensuring that opportunity is never a barrier to participation.

Our Impact

Model UN Academy is the world's largest youth-led educational Model UN nonprofit. We've provided free, original Model UN resources to 16,100 students from 230 high schools across 48 U.S. states and 36 countries. Our content is available in 104 languages—a total translation of 1,296,464 words.

We've been profiled on the front page of the Chicago Tribune (Life + Travel Section), featured in Harlan Cohen's Hinsdale Community Speaker Series, and aggregated by Apple News, Google News, Yahoo News, Newsbreak, Illinois School Network, Global News Insights, PressReader, D86 Strong, Hinsdale Township District 86 News, Hinsdale Central High School News, and Good News.

We're a proud partner of MedGlobal and endorsed by the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill International Relations Association. In addition, our advisory board comprises Harlan Cohen, 7x New York Times bestselling author; Dr. Zaher Sahloul, President and Co-Founder of MedGlobal; and Sean Seymore, PhD, Centennial Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University.

Why Model UN Academy?