Three Students Recognized at Model UN Conference

 

The UConn Conference is the first of two major weekend conferences that the Model UN club attends each year and is considered a “teaching conference” because it gives students who are new to Model UN the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of conference competitions.

 

“Out of the eleven students we brought this year, three had never been to a conference before, and UConn gives them the opportunity to ask questions about parliamentary procedure,” said Amy Enright, the Model UN club’s faculty advisor. “Many of the committees are actually designed to be cooperative and focus on finding solutions to issues like a refugee crisis as opposed to ones where countries would be pitted against each other.”

 

Prior to the conference, students are assigned countries to represent on committees that are based on either real-word scenarios or, in the case of Nora Brown ’19, historical situations. Nora was assigned to represent Japan in a scenario based on the League of Nations in the mid-20^th century.

 

Alex received his Best Delegate award for his role as Israel in a Counter-Terrorism Committee that focused on issues surrounding the financing of terrorist organizations and how those organizations utilize child soldiers. Maddie was assigned to the role of Iraq in the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and earned her award for her part in discussions around violence against transgender people and the water crisis in the Middle East.

 

Thando won her Most Improved Delegate award for her role as the small island nation of Mauritius in debates about rising sea levels on the Environmental Programme committee.

 

Also attending the conference were Gio Frometa ’18, Izzy Hardy ’18, Michael Manasseh ’19, Natasha McMillan ’19, Becca Stachel ’19, Leighton Young ’19, and Sydney Greer ’20.