by Bethany Priest, Public Relations Writer
Cedarville University earned outstanding delegation honors at the recent National Model United Nations (NMUN) competition held March 25-29 at the United Nations headquarters in New York City.
Cedarville’s team received the outstanding delegation award, the highest team award of the competition. The award is recognition of accumulated success over the span of the entire competition, including how the Cedarville delegates performed in each session and how well their separate committees ranked.
Members of the team include: Abigail Barnes, Ethan Beck, Mae Dewhurst, Robbie Eppley, Alexandria Hentschel, Esther Holm, Sarah Ingram, Caleb Jackson, Justin Lough, Briana Sadowski, Stanley Schwartz, Amy Searl, Jesse Thompson, Corinna Ward, Marcus Waterman and Michael Wilt.
Three of the Cedarville delegation's partner position papers, written by Holm and Wilt, Beck and Dewhurst, and Ingram and Eppley, received outstanding position paper in their respective committees.
“The most valuable lesson I’ve learned from model U.N. is that, in the long run, it's far better to work with people than against them,” said Holm, an international studies and Spanish double-major from Filadelfia, Paraguay. “The best part of NMUN is interacting with so many people from around the world. I left thinking that the world is a much smaller place.”
Students also achieved individual honors. Ward and Schwartz won best delegates in their committees, which is a peer award determined by members from other schools within their committees.
Delegations of students from more than 200 universities came to New York from 28 countries for NMUN, a four-day simulated international negotiation competition that commenced Sunday, March 25. Each school’s delegation represented one of the U.N.’s 193 member countries. The members of each delegation were placed into various committees where they advocated for their county’s policy on peace and security, human rights and humanitarian affairs, development or economics and social issues. Cedarville represented the Caribbean island nation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
“This success contributes to Cedarville’s very strong regional and national reputation,” said Dr. Glen Duerr, associate professor of international studies and advisor to the model U.N. team. “Our students work hard, show up and pay attention, and that goes a long way toward standing out and representing Christ well.”
Located in southwest Ohio, Cedarville University is an accredited, Christ-centered, Baptist institution with an enrollment of 3,963 undergraduate, graduate, and online students in more than 150 areas of study. Founded in 1887, Cedarville is recognized nationally for its authentic Christian community, rigorous academic programs, strong graduation and retention rates, accredited professional and health science offerings, and leading student satisfaction ratings. For more information about the University, visit www.cedarville.edu.