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Students from the College of Central Florida’s Model United Nations club received two Most Diplomatic awards during the 2019 Southern Regional Model United Nations conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, in March. The awards recognize the student’s ability to carry out diplomacy through participation, ability to negotiate, debate professionally, and interact with other students from around the nation.

91ÖÆƬ students Christopher Beharry, Santino Del Valle, Mathew Dezelan, Andy Diaz, Natascha Golec, and Erica Marie Kilkenny attended with Dr. John Anene, 91ÖÆƬ professor of Political Science and club advisor. They represented the Republic of Ireland in three committees. General Assembly Plenary discussed the challenges of eliminating forced labor and improving access to quality health care for children; General Assembly First discussed utilizing advancement in technology to improve global security, and preventing violent extremism by non-state actors; and Commission for the Status of Women discussed ensuring access to environmentally sustainable technology for women in rural and low-income areas and establishing measures of transitional justice for women.

This year, 500 students from across the nation attended, making it the most-attended SRMUN Conference in its 30-year history. Model UN is an international extra-curricular global engagement activity that enables college students to learn diplomacy, negotiating, public speaking and resolving global problems through role playing as delegates of the United Nations. Delegates spend months in preparation researching foreign policies and cultures. At conferences, they develop papers, which include their ideas to solve real-life problems that plague nations.