For the third consecutive year, Brigham Young University’s Model United Nations program won two top honors, this time representing Syria and India at the recent National Model United Nations conference.
BYU’s teams came back from the New York competition as the most decorated in its more than 25-year history. Both delegations won the highest designation, “Outstanding Delegation,” an award given to just 10 of the competing 193 delegations. Both delegations also won policy-writing awards.
“This has been an extraordinary experience to study and learn about diplomacy firsthand,” said Dylan Roberts, a Model UN teaching assistant and public relations major who competed in New York on Syria’s General Assembly 4th Committee. “The greatest recognition came from the comments of other students who appreciated working with BYU students throughout the week.”
The conference continues to mirror its real world counterpart, the United Nations, as universities from all over the United States and around the world participated, including students from Egypt, Japan, China, India, Italy, Canada, Mexico, Ecuador and Germany.
While in New York City, BYU students attended a fireside, cultural events and a briefing with His Excellency Nirupam Sen, India’s ambassador to the United Nations, at the Permanent Mission of India. Sen offered students strategic advice and feedback on specific questions students faced at the conference.
This year BYU Model UN alumni served on the conference staff. Drew Ludlow, Sarah Kemney and Jana Kopienig helped run three different committees focusing on the Yugoslav Tribunal, narcotic drugs and disarmament.
For the first time the NMUN conference allowed each committee to select students for specific commendation. As a result of peer voting, six BYU students received individual committee honors, including Middoni Ramos and Samuel Weeks (India—CCPJ), Carl Britton and Maybelline Smithee (India—ECOSOC) and Zachary Davis and Marcilyn Mann (India—IHP).
The conference was held at the Marriot Marquis in Times Square and the United Nations in New York City. Program advisors Cory W. Leonard, William O. Perry and Adam Fife said that students from all majors and backgrounds are welcome to join the class, listed as IAS 351R. Next year a new set of students will begin the two-semester process that culminates in the New York.
The program is sponsored by the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies with generous support from the Division of Continuing Education.
For more information, please contact BYU Model United Nations at (801) 422-6921, mun@byu.edu or visit 120 Herald R. Clark Building.
Writer: Cory Leonard
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