A United Front

Climate change. Gender equity. Economic inequality. Global health.

These are a few of the existential challenges confronting humanity. As one of the world’s premier intergovernmental entities, the United Nations (UN) strives to resolve these and other issues such as preserving international peace and improving living standards for the globe’s citizens. The UN’s Model United Nations (Model UN) conferences give California Lutheran University and other college students around the world opportunities to simulate the roles the agency’s Member States, or General Assembly, play in creating policies to address these and other complex matters.

In April, nine Cal Lutheran students and faculty advisor Richard Neve, PhD, traveled to New York City for five days to participate in this year’s National Model UN Conference, which welcomed approximately 3,900 international university students and faculty members. The conference lets participants discover diverse perspectives and more importantly, interact with their peers from across five continents.

“A crash course in diplomacy”

Cal Lutheran’s Political Science Department oversees the university’s Model UN club and student delegation which has participated in Model UN since 1995. Through engaging in the conferences, students represent actual delegates from one of the UN’s 193 Member States. In previous years, Cal Lutheran’s students have represented Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Cuba. They acted as delegates for Costa Rica at this year’s event. 

“I believe some of the most exciting parts of the conference were meeting so many new people,” said Sarah Stephan, a senior majoring in Political Science with a specialization in law and public policy. “Being grouped with students from across the United States as well as many international students allowed for numerous different perspectives to be brought to the conference.” 

Another student delegate in her senior year, Millennia Gamez, concurs with Stephan’s assessment of the event adding how she enjoyed learning about other cultures and political stances. This was the fourth conference Gamez has participated in since she began her studies at CLU with the first being virtual with Harvard University in 2021. 

Gamez, who serves as the Model UN Club’s co-head delegate, shares that preparation is crucial for conference participation. 

“It involves learning procedure, preparing for travel, learning the rules of conduct and learning about UN resources,” she said. She also mentions research is an integral part of the process.

“There are two sides to preparation,” said Neve, a visiting lecturer in the Political Science department, who also served as faculty advisor for the Model UN Club. “First, we continually develop our knowledge of the United Nations. There are so many agencies, programs, reports, speeches that we could study for a whole year and not cover everything. Second, we research the substantive issues facing the countries we represent.” 

As Gamez noted, this involves students performing their own research, and then sharing it with each other.

“Collaborative research and learning is really important. We would never be able to cover as much ground working independently,” Neve said.

Stephan calls Cal Lutheran’s involvement in the National Model UN a “long and extensive process” and mentions this conference was the first high-level one for a few student delegates. 

“During class, we would look at our handbook regarding the rules of conferences and the United Nations itself. In addition, we created our own mock General Assembly conference with a current issue and wrote position papers, which is an instrumental part of the conference,” she said.

By preparing and participating in Model UN, students amass new skills while simultaneously learning about contentious issues. 

“Public speaking is a huge part of the conferences. Students give five to 10 speeches in front of their committees throughout the week. Delegates also learn to write in UN formats,” Neve said. “They also get a crash course in diplomacy. Committees often have between 25 to 150 members. Within them, students must negotiate with fellow delegates to draft working papers and resolutions everyone can agree on.”

Political Science Assistant Professor Kiku Huckle, PhD, adds that through Model UN, contenders enhance their communication skills. “Students have to talk with a lot of other people in order to get things done, including people who are difficult to understand or work with. To be successful, one has to speak clearly and directly, but also listen, and know how to bring others into the conversation.”

Huckle notes Model UN builds self-confidence in students, bolstering their ability to think critically and creatively and work in teams.

“Often, students are shy about talking to people they do not know or are nervous to speak in front of a large group. Conference participation normalizes these activities and rewards them,” she said.

Hard work that paid off

Through their combined efforts, the 2023 National Model UN delegation earned an honor: an Honorable Mention Award. This award placed Cal Lutheran in the top 75 of the delegations that attended.

“I was so proud of my co-delegates and impressed by what they had accomplished, “ said Gamez. The last time Cal Lutheran received an award was at UC Santa Barbara’s Model UN Meeting in 2014, when two students, Jonathan Rockwood and Nathaniel Burola, respectively won Distinguished and Outstanding Delegate awards. 

“It felt amazing to receive the Honorable Mention, especially since it was so many delegates’, myself included, first time attending a conference at this level,” Stephan said. Stephan felt particularly rewarded due to the high caliber of other student participants.

Neve expressed his excitement for the students’ win stating, “New York Model UN is known as one of the most rigorous conferences in the world. That they were able to take home a team award demonstrates how hard they worked to prepare and how focused they all were during the conference.” 

Huckle will serve as faculty advisor during this academic year. She will continue to focus on the research and writing aspects of the conference along with building the students’ communication, presentation and networking abilities, what she calls “skills that positively impact students’ conference performance and are directly transferable to the professional world.” She additionally looks forward to getting to know the students outside the classroom.

“Even though this is still an academic setting, students have more time and space to be themselves and show their personalities,” said Huckle. “I love to see their excitement when things go well and to be able to support them when they run into difficulties.”

Model UN has positively impacted both Stephan and Gamez. The former refers to the conference as “one of my favorite experiences at Cal Lutheran,” thanking Cal Lutheran, its Political Science Department and Neve for their support. 

“It allowed me to explore and thrive in a new city and meet so many new people, some of whom I am still in contact with today and will be in the future,” said Stephan. Her time in New York and at Model UN has made her consider a career in international politics.

Gamez, a dual major in Political Science and Psychology, admits she still gets nervous during conferences, even though she has participated in Model UN since her first year on campus. Yet she calls this conference one of her “best experiences.” 

“Working with people I don’t know who come from all over the world to participate is absolutely incredible. It is months of preparation to spend hours in committee sessions all day, every day for a weekend or a week,” she said. “It is not an easy task, but the challenge and the passion are what it is all about.”