For three days, six Longwood students attended their first Model United Nations (UN) conference together in Charlotte, N.C. The group was assigned to represent the country Iraq.
The conference began Thursday, March 30 and ended Saturday, April 1. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Flagler College, Pace University and Radford University were other colleges that participated alongside Longwood in the conference. The conference allowed for up to 12 people to attend from a single school.
Throughout the semester, the students at Longwood met prior to the conference in Ruffner Hall with their faculty adviser Dr. Cole, working together to gather the necessary information about their assigned country. They also met to discuss how they would write their discussion papers for the conference.
According to sophomore political science major Joe Hyman, there were a few different topics for the students to discuss at the conference that were released to the students prior to the start. Each country was assigned to a different committee with a different topic and expected to argue their side as their country.
“We talked about different topics such as modern and sustainable energy, gender based sexual violence, sustainable housing and other topics that pertain to foreign policy,” said Hyman.
The Longwood students hope to turn the Model UN program into an independent study with a professor or remain as a student run organization next year.
“At this conference, we were able to get a perspective on how other countries interact, particularly with larger countries such as the U.S., but also provided an opportunity to network with likeminded students from across the country,” said Hyman.
Longwood received many compliments from the people running the conference on their level of performance especially for their first time, according to Hyman.
The organization seeks to recruit more students through interest meetings, word of mouth and promotion of Model UN though the politics club. Model UN participants plan to hold interest meetings throughout the rest of this semester and into next semester. According to Hyman, Model UN is a great opportunity even for students outside the political science major. He encouraged people who are not necessarily “politically minded” to consider giving it a chance.
“It (Model UN) definitely shapes your perspective of how you view other nations. It really makes you put yourself in other people’s shoes,” said Hyman.
