By Lauren CoughlinContributer The fifth Trojan Treasure is the Model United Nations and Model Arab League team, a competitive group meant to challenge students and forge solid professional networks. It is also meant to provide the leadership, research, writing, debate, speech-making, negotiating and problem-solving skills relevant to college students’ résumés and their academic and professional futures. The Model UN/Model Arab League will have its first official meeting to plan for SRMUN and elect officers on Thursday, Sept. 19 at 2:30pm in MSCX room 337. Participants in the Model UN and Model Arab League travel to conferences attended by other college students to represent a given country within a selected committee of either the United Nations or the Arab League, two important intergovernmental organizations comprised of 193 and 22 countries respectively. These participants become “delegates” of that country and work with other students through simulations in an effort to collectively solve the world’s problems as these organizations do in real life. Students gain a strengthened global perspective by arguing from the perspective of a country other than the United States. The group at Troy is both a Model UN (MUN) and a Model Arab League (MAL) team. This is because of the limited number of MUN and MAL conferences in the Southeast. There are more MUN conferences in this region in the fall and MAL conferences in the spring, so students have the opportunity to compete in both. This academic year, the club’s tentative plan is to attend the Southeast Regional Model UN conference (SRMUN) in November, the Southeast Regional University Model Arab League in March and Model UN Emory in April. Many teams have large budgets and classes dedicated to MUN, allowing students to participate in more conferences. Since MUN/MAL is still young on campus, members are still seeking support from the administration for future expenses. “I would love to see Troy’s Model UN competing internationally in the next few years,” said Martin Morante, the group’s former president and recent graduate from the Sorrell College of Business. “We have the talent to win abroad but are only lacking the funding to do so. “ We are hopeful that the administration will begin to support because of the experience it provides students and for the opportunity for Troy to be represented outside Alabama by some of its brightest students. Some colleges recruit new students with the prestige of their Model UN team, and there is growing potential for Troy to do the same.” Participating delegates compete at conferences for individual “delegate” awards and school-wide “delegation” awards. MUN/MAL at Troy has proven successful. The group’s advisor, Dr. Davis, frequently reminds his students that “except at our very first conference, the team has won an award at every conference they have attended.” More information on the group can be found on their Facebook page, “Troy University Model United Nations,” or by contacting their president at lcoughlin@troy.edu. For new readers, the Trojan Treasures section features a new or unheard of organization each week. If you want to have your organization mentioned, then please email TropVariety@gmail.com.
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