The Pepperdine Model United Nations team picked up three awards this week at the 2012 National Model United Nations Conference. After more than seven months of preparation, the team of 17 students traveled to New York City to represent the South American nation of Colombia.
Senior Vice President Jordan Grimwood and junior Jasmine Aarabi participating in the General Assembly first committee, junior Catherine Morton on the General Assembly second committee and senior president Cameron Vea in the Conference on Sustainable Development all won awards for Outstanding Position Papers.
“Finding out about the award made me realize that even if I may not be the first person to jump to his feet after a call for a motion, I can still have a voice in my writing and maybe even save the world — even if it is an fake one,” Morton said.
Each group is tasked with representing a different nation or international organization. Participants research the historical and political backgrounds of their country in order to form an understanding of how that entity would act during a U.N. session. Team members present position papers, detailing their nation’s stance on any given issue in the various committees that discuss and debate pressing topics and current issues. Delegates on General Assembly Plenary committees get the opportunity to hold votes inside the actual U.N. headquarters building in Manhattan.
“Every country has issues they need to deal with,” vice president senior Jordan Grimwood said. “For Colombia, two of our biggest issues are drug trafficking and rebel groups.”
Students began research at the beginning of the fall semester on U.N. operating procedure and standard conventions of participant groups. They then focus study on the issues to be covered at the conference, which can vary by year. Each team must have a broad understanding of what topics will come up during committee meetings.
“Preparation is interesting, because everyone in the club comes from a different background and has varying knowledge coming in,” Grimwood said. “A sports medicine major might like working on women’s health or child malnutrition. A finance major could do really well with topics like the World Bank and microfinance. Computer science? Cyberwarfare!”
After nations were assigned, the team began to investigate Colombian foreign affairs and policy positions in preparation for representing that country accurately at the conference.
“In some cases, students from the country you are supposed to represent are at this conference,” Vea said. “Colombian students in this conference have approached some of our students and told them that we are doing a good job of representing Colombia and its policies.”
Morton added, “Coming into this, I knew two things about Colombia: cocaine and Shakira. But, somehow twenty hours of session later, I can actually string together a few sentences about Colombia’s view of the public and private sector, and I’ve even met a few actual Colombians.”
The model U.N. tradition dates back as far as the 1920s, when students would participate in civic practice of the League of Nations sessions, the U.N.’s predecessor organization. National Model United Nations started in 1968 and seeks to educate students on the function and role of the U.N. as well as foster a better understanding of contemporary global issues from different viewpoints.
“We get stuck only thinking about issues from an American perspective, and it’s important to remember that every state is acting in its own self-interests,” Grimwood said. “By representing a state that disagrees with the U.S.’s positions and by knowing why, there is the possibility of a really mind-opening experience.
The annual conference brings together more than 5,000 students from around the planet to participate. In addition to teams from around the United States, teams from Canada, The United Kingdom, Germany, France and Belgium, among others, were also present.
“Although the conference is called National Model United Nations, it is very reflective of the diversity in the actual United Nations,” Vea said.
