''You have to put away your own personal views and work out what's best for the greater good,'' Jacobi Kohu-Morris (15) said.
It is a challenge he and fellow Logan Park High School pupil Matthew Scadden (17) are looking forward to after being selected to attend the New Zealand Model United Nations Assembly (Muna) in Wellington on July 5-8.
The duo were selected following the Otago Southland Rotary Muna at Logan Park High School at the weekend, after being named Best Muna Speakers.
Matthew was a member of the Logan Park High School Muna team (consisting of Charlie Ruffman, Blake Macalevey-Scurr and Peter Barnett) which won the Otago-Southland event for the third year in a row.
Jacobi was in an opposing team.
At a New Zealand Muna, Matthew and Jacobi will assume the roles of delegates to the United Nations and seek ways, through diplomacy and negotiation, for the world community to find solutions to global concerns, while speaking from the viewpoint of the member state they are representing.
This year, the theme for the conference is ''Looking Beyond the Millennium Development Goals'', where pupils will work together to outline the way forward for the planet.
Matthew said much of the debate at the New Zealand Muna would be focused on the Millennium Goals set by the United Nations in 2000, showing what the United Nations wanted to achieve between 2000 and 2015.
Matthew said the deadline for the UN goals was nearly on us, and it was time to consider what goals should be set beyond 2015.
''We'll be looking at ways we can develop the planet and what our next goals are.
''It's about seeing how far we've come and where we go next.''
Jacobi said climate change, humanitarian issues and how the world could cater for its growing population were likely to be the main issues up for discussion.
''Some of the goals, we've done OK on so far. But if we look at things like the environmental goals, the Earth has done very poorly,'' he said.
The pair will be among 240 secondary school delegates at the assembly.
Both said it was a great chance to experience first hand the diplomatic and decision-making processes that guide international relations.
Matthew, who recently won the best actor award at the Otago Regional Shakespeare Festival in Dunedin, is heading for the 2013 New Zealand University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival in Wellington this month.
Jacobi was runner-up in the New Zealand Race Unity Public Speaking competition in Auckland last month. He was selected to represent Winston Peters at Youth Parliament in July.
