Six students from the University’s Model United Nations (UN) Team competed at the international tournament hosted by Kings College and the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London, last Thursday, Feb. 21 through Sunday, Feb. 24, taking home two awards.
Sophomore political science student Mackenzie Ricca, one of the team’s captains who served on the Gender Committee in the tournament, and Nick Boice, a sophomore political science student who served on the Agricultural Committee, both won individual Speaker Awards.
Ricca has won individual speaking honors at three consecutive international Model UN contests and Boice, who competed at his first international contest, successfully navigated a complex and large committee focused on agriculture and the latest scientific advances in this area.
Team Captains Ricca and Emma O’Rourke, a senior political science student who served on the Environment Committee, anchored the team. This most recent contest in London was O’Rourke’s sixth international Model UN tournament during her four years at the University.
Strong performances also came from the rest of the students on the delegation: Michael Manning, a senior political science student who served in the African Union; Jackson Pope who was assigned to the Space Committee; Nick Boice, a sophomore political science student who served in the Agricultural Committee; and Katelyn Quino, a sophomore chemistry student in World Health Organization.
Students debate, negotiate, and write policy resolutions in separate committees at Model UN contests, and over the weekend the University’s team covered challenges facing the United Nations from regulating space (Pope) to regulating genetically modified seeds (Boice).
Quino deliberated international policy on non-traditional medicines, while O’Rourke discussed the effects on climate change on refugees and Manning argued the African Union’s stance on loan conditionality from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Different universities represent a country on a committee. Students from the Monmouth delegation represented both Algeria and Greece.
“The Model UN Team, with a heavy heart, says good-bye to its fearless leader Emma O’Rourke who graduates in May,” shared Kenneth Mitchell, Ph.D., Chair of the Department of Political Science and an associate professor of political science who serves as one of the team’s advisors. “Emma leaves a strong legacy and the Model UN team wishes her good luck after graduation.”
PHOTO COURTESY of Mackenzie Ricca
