By Shannon O’Leary
BIG WINNERS (Kevin Kent)
By Shannon O’Leary
The award winning Riverside Community College’s Model United Nations team has another award to hang on its wall.
This time it’s a distinguished delegation which they received at the Model United Nations National Conference that is held in New York.
The Distinguished Delegation award is the second highest honors awarded. The conference included over 3,000 delegates and approximately 230 schools from around the world.
“I think what comes out of this is, what is very important, is a wider viewpoint on the world and how we as individuals relate to it,” Model U.N. advisor, Ward Schinke said.
The National Model U.N. is a five day conference that simulates the real United Nations.
The last day of the conference is held in the General Assembly Room of the U.N. Students have to learn about the country they represent, world events and the operations of the U.N.
This year the RCC Model U.N. team represented Guinea-Bissau.
“It gave me a better understanding of Africa… such conditions, how could we not do something,” Jazmin Zavaleta said, “Just learning about it can help motivate you to do something about it.”
RCC students start preparing in fall for the national conference and in winter take the International Organizations course that is for conference preparation.
To fully prepare for the national conference, the team participates in additional smaller conferences before hand.
“It’s a real intense training process and to actually get there, it’s a long process,” Kevin Kent said.
“When you get there it’s a crash course, last minute trying to prepare yourself for what is going to happen,” said Nick Adcock. “RCC is pretty well recognized among a lot of schools in the United States, Stanford and Yale, they know about us. It’s a good feeling but puts added pressure on us.”
“You learn a lot of skills, how to present yourself, you have to be more assertive, but also learn to be kind with people so they want to work with you,” Armin Tchami said. “It is a big learning experience.”
These students have different goals for life after college but all attribute the Model U.N. as their drive and will help them to get closer to the goals.
“It turned my study habits around, made me more focused, it’s really gotten me on the right path,” said Kent. “It will definitely help me to get where I want to be.”
