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Posted: March 2, 2022, by Stephanie Troutman

PSIA students again participated in the Southeast Regional Model United Nations (SRMUN) conference, this time November 18-20, 2021 in Atlanta, GA. The theme of this year's conference was "Fostering Global Youth Empowerment and Leadership" and included approximately 350 student delegates from 35 schools representing more than 45 of the world's countries. Our delegation consisted of 10 members from each of the two Model United Nations (POLS 3505) courses taught by Dr. Jon Miner (Dahlonega) and Dr. Bibek Chand (Gainesville), and 5 members of the Model UN-G Club (Dahlonega). We represented three countries at the Conference — Afghanistan (Dr. Miner's DAH class); Costa Rica (Dr. Chand's GVL class); and Romania (MUN-G club).

Drs. Miner and Chand

In addition to the inherent reward of meeting, interacting with and socializing with peers from approximately 27 colleges and universities from across the US, many of our #PSIAfamily were rewarded with "formal" awards present by the SRMUN leadership. The awards "haul" included:

• Conference-wide award for outstanding position paper award – Costa Rica (as a whole delegation)

The Costa Rican delegation

• Committee level award for Outstanding Position Paper for UNESCO – Afghanistan

Dylan Martin & Steven Bullock

• Committee level award for Outstanding Position Paper for G-77 – Costa Rica

Litzy Garcia & Stephanie Garcia Medina

• Committee level award for Outstanding Position Paper for UNICEF Executive Board – Costa Rica

Norma Martinez & Jelma Flores-Mota

A point of MAJOR pride – there were eight Committees active at the Conference. Do the math – PSIA students took 40% of the Position Paper awards!!

SRMUN conferences simulate UN committees, enabling delegates to apply concepts of international relations and global governance, including positive-sum cooperation in a real-time negotiation. This offers students the opportunity to research, present, negotiate, write, and vote on resolutions written by students themselves. As such, PSIA students at SRMUN conferences get to work with colleagues from numerous colleges and universities around the country, hone their negotiation skills, and make friends from other educational institutions.

We offer the Model United Nations (POLS 3505) course every fall on both the Dahlonega and the Gainesville campus. The club, called Model UN-G, was founded in 2014 and competes at 2-3 conferences each year. It also organizes a Model UN conference every spring semester.

Fall 2021 TEAMS:

• Costa Rica: — Jacob Walls (BS-POLS); Colton Blakley (BS-POLS); Makenna Greene (History); Yvette Zamudio (BS-POLS); Cody (Buster) Chambers (BS-POLS); Christopher Rodriguez (BS-POLS); Litzy Garcia (BS-POLS); Stephanie Garcia Medina (BS-POLS); Jelma Flores-Mota (BS-POLS,); Norma Martinez (BS-POLS)
• Afghanistan: — Dylan Martin (BS-POLS); Steven Bullock (IA); Caroline Beach (Cybersecurity); Ben Yetman (History); Michael Retzer (IA); Marion Crossfield (pre-law); Alex Gayne (IA); Jacob Barnes (pre-law); Avery Johnson (IA); Renee Gluzman (IA)
• Romania: — Jenna Patterson (MAIA); Jacob Tighe (IA, Dah); AC Anderson (pre-law, DAH); Hyunbean Park (IA, Dah); Nathan Hines (pre-law, GVL)