Six students from Monmouth’s Model United Nations team traveled to the U.K. to compete in a contest hosted by Kings College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) London from Feb. 21–24.
Team captains Emma O’Rouke and Mackenzie Ricca anchored the team, which was tasked with representing Algeria and Greece at the summit. Strong performances were put in by Michael Manning, Jackson Pope, Nick Boice, and Katelyn Quino.
At the competition, students debated, negotiated, and wrote policy resolutions regarding challenges facing the United Nations. These challenges included regulating space (Pope), regulating genetically modified seeds (Boice), UN policy on non-traditional medicines (Quino), the African Union’s stance on IMF loan conditionality (Manning), and climate change refugees (O’Rourke).
Sophomore political science students Ricca and Boice took home individual speaker awards. Ricca has now won individual speaking honors at three consecutive international Model UN contests. Boice, who was competing in his first international contest, successfully navigated a complex and large committee focused on agriculture and the latest scientific advances in this field.
Students interested in joining the Model UN Team and Club should contact faculty advisors Ken Mitchell, Ph.D. (kmithcel@monmouth.edu) and Kevin Dooley, Ph.D. (kdooley@monmouth.edu).