The Montevallo Model UN team, sponsored by Lee Pastor, attended the University of Alabama’s tenth Model United Nations conference in Tuscaloosa from Friday, Feb. 9 through Sunday, Feb. 11.

The attendees, ten of whom were Montevallo students, represented a variety of countries that they were assigned in the general assembly. Students from schools all around the southeast attended, with some attendees being from as far away as New York. In each committee, a chair oversees the delegates and their discussions and sets rules to maintain order.

“What I liked about my committee was how inclusive it was,” senior and award recipient Riley Key said.   “There were other delegates in the committee with me that had never done Model UN before and the chair was incredibly helpful in teaching them parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order.”

In the general assembly, six Montevallo students represented four countries (Egypt, Italy, Kuwait, and Venezuela), and they had to conduct their own research on their given nation and write position papers identifying their country’s viewpoint on a given topic.

These students were assigned specific committees, such as the UN Security Council, and the entire conference was patterned after the actual United Nations. While role-playing as ambassadors from their given countries, the attendees made efforts to work out resolutions to solve hypothetical problems through gaining consensus among countries, all while embodying the ideals and standpoints of their nations.

The other four Montevallo students, rather than representing countries in the general assembly, portrayed characters in the crisis committee, which had such subcommittees as Scooby Doo, the Illuminati, and the Johnson Administration. These delegates responded to given crises as characters in these settings, and two of Montevallo’s students won awards from this category.

Key and junior Miriam Hernandez were both awarded best crisis committee position paper.

“I love Model UN because it gives students the opportunity to develop their deliberation skills in real world situations,” Pastor said.  “I hope that some will consider careers in diplomacy or international relations because of this experience.”