The Model United Nations team, also known as Model UN, participated in the ALMUN XII Conference at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, AL on February 14 through February 16. Model UN assigns schools different countries to take part in an overall problem that the UN would face.  The 2020 Secretary-General, aka the head of the entire conference, was Clayton Lawing, a college senior majoring in hospitality management with a double minor in theatre and the Blount Scholars Program. He says that the conference was a “grand success” and that it was “one of the greatest moment of his life”, unafraid when he began to shed tears of joy at the end of the conference when students thanked him and clapped during their dismissal

 The conference is split up into 4 General Assembly committees, UNSC, UNEP, DISEC, and SOCHUM. The conference also had two other committees, Specialized Agencies and Crisis Committees. In these committees, students are assigned characters to play and make decisions based on their character’s beliefs and personality. 

This year, the Specialized Agencies consisted of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue, the International Court of Justice, and a new committee based on the Netflix series Designated Survivor.

The Crisis Committee, which can be based on either fictional worlds or past events, was comprised of The Business Plot, a committee based on Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal, which had Samuel Reece, a Montevallo alumni as an assistant Crisis Director; A Republic If You Can Keep It, based on the Texas Republic of 1845-1870; The Black Hand, based on the Serbian spy group in WWI that were responsible for the assassination of Austria-Hungary’s Archduke Franz Ferdinand; and Ad Hoc, a committee based strictly on debate skills and fast thinking, as students have no idea what their topic of discussion will be until arrival at the conference.

Over the weekend, Montevallo students battled and debated with other students from a range of 18 and over 200 students on what resolutions should and shouldn’t pass in their committee, creating alliances with some and enemies with others. 

During the award ceremony on February 16, Janie Gray was awarded the “Best Position Paper” award for her character, Sen. Olivia Lockhart in the Designated Survivor committee. Rebeca Emiliano was also awarded the “Best Position Paper” award for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) in the DISEC committee.

Members of the Model UN team include: Seniors– Abigail Heuton, Grace Carr, Sarah Lowery, Miranda Martin, Juniors– Janie Gray, Rebeca Emiliano, Ella Alexander, Jazmine Williams, Sophomores– Olivia Gilbert, Cara Nolen, Blessing Adejumo.

The Montevallo sponsors were Lee Pastor, who teaches Government, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, and sponsors SGA and Jordan Brantley, who teaches World History. They say that they are proud of this group and extremely proud of their hard work! The team plans to win even bigger at next year’s conference.