The Hunter College Model U.N. team won the the Outstanding Delegation Prize, the top award at the National Model U.N. conference in New York (NMUN-NY) last week.
NMUN-NY of the National Collegiate College Association brings together over 5,000 university students from around the world. Delegates discuss issues at the forefront of international relations with U.N. Headquarters as a backdrop. The conferences foster global citizenship and address current world issues related to regional conflicts, peacekeeping, human rights, women and children, economic and social development, and the environment.
The Hunter Team was also the proud recipient of other top awards at the competition, which includes colleges from around the country and the world. Hunter won Outstanding Position Papers for: General Assembly First Committee, General Assembly Second Committee, United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat) , Human Rights Council, U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), and Security Council (China); Outstanding Delegate in Committee (Peer Award) for: General Assembly Second, General Assembly Fourth Committee, and the Human Rights Council.
The Team’s Faculty adviser, Professor Pamela Falk, was elected to the National Collegiate College Association’s National Model U.N.-New York Advisory Council in 2012 and organizes two Delegate Seminars at the conference. The Advisory Council welcomed the keynote speaker for Opening Ceremony — U.S.’s U.N. Ambassador Samantha Power, who spoke to the 2,500 students at the first segment of the competition.
“This award is the culmination of a semester of intense research along with contact with diplomats from the United Nations,” Professor Falk said. “The Hunter program is a flagship program of the College: they have competed in Asia, Latin America and Europe, and they have garnered a reputation for excellence in debate and collegiality with fellow students.”
Adding to Hunter’s expertise were delegates John-David Noguera and Devin Wellspeak who both speak fluent Chinese, an advantage when they represented the People’s Republic of China on the Security Council. The majority of other delegates on the Team were first year
competitors, a tribute to their skill: among them, they speak over a dozen languages: Zahura Alam, Léonor d’Albiousse, Nickolas Ask, Michael Bellamy, Matteo Betti, Ram Bhadra, Dania Darwish, Mariana Espinoza, Yohan Garcia, Ana Guillcatanda, Abraham Gutman, Valentyna Hlushak, Anan Khatib, Hyemin Lee, Linda Lin, Gili Loew, Tanvir Mahtab, Oza Humza, Alexander Paraskeva, Andrea Parejo, Isaac Paulino, Helana Teyad, Michael Roh, Alexander Simon Fox, Allie Shafran, John Adam Strub, Daniel Struszczyk, Astou Thiane and advised by Hunter College alumni Kevin Cadavid, who is now working for a New York investment bank, and Hunter senior, Abdul Rad.
The training of the team was assisted by Head Delegates Josephine Djonovic and Audrey Stienon; both have led the team for several semesters and have won President Raab’s Amelia Ottinger Award for Excellence in the Art of Debate.
Professor Falk arranged for the Hunter students to be briefed by both the China Mission to the United Nations and the German Mission to the United Nations and in recognition for the work that the Hunter College Team had accomplished representing Germany, the Mission in New York awarded Professor Falk an actual piece of the Berlin Wall, which she is donating to the Hunter College Leon & Toby Cooperman Library.
In the fall, the Hunter College Model UN team returned from Washington D.C. with top awards for its representations of Afghanistan, Azerbaijan and the Netherlands at this fall’s National Model U.N. conference as well. “Participating at the conference made me realize that diplomacy is not about winning, but about the willingness to put aside differences and find points of agreement across cultures and political ideas,” said senior Matteo Betti.
