Ellington

Students from the UW Model United Nations (UN) Club represented Ethiopia at the national conference in New York City at the end of this past month, where they received several awards and met with UN diplomats.

The group received an “outstanding delegation” award for its representation of Ethiopia at the conference April 1. The award is the highest honor granted at the conference and is given to the top-10 percent of participating universities.

The UW also took home an outstanding-position-paper award granted to a select number of schools that presented the best position papers representing their countries’ interests at the end of the conference.

The UW Model UN Club formed four years ago, and it has attended the national conference annually.

“There is nothing else that I have seen that allows you to grow as a person, get better at research and writing skills, and learn about the world in the way that Model UN does,” said Sameer Kanal, adviser of Model UN at the UW and staff member at the conference.

Each university attending the conference is given a country to represent and forms positions based on that country’s interests. The student delegates at the national conference had the opportunity to meet with the diplomats from the country they were representing in order to more accurately represent them.

“Unfortunately, they’re very busy people, but … we had a bit of a seminar with [the Ethiopian ambassador], and it was more of a conversation than a lecture,” said Emily Elijah, the director of public relations for the UW Model UN club. “He was really helpful and pretty up-front, and I always find it really helpful to see how ambassadors actually work.”

The five-day conference is intensive, and formal speeches, moderated caucuses and collaborative work between the delegates take place.

“It’s definitely one of the more intensive conferences … you begin at 8:30 in the morning, and this one day, you don’t go to bed till 10 at night,” Elijah said.

The intensive conference schedule maintained by the delegates is meant to simulate that experience of actual diplomats.

“In order to accomplish anything in committee, you have to be able to speak in front of groups of 400-plus people, write formal legislation which reference past United Nations declarations and resolutions and collaborate with other delegates/countries on sensitive issues relating to international politics,” Elijah wrote in an e-mail.

For the first three years the UW Model UN club attended the conference, it received a “distinguished delegation” award, placing it in the top-20 percent of schools attending. This year marks the first time the group has won an outstanding-delegation award. Christopher Esh, president of the club, said that delegation consistency, teamwork and club growth facilitated the achievement. With this year’s success, Elijah said the team will be assigned a more challenging country next year.

“With every year, we are developing new challenges and new strengths,” Esh said.

Reach contributing writer Daniel Burnett at news@dailyuw.com.