Our Team

Who We Are:

We are a 501c(3) organization dedicated to making the educational extracurricular activity known as Model United Nations accessible to homeschooled students in the greater Tampa Bay area.

To this end, we run a competitive team of homeschooled high school students each year, offering our students education in politics, public speaking, and international relations through expert coaching from our experienced team of dedicated volunteers. We offer students the opportunity to compete as part of a team at large conference competitions in the high school Model United Nations circuit in Florida and beyond.

We also host single-day Model UN Committees in various formats in the Tampa Bay area throughout the year. These committees are open to all high school and college students, both homeschooled and not, and present a fantastic opportunity for any student to experience the fun of Model United Nations as an affordable single-day activity close to home!

It all started with a need…

Our founder and head coach, Matthew Youngster, founded the team in 2016 during his freshman year of college to fill a need he observed during his high school years as a homeschooled student in the Tampa Bay Area. Matthew had competed in the high school Model UN circuit as a member of the Florida Virtual School (FLVS) team. However, Matthew recognized the need for a local team with in-person training and meetings to allow other homeschooled students to participate in the Model UN circuit as a part of a real, serious team of like-minded students.

And so, TBHMUN was born.

Starting with six students in that first year, TBHMUN has continued to grow each year.

In the years our team has been competing, our delegates have won dozens of individual awards.

Soon, we started not only coaching our team members to send them to conferences but also hosting our own, local, single-day crisis committees that any local high schoolers can compete in to experience Model UN!

How It Works

Each year, we recruit homeschooled high school and middle school students to participate in our travel teams. Our talented staff, led by Head Coach Matthew Youngster, provides a comprehensive introductory course of weekly lectures and participatory team activities, along with constant support to help our students build the knowledge, skills, and confidence they need to succeed in the fast-paced and demanding world of Model UN.

Our High School delegates participate in four conferences each year,

• KnightMUN at the University of Central Florida in Orlando in mid-November;

• GatorMUN at the University of Florida in Gainesville in late January;

• NAIMUN hosted by Georgetown University in Washington DC in mid February, and;

• FHSMUN, in Altamonte Springs, FL, in late February.

When we register our team for each conference, they assign us a country that our delegates will represent and a list of committees we will have the option of placing our delegates on. We take into consideration both our students’ preferences, as well as their strengths and weaknesses to decide the best assignments in matching each student to a committee and position.

Why Join Our Team?

Is it possible to do Model UN on your own? Sure. But it’s a lot more difficult and a lot less fun when you’re trying to do it alone. Our teams offer a threefold advantage to homeschoolers looking to participate in this fantastic extracurricular:

• Instructive and supportive coaching from our talented staff, individualized to each student’s needs;

• The camaraderie and peer support of being part of a team of fellow local homeschoolers;

• The financial advantage of sharing costs of coaching, accommodations, and conference fees.