Every year in recent memory, 10-12 upperclassmen, and the occasional lucky underclassman, attend the American University Model United Nations Conference, which creates a worthwhile reward for loyal Government Club participants.
On February 4-9, 12 politically-savvy Owls traveled to Washington D.C. for this conference to explore and add to the rich history of our nation’s limestone capital.
Roughly 850 students from around the globe participated in 28 vastly different committees throughout American University’s School of International Studies.
Differing from the typical style of MUN, American’s conference followed a crisis-style format, which is fast-paced, and does not allow delegates to prepare beforehand, forcing these diplomats-in-training to make impromptu speeches and think on the fly. From the 1961 cabinets of East and West Germany to the Disarmament and International Security Committee of the modern-day United Nations, delegates learned about and honed their skills in public speaking, collaboration, and executive decision making.
Thursday, before committee sessions, faculty advisors Davis Smith (who flaunted a variety of different colorful beanies) and Courtney Funk guided the delegates through the National Mall and through various Smithsonian museums.
Funk was being extra careful not to slip on all walkways, which were donned with extraordinarily slippery ice and sleet. The Reflecting Pool was frozen solid and the marble Capitol Building and Washington Monument could hardly be differentiated from the white snow. The Owls walked in the snowy footsteps of the nation’s greatest diplomats in preparation to replicate their gifts and talents throughout the weekend. D.C. served as a window through which they viewed lunar landers and 250-year-old declarations in their exploration of our nation’s history.
Before the sessions opened debate, delegates heard from American University’s tenured professors of International Studies about various complex international topics and the school’s informal motto of “waging peace,” which was affixed to the school by President Eisenhower when it was founded.
Following a short opening session on Friday night, the delegates returned for a Saturday completely devoted to respectful discourse and diplomatic ways of solving their respective committees’ problems, however theoretical they might be. Carter Wildrick (12), current president of the Government Club, described this exercise as “exceptionally informative and educational to how real diplomats peacefully navigate and resolve complex issues.”
That evening, Owls dined with recent MUS alumni attending colleges and universities in the greater DMV area, including last year’s MUS Valedictorian and current Jefferson Scholar, Wills Frazer (UVA ’29), and Amrik Chakravarty (Georgetown ’29).
Smith finally got a break from pretending to care about his current students, remarking that “it’s always great to see former students during our long-standing Ethiopian tradition.” Everyone got a chance to try Ethiopian food’s interesting flavor profiles; Carson Alexander (11) described this food-adventure experience as “unique and eye opening… yet not very kind to [me] later on.”
Sunday morning, confusion about the flight back to Memphis led to a cautious early exit by the delegates from their committees. Little did they know that the flight would in fact be postponed 6 hours. After growing quite familiar with the large glass terminals of Ronald Reagan International Airport and missing out on the Super Bowl, the Owls finally returned from their exercise in diplomacy with a newfound appreciation of the last 250 years and the men that took us from colonies, to states, to the moon and back.
