Members of the Model United Nations Club attended the virtual conference GatorMUN, hosted by the University of Florida from Jan. 22 to 24, and HarvardMUN, organized by Harvard University on Jan. 28 to 31.

Several students were recognized with awards at the competitions.

Five students won awards at these conferences; at GatorMUN, Cory Porter ’22 received a Verbal Commendation, Chronicle Print Managing Editor Celine Park ’21 received an Honorable Mention and Jack Moreland ’23 was awarded Outstanding Delegate. At HarvardMUN, Daniel Ju ’22 received a Diplomatic Commendation, Porter earned an Honorable Mention and Chronicle Assistant Features Editor Kate Burry ’22 and Park were named Outstanding Delegates.

Moreland said that he enjoyed the spirited banter that took place over the course of his conference.

“The negotiations that unfolded were a joy to be a part of, and I got the things I wanted passed at the end, which was exciting,” Moreland said. “Winning an award was a great way to end it.”

Students explored various topics in international relations while preparing for the conferences.

In preparation for these conferences, participants wrote position papers explaining their countries’ stances on assigned topics, such as human genome sequencing and concentration camps. Once in committee, they interacted with students from across the world to write unformatted working papers and then finalized draft resolutions to help solve these issues.

“For my committee, we were all assigned fictional characters in a historical situation in Argentina,” Moreland said. “As a result, we all had different goals and ambitions we were trying to advance, so most of the conference was informal discussing and arguing instead of dry, scripted speeches.”

At the end of each committee, attendees participated in “FunMUN,” an informal period in which delegates could socialize with each other and the college-age committee chairs.

Delegate Grace Hudson ’23, who represented Mauritania in the Special Political and Decolonization Committee at HarvardMUN, said that she valued the opportunity to explore unfamiliar topics in international relations.

“This conference was still a learning experience for me, but I think it definitely helped me grow as a delegate,” Hudson said. “I got to discuss the topic of decolonization of non-self-governing territories, so I think it was interesting representing a former territory like Mauritania.”