Model UN

The Nova International Relations Association (NIRA) which serves as NSU’s Model UN team had an amazing semester. For the first time ever, we traveled to New York to compete in the World Model United Nations Conference (WIMUN). Usually, the team competes in regional competitions in the spring, however this year NIRA President Paula Recio was insistent that the team take on an even bigger challenge: competing against thousands of students from all around the world!

We brought 8 students on the trip: Paula Recio, Catalina Cusano, Suraj Doobay, Rahul Pandit, Sallete (Cristal) Da Silva, Kyle Bell, Varun Jagarlamudi, and Sarah Abushi. The students prepared for months in advance – watching training videos (over 18 hours’ worth) to learn the special rules for WIMUN. Unlike the vast majority of Model UN conferences – this event is billed as the most realistic Model UN conference in the world. It uses completely different rules and procedures and mimics how the actual UN functions. Most importantly, the opening and closing sessions were held in the General Assembly at the actual UN.

I am proud to report that our students were excellent representatives of DHP and NSU. When we met in the GA for closing ceremonies the students were thrilled to learn that four of our delegates won individual awards for their work in committees (Paula, Rahul, Catalina, and Kyle). However, the big shock came at the end – WIMUN only has two delegation awards for the conference: Best Small and Best Large University. We were all thrilled when Nova Southeastern University was announced as the Best Large University Award! Congratulations to the team, and on behalf of NIRA – thanks to the DHP faculty for all their support!