Nine students and two faculty advisers from Missouri Southern’s American Model United Nations (AMUN) Club attended the annual convention in Chicago over Thanksgiving break, from Nov. 21-24. 

The Southern AMUN Club  represented Belarus at the conference.

The group had some time to do some sightseeing on Friday evening and Saturday morning, as the conference did not kick off until 5 p.m. Saturday. On Friday evening the whole group went to the outdoor Christmas market. Most of the students ate bratwurst and had hot chocolate or spiced wine at the market.

On Saturday morning, most of the group slept in, but Dr. Paul Teverow (professor of history and faculty adviser) took one student to the Field Museum, where there were exhibits on China and dinosaurs exhibit. The two spent about an hour and a half at the museum, then met Dr. William Kumbier (assosicate professor of English and faculty adviser) at Berghoff’s Restaurant, which serves German – American food.

The conference kicked off at 5 p.m. with rules and roleplaying overviews for each committee. At 6 was the opening plenary session, and at 6:45 everyone broke into committees. Southern’s group was assigned to the committees as follows: General Assembly Plenary, Alexandra Starks; First Committee (disarmament and international security), Natsuko Hesaka and Grant Wiseman; Second Committee (economic and financial), Ahmad Saidy and Viktoryia Johnson; Third Committee (social, humanitarian and cultural), Manuela Vergara; Sixth Committee (legal), Martina Orlandi and Ty Hodges; and United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat), Missy Patton.

First, Second, Third and Sixth Committees drew up and passed resolutions on two topics related to their committees. The UN-Habitat Committee wrote reports and also drew up and passed resolutions on two topics related to that committee. General Assembly Plenary then received the resolutions and reports on the last day of the conference and decided whether to adopt. 

Southern’s club has already received an award for its position papers and is awaiting the final report to find out if they will receive any further awards.

Teverow told the students, “Congratulations on your good work at the AMUN conference.  All of you took your responsibilities as delegates seriously, and I could see that some of you were quite effective in shaping the resolutions passed by your committees.”

The UN-Habitat delegate from Slovokia said the event was a lot of fun.

The UN-Habitat delegate from Greece said, “It was frustrating at the beginning, but rewarding at the end.”

The president of UN-Habitat said he was impressed by Southern’s students.

“As president of this body, I have been proud of the democratic diplomacy shown by the body as a whole. I am very proud of the substantive work done by the entire body,” he said.