By Brienna Williams | During the first week of February seven Howard Payne students traveled to Rome, Italy to represent HPU at an International Model United Nations conference. Out of 15 different nations represented at the conference Howard Payne was the only school from the United States.
Model United Nations (MUN) is a conference in which schools from across the globe gather and participate in a United Nations (UN) conference simulation. The students each represent a country and a current issue from which they must argue and present solutions from the country’s perspective.
Jake Leher, Junior pre-law and honors academy major, explained that “the goal [of MUN] is to accurately represent your country and compromise with other delegates to solve an issue. This solution involves a resolution that has to be passed by the end of the conference which usually takes 2-3 days of debating, compromising, and discussing.”
Despite the tough competition two HPU students received high awards at the conference, and several other students received shout-outs.
Jessica Swonger, senior jurisprudence, psychology, and honors academy major, received the highest award as Best Advocate of the advanced committee she was a part of.
“It was a very difficult committee and not one that is easy to participate in or win an award in,” said Swonger.
Sidney Ganus, junior secondary English literature education and honors academy major, who was competing for only the second time in her collegiate career, received Honorable Mention within her committee.
Aside from their personal achievements, the students’ professionalism and positive attitude made an incredible impression on the other teams competing.
Dr. Dave Claborn, HPU Professor of Government commented that “the conference hosts, students themselves, one from a Swiss University and two from John Cabot University in Rome, approach [him] multiple times to say ‘[They] really can’t overstate how impressed [they] are with the HPU delegation.’”
Being the only team from America opened a lot of unique opportunities and experiences for the team.
Charles Lewis, senior marketing and honors academy major shared that his “favorite part of these international trips is always meeting the people. We have the blessed opportunity to be the minority at this conference surrounded by people that were brought up in different cultures, have different life experiences, and think in drastically different ways.”
While in Rome the students also had the opportunity to visit several historical landmarks and spend a couple days as tourists.
“We saw the Coliseum, the Roman Forum, the Pantheon, Saint Peter’s Basilica, and so many other great monuments. My personal favorite was the visit to the Vatican. It was magnificent to see all of the incredible artwork and towering statues,” said Lewis.
MUN conferences allow students spend hours each day with the teams of students from other countries and by the end of the conference they have formed friendships and connections with these team members from across the world.