Hunter College Model U.N. Wins Top Prize at National Conference

The Hunter College Model U.N. team was awarded the coveted Outstanding Delegation Prize at the National Model U.N. Conference in New York (NMUN-NY), which took place from March 30 to April 3.

With the U.N. Headquarters as a backdrop, the conference brings together university students from around the world to discuss issues at the forefront of international relations, from regional conflicts and peacekeeping, to human rights and economic and social development.

"This award is the culmination of a semester of intense research along with contact with diplomats from the United Nations," said Dr. Pamela Falk, Hunter's Model U.N. team Faculty Advisor and a professor in the Human Rights program at the Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College.

The Hunter team also received six awards for Outstanding Position Papers, and three peer awards for Outstanding Delegate in Committee.

Head Delegates Josephine Djonovic '14 and Audrey Stienon '14 assisted with training the Hunter team; both have led the team for several semesters and have won President Raab's Amelia Ottinger Award for Excellence in the Art of Debate. Stienon recently became the first Hunter student ever to win a Luce Scholarship.

Aside from the competition, the students had the opportunity to hear from working diplomats, including Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the U.N., who delivered the keynote address during the opening ceremony.

"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 and Hunter Model U.N. delegate Matteo Betti '14.