Lopers bound for Harvard |
| Posted by Administrator (admin) on Jan 28 2009 at 4:22 PM |
Photo courtesy of Travis Schott
From left to right back: Travis Schott, Ryan Bastian, Barnabas Kiir, Nate Janulewicz, Josh Moody, and Dr. Satoshi Machida.From left to right front: Lacey Thornsburry, Jennifer Robinson, Lacey Mayfield, Mary Wohlegemuth, Karla Bertelsen, Lindsey Hausman, and Anna Tsyrdia.
By Travis Schott
Antelope Staff
Thirteen students hailing from four different countries will attend the 2009 model United Nations Conference next month at the prestigious Harvard University. Mary Wohlgemuth, a senior political science major from Grand Island is attending the conference for her second year and said she is looking forward to a new experience.
"It will be a great opportunity to meet other students from around the nation and engage in some friendly competition," Wohlgemuth said.
A majority of the thirteen students are political science majors or minors. The diverse makeup of UNK's model UN team, who will travel to Boston to compete, consists of students from Sudan, the Bahamas and the Ukraine.
Model UN members began preparing for the conference in September. They began by selecting various countries they were interested in learning more about and possibly representing at the conference. This year the UNK selected the Latin American state of Bolivia and will represent the country at the model UN.
During their limited free time, students will research Bolivia and various other international issues including human rights, political decolonization, terrorism and natural resources to prepare for the conference. Each student will need to gather extensive knowledge about Bolivia, be prepared to discuss and debate any issue or international resolution and be able to act as though they are Bolivian United Nations representatives.
Representing the socialist Republic of Bolivia should provide students with some compelling arguments at the conference according to Matt Athey, a senior English major from Aurora. "We're representing Bolivia so things could get interesting considering the type of regime in place there, not too many schools will be representing a country with socialist ideals," Athey said.
Harvard University has held model UN conferences for the past 75 years. According to Harvard's Model UN Web site, the conference allows students from all around the world a forum to discuss some of the world's greatest issues. They hope that "constructive debates can lead to real solutions tomorrow."
The conference runs from Feb. 12-15 and students will compete for various honors during the debates.
