Model UN Earns Recognition at UConn Conference

 

This crew, though small, came home with plenty of honors from their respective delegations. Rob D’Alessandro ’16 won the Best Delegate Award for his work as the United States in the General Assembly and Alex Klein ’18 won the Most Improved Delegate Award for the progress he made throughout the weekend as Vietnam on the Disarmament Committee.

 

“We started off talking about disarming sea mines, but then about halfway through we had a crisis,” Alex said. “China released sea mines into the South China Sea, essentially covering my entire coast line and forcing me to suspend trading. That part of it was fun because I had to work hard to get other countries to help me out and I eventually got Germany and the United States to come assist me.”

 

The students at UConn that design the simulations try their best to incorporate world events into their simulations. The events of Alex’s simulation were tied to recent events in the ongoing dispute between China and several other countries about who controls the South China Sea.

 

While the conferences are a valuable learning experience for students, the social and community building elements of these types of trips are invaluable.

 

“Yes, it is intellectual and academic, but it is also a very social experience,” said Amy Enright, History Department Chair and Faculty Advisor for Model UN. “If you are someone who thinks well on your feet and can quickly assess a social situation to determine who in that situation is an ally, you can do very well at these conferences.”

 

The conference also recognized one person from each delegation that had done the intellectual work ahead of time and came to UConn with a well-researched and well-written position paper. Lincoln Zaleski ’16 earned a commendation for his research after he earned the only perfect score on a position paper in his entire delegation.

 

The recognition earned by these students gives the Rivers Model UN team a significant amount of momentum as they prepare to head to the larger and more competitive conference at Columbia University in January.