Diego Diaz / Contributing Writer
FIU’s Model United Nations team took home the Best Large Delegation Award at the Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) Conference last weekend.
The award is the highest recognition given to an academic delegation, in recognition of exemplary leadership and diplomacy.
“We were able to bring home number one at Harvard, which really poises us well for the rest of the semester and going forward,” said Ashley Weathers, FIU economics & international relations senior and Model UN head delegate.
The HNMUN conference is known as the most prestigious and highly ranked among the collegiate MUN conferences.
This award is also a historic moment for the team, as it is the second time an FIU Model UN team has ever won Best Large Delegation in the HNMUN. The team consisted of 12 delegates with the majority of them either freshman or sophomore students.
“We all had a great socially distanced celebration outside of SASC (Student Academic Success Center),” said Weathers, “we wanted everyone to feel part of a team.”
The delegates also had to endure unique obstacles as a result of the pandemic. Specifically, the conference’s exclusively online setting. As they transitioned to a remote setting, so did their practices for the competition.
“Every Monday and Wednesday we would have class… and practice simulations which prepared our delegates for conference, as well as weekend simulations to really garner a delegate’s ability”, said Brandon Lee, a senior majoring in international relations and one of the team’s head delegates.
The conference held topics of international concern, as delegates came up with diplomatic solutions addressing these issues.
“We discussed the development of the Inuit communities in the Arctic.. and a discussion on international intervention during ethnic conflict,” said Nicholas Velazquez, a senior majoring in international relations and head delegate of the team.
“We had 140 people in a Zoom call, where one person is representing one country, and everyone has free reign to meet whenever they want, so it gets a little chaotic at times,” said Velazquez.
However, even with these obstacles, the team was able to adjust to the virtual setting.
“Instead of complaining… be the person with the solution, and I think that was a big contributor to our success,” said Weathers.
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