Donald Keough, News Editor–
Sadie Frank ‘27 boarded the bus after finishing her last event in Chicago. This was her second year competing at this conference, but this time, she wasn’t going home empty handed.
Frank and eleven of her peers were taking home awards on Nov. 22 after participating in the 36th annual American Model United Nations International (AMUN) international collegiate conference from Nov. 22 to 25.
This was Denison’s third conference in attendance since 2023, and was fully funded for students who attended.
In total, Denison collectively earned eight awards, a higher amount than any of the other 66 colleges in attendance.
19 students went to this year’s conference, and students this year represented Ethiopia and Oman. In addition to awards for exceptional representation, the students also received “best overall delegation” for both countries.
The conference follows the UN Rules of Procedure, and is intended to immerse those who participate as they stay in character as a diplomat representing a country. There are a number of formal sessions held throughout the day, and in between sessions students often work on drafting resolutions.
“It was really interesting to see how different cohorts of people took on dealing with the United Nations, learning about it and how it operates,” Frank said. “What’s really good about it is that you learn how to have diplomacy and work through solutions and problems with people that your delegations might not in the real world really get along with.”
The students who attended the conference are also taking “United Nations and world problems,” a class taught by Andrew McWard, an assistant professor in the politics and public affairs department. The class helps prepare students for the event by having them write intro position papers, often longer than 30 pages, and give various presentations.
“I do a mix of assignments that help them practice their public speaking skills, but also the kind of research necessary to represent a country accurately,” McWard said.
Model UN conferences are often available to high school students, however most students who attended this conference hadn’t had experience outside of college with Model UN. Through McWard’s course, he hopes that he can help prepare them despite their seemingly lack of experience.
“Students pick up quickly once they begin on the first day of the conference because they’re prepared,” McWard said. “It’s not surprising that we’ve had success, even when most of our students have not had this experience beforehand.”
Part of the conference requires students to be quick on their feet, and McWard’s “hat speeches” help students develop this skill. In these speeches, students are assigned a random topic which is picked out of a hat. They then have 15 minutes to prepare a three minute speech on the topic.
“[It’s] a good way in which they can practice public speaking on the fly, which is something they often have to do at the conference,” McWard said.
Frank added to this, saying that they’re “really good practice.”
“You really develop those quick thinking skills in the UN context,” Frank said. “The hat speeches are the most effective assignments we do that simulate what we’re going to do at the conference.”
By the time the conference comes around, McWard hopes that the class’s preparations makes students feel like answering questions is “second nature.” Setting this baseline is the first step, according to him, and the second is strengthening their ability to react to what’s coming at them.
“The actual success comes down to how nimble you are reacting to the human element of the simulation,” McWard said. “We’ve done a really good job doing that because we’re prepared on the basics.”
Frank said that she and her partner, Lila Smith ‘27 had the advantage “off the bat” because of their competency compared to other students. Much of their success, according to Frank, comes down to their preparation.
“We had a couple of those in my council who you could tell they’re very personable, but if they didn’t have the basics or the backgrounds of their countries down… they weren’t able to confidently interact with us in ways where they might be able to,” Frank said.
In addition to this year’s preparation, Frank had some experience as she was a part of the class last year. McWard assigned her and another previous student as a mentor for the class to accommodate their prior engagement. He said that he thinks that two mentors for the class works well.
“They can essentially serve as team captains for the delegation as a whole… where we get some experience from the past, and the mentors are clear leaders, but most of the team is doing this for the first time,” McWard said.
One of the reasons Frank decided to come back was because of the relationships she built with her classmates and those at the conference.
“I think the best thing that comes out of this is how close you get with the people,” Frank said. “I would not have gotten close with those people this year or last year had it not been for this class.”
McWard also agreed that the conference can benefit students in these ways, even if they aren’t interested in working for the United Nations.
“The experience of acting diplomatically, learning very esoteric practices, rules in a quick order is really good for any post Denison experience,” McWard said. “At the end of the day, Model UN is about interpersonal relations… the experience does a really good job of throwing students into that environment.”
Additionally, McWard also noted that these types of events can be good for networking or learning how to network, as well as seeing how other college students operate or stack up compared to Denison students.
The stakes are also significantly lower as the conference doesn’t have much real world implications. McWard thinks this makes the conference good practice for students before they are in the workplace.
Last year, Denison also performed well at the conference, and McWard hopes to continue their current momentum.
“We’ve had two consistent years of winning a lot of awards, which is, I would say, rare for schools,” McWard said. “We’ve been a bit more consistent in our early years on the quality of our students’ operation… they put a lot of work into it.”
Now that the course is beyond its third year, McWard said that he thinks the “buzz of the course is getting out there.”
“Every year, the excitement leading up to the conference is getting more and more palpable for me to observe among the class,” McWard said. “I think that excitement is only going to grow in future years.”