Claremont, Calif. (February 12, 2018)—Fifteen Pitzer College students are traveling to Boston this week to participate in the 2018 Harvard National Model United Nations (HNMUN) Conference, the nation’s oldest and largest Model UN. For four days, from February 15 to February 18, Pitzer students and undergraduates from around the world will grapple with global issues as they simulate the work of the United Nations.
Pitzer’s delegation will represent Sri Lanka. Students from all four class years will act as delegates, serve on committees, give speeches and write resolutions regarding contemporary issues in the island nation. They will also serve on two specialized committees, which drill down on a specific subject and can be modeled after actual committees or be historical or fictional deliberative bodies. Pitzer students’ specialized committees will tackle problems related to the work of the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton in 2016 and the minister for trade in the 1957 cabinet of Ghana’s Prime Minister Kwame Nkrumah.
Emily Dillemuth ’18, a political studies major and Chinese minor, and Madeline Hauenstein ’18, an international political economy and international and intercultural studies double major, are Pitzer’s co-head delegates this year.
Students participating in the Model UN develop substantive knowledge of the United Nations system, from the politics, economics and culture of the country represented to the global issues addressed in each delegate’s committee, said Fletcher Jones Associate Professor of Political Studies Geoffrey Herrera, who serves as Pitzer’s Model UN faculty adviser.
“It is also an extraordinary opportunity to enhance a critical set of life skills: public speaking, working in teams, coalition building and navigating the politics present in all organizations,” Herrera said.
Founded in 1955, HNMUN brings together more than 3,000 students and faculty from colleges and universities around the world to simulate the activities of the UN.
