On November 19, twenty students from Norwin High School’s Model UN club attended the annual Model European Union conference at the University of Pittsburgh. This conference was hosted by the university’s Center for International Studies and held at the European Studies Center.
Three Norwin delegations received awards for exceptional position papers. In this event, country delegations consisted of two people each.
In Room 1, delegates Jocelyn Cao and Jillian Ryba were recognized for an outstanding position paper on Latvia.
“I’ve never written a position paper before,” said Jillian Ryba. “We tried to ask for help from some of the older members, and I feel like we had a good final product and I’m glad it was recognized.”
The delegation of Latvia was not the only delegation that wrote an excellent position paper. Norwin’s delegations for Cyprus and Slovenia, both in Room 4, earned awards for their papers. Freshmen Ezra Howard and Elias Byars received the outstanding position paper award for Cyprus, equivalent to second place in the room. Marlee Kotch and Deeksha Iyer earned the best position paper award for Slovenia.
Many students are well-versed in Model UN procedures, but the differences between a Model UN and a Model EU conference created a unique challenge. For instance, voting was unanimous, meaning that every single country in the conference room must vote yes to approve a resolution.
Additionally, inconsistencies in the event created unique situations for many delegates. There were several duplicate countries in conference rooms, while some countries were completely absent.
In conference Room 3, Cyprus and Austria, two countries represented by Norwin students, had two separate delegations from different schools present. Norwin’s delegation of Cyprus collaborated with their counterparts throughout the conference, while the two Austrias functioned separately.
”Having two delegations, we needed a lot of compromise to make things work,” said junior Fatima Sheraz.
Despite these duplicates, Norwin’s delegates still had a successful conference.
In a typical position paper, delegates outline their stance on the issues of the conference agenda. For this conference, the primary agenda topics were promoting economic competitiveness and defense for EU countries. The selection of these topics created an educational experience for delegates by giving them an introduction to serious world issues.
This conference gave Model UN’s younger delegates some necessary experience. Most of Norwin’s delegates present at this conference were freshmen, and for some, it was their first taste of Model UN.
“It was a very good first experience,” said freshman Elias Byars. “It was at a high enough level that I saw a lot of delegates who were better than me, but I was still able to compete. It was a good balance of competition.”
Ultimately, the European Union conference was a success for Norwin’s Model UN team. Both veteran and rookie delegates had a great time while learning about the politically relevant issues facing the European Union.
