Wooster’s Model United Nations delegation wins Best Overall Delegation Award at AMUN Chicago conference

The College of Wooster Model United Nations team recently won Best Overall Delegation Award along with Outstanding Delegation Awards for six out of the team’s eight committees at the American Model United Nations Conference held in Chicago.

The Model United Nations team, which represented Mexico at the conference, consisted of 16 traveling members and many other research team members who helped with preparation and position paper writing in advance of the conference.

The committees at the conference were tasked with solving problems related to a range of global issues such as nuclear disarmament, responding the HIV/AIDS crisis, addressing racism and discrimination, mine action, and assistance to refugees.

The following students represented the traveling party.

Head Delegate: Rachel Catus, team Vice President (pictured center)

• General Assembly First Committee: Noa Davny and Hannah Eastman
• General Assembly Third Committee: Elise Jones and Yoshi Babu *Outstanding Delegation*
• General Assembly Fourth Committee: Sam Peppers and Emmy Todd *Outstanding Delegation*
• International Atomic Energy Agency: Chris Lee and Casey Hakim *Outstanding Delegation*
• Commission on the Status of Women: Abby Thompson and Mohini Sharma (Team President, pictured left) *Outstanding Delegation*
• United Nations Environment Assembly Orion Bress *Outstanding Delegation*
• Human Rights Council: Nyasha Tagwireyi and Carrie Buckwalter *Outstanding Delegation*
• Security Council: Henry Pellegrin and Elijah Shoaf (team Research Director, pictured right)

The team is advised by Kent Kille, Professor of Political Science and Global & International Studies.

“This was an outstanding performance by the entire Model UN team,” Kille said. “The traveling team and research team members worked together so well this semester to coordinate and prepare for the conference. After the Model UN conferences being held online last year, the energy and enthusiasm of being back in person was wonderful to see.”

“Model UN fits so well with Wooster’s educational emphasis on global engagement,” Kille added. “Our Model UN program is designed to encourage students undertaking a variety of educational paths to participate, which ensures that any student who wants to get such global engagement experience to help them prepare for their time after Wooster has the opportunity to do so.”

Question & Answer with Model UN team members 

What were your thoughts on the Model UN conference in general? How did they differ from your expectations going into the conference?

“Typically, we have three class years of experienced research and travel team members and a handful of new students join every year. This time, however, it was the first time for most of our team to even be on campus. Being a successful Model UN participant can require years of experience, but the success of this year’s team (who I had high hopes for), blew me away. Many of our research team members had no idea how Model UN even worked when coming into their first meeting, yet still wrote incredibly well-researched and nuanced position papers. The fact that the team snagged as many awards as we did is incredible, especially considering that only four out of the sixteen travel team members had ever been to conference before. For some context, we usually have four new travel team members in a regular year. My hopes for conference were high given the skill level of the team and the amount of preparation we put in, but I certainly was never expecting us to break Wooster’s record for awards won at an AMUN conference.”

-Mohini Sharma ’22
Global & International Studies (Economics focus) and Sociology double major
Tokyo, Japan (Indian-born)
Team President

“I was very excited to experience the conference in person again! I am a senior currently, and the last time we were able to travel for Model UN as a team was during the fall of my sophomore year. As always, in-person conferences can become quite chaotic over the course of the four days, but you do get to meet so many interesting people, and you experience problem-solving in real time. I was not sure how an in-person conference during COVID would look like, but in my opinion, it ended up feeling very familiar to the conferences I attended with the Wooster team before the pandemic started!”

-Rachel Catus ’22
Political Science (Political Theory focus) major and Spanish minor
Columbus, Ohio
Team Vice President

What was your reaction when you found out the number of awards your delegation received?

“There were so many mixed emotions, and I was doing my best not to cry! This semester was a tough transition back to in-person for many of us, and there was a lot of uncertainty about how conference would look. I was proud of everyone doing their best but seeing us win in almost every committee was incredibly rewarding. Personally, this was the last conference I would ever participate in as a delegate, and I was proud of my partner Abby and I for winning an award, allowing me to leave my days of consensus-building on a high note.”

-Mohini Sharma ‘22

“I was very impressed. As one of the executive board members for MUN at Wooster, I was incredibly proud of the team and the work they have put in this past semester. I am also proud of the resilience of team members for all their hard work despite ongoing stress from the pandemic, as well as other life issues. This has been a very difficult past two years and I am so happy to see that people are trying their best to stay engaged with the activities that they participate in on campus.”

-Rachel Catus ‘22

How do you feel your Wooster education and your participation in Model UN on campus prepares you for your life beyond Wooster?

“Model UN has prepared me for life beyond Wooster in a multitude of ways. It has fostered my speaking, communication, and leadership skills in valuable ways that I would not have experienced otherwise. I have learned to work outside of my comfort zone. After Wooster, I am going into the field of social work. Model UN has prepared me for this path as well since I have learned to adapt to working with many different kinds of people and personalities.”

–Rachel Catus ‘22

“Both Wooster and Model UN have taught me the importance of the intersection of knowledge acquirement, processing, and application. Whether in class, or during conference, not only am I constantly processing new information, but I am learning how to apply it as well. Furthermore, skills of public speaking and consensus building will serve me well in the future regardless of what passion I pursue.”

-Mohini Sharma ‘22

Published Dec. 16, 2021

Posted in News on December 16, 2021.