The Auburn University Model UN team represented the country of Denmark at the South Regional Model United Nations conference in Atlanta.
The team won two Best Delegation Awards at the end of the three-day conference in November.
At this conference, teams representing different countries act as the UN. They meet as a general assembly and present different concerns that their countries have.
“You learn everything about that country far in advance,” said Ali Sanchez, president of Auburn’s Model UN group. “You pick a topic to discuss, and you must know what your country feels about that topic. You should know all about that, and you need to be able to come up with a resolution for that topic.”
Ali Sanchez is a junior studying political science.
She started participating in Model UN three semesters ago and joined because she hopes to go into international law after her undergraduate studies.
“I have always been interested in the UN and international politics, and the UN is the biggest international body that can be,” Sanchez said. “That’s my hope for the future and why I joined Model UN.”
Sanchez said the team must pick two topics to discuss at the conference that their country is interested in.
Before they arrive, they must create position papers for their team.
Sanchez needed to present two topics in her position paper that she wanted to discuss.
Along with this, she needed to write down how the topics were affecting her country and what could help.
“You have to do a lot of preparation for it to get into the mind of the members that you are trying to represent,” Sanchez said.
The teams must present their position papers and can receive awards for them.
Auburn’s Model UN team is heading to another conference in March in Charlotte, North Carolina, called the Charolette SRMUN.
They will pick another country to research extensively and represent in their next conference.
“Honestly, we have never chosen the same country because it is always fun to learn about other ones,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said the team may be able to finance another conference in the spring.
One of their top choices is the Model United Nations at Emory conference in February.
The team will be taking part in Tiger Giving Day on Feb. 21, during which they hope to raise $5,000 to attend another conference, preferably the Emory Conference.
Also, this semester, Auburn’s Model UN will participate in a crisis simulation. This is where the model UN teams will act as a security council for any past or present emergency event.
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