Recapping Winthrop’s 50th Model UN conference and why it’s important.
Kyan Feseer
Staff Writer
From March 25 to March 27, Winthrop University celebrated its 50th Model United Nations conference, dubbed “Back To The Future: Studying Our Past To Secure Our Future.”
Model UN simulates United Nations meetings in universities and high schools worldwide. Students assume the roles of delegates from UN-affiliated countries, voting and speaking on policies in an assembly environment.
Winthrop’s Model UN is unique; it was the first to combine college and high school participation, pulling from high schools across South Carolina.
“Winthrop is very special for a lot of high schoolers,” said Logan Howard, chair of the Human Rights Council for Model UN at Winthrop. “They don’t get to do this anywhere else in the nation as often.”
In the program’s early days, UN ambassadors sometimes visited Winthrop. They even commended the university’s inclusion during their General Assembly, said Ollie Whitfield, secretary general for the 50th conference.
“The fact that it’s persisted for 50 years is also just outstanding in and of itself,” she added.
This year’s conference began on March 25, opening with registration and orientation. Swaths of high schoolers flooded the campus. That night, Jarett Lash, the Model UN Youth Observer, kicked off the coming days with a commemorative speech.
Lash’s speech focused on his Gen Z roots, highlighting how “what we’re hearing is not apathy from my generation, it’s impatience,” he explained. “That impatience is not a liability, it’s one of the most useful things we have.”
Through several interactive events, Lash gathered data on students’ concerns about the world. Through the United Nations Foundation, a nonprofit, he plans to present his findings to the actual United Nations. This escapes the “political guardrails other institutions might be bound by,” he added.
Following Lash, student leaders of Winthrop’s Model UN gave speeches throughout the week, beginning with Ollie Whitfield at the first plenary debate on March 25. Benjamin Byrd, coordinator general for the 50th conference, gave a speech the following day at lunch. Talor Noble, director general for the 50th conference, gave a closing speech on March 27.
“All of our speeches had very similar undertones about the importance of time and the importance of the impact you can make,” Whitfield said.
“I kind of wanted to encourage students that you can make change even if you don’t believe in yourself to do it,” Byrd added.
At Winthrop, Model UN journeys begin in PLSC 260, a class taught by Jennifer Disney, chair of the Department of Political Science, Philosophy, Religion and Legal Studies and director of the Model United Nations and Women’s and Gender Studies programs.
The course documents operational techniques of the UN, and students can further advance into PLSC 261 to become chairs. These courses are many students’ introduction to politics, Howard said.
“We’re shaping the future minds that could possibly go into the United Nations,” Howard said. “I didn’t do Model UN before college, so doing it for the first time here really influenced my decision of wanting to keep doing it.”
Similarly, personal growth is a large part of Model UN, and students don’t need an interest in international relations, Byrd said.
“I’ve seen students in 261 and 260, and even myself, come to the program as if what they had to say had no substance,” Byrd said. “Through the program, you see this insane amount of growth just in a few months,” he explained.
For invested students, the Department of Political Science and its alumni are very gracious, Whitfield added.
“These people really are here for you. From top to bottom, from the director of the program, to literally, I could call an alumni and I know they’d be there for me,” she said.
On March 26, a scholarship dedicated to Chris Van Aller, the previous Model UN director for 24 years, was endowed. Alumni raised over $25,000 for the cause, honoring his long career at Winthrop with a new scholarship for Model UN students.
Going forward, events and classes like these will continue to foster Model UN and its community, Howard said.
“I have a strong feeling that we’re gonna have many more people come in just for the class, the 261 class, and we have good hands to be putting it into.”
To support this growth, following this year’s conference, Model UN realized some things need touching up, Byrd added.
“Every year we touch up the rules a little bit and make everything a little bit more clear for everyone, because every year there’s always something,” Whitfield said.
“I think the structure of it being student-run will never change, but I think the conference will expand. I definitely think that we will have more committees.”
In the end, Byrd believes that by conference 100, there will be thousands of students in attendance, he said.
“It’s a pretty beautiful vision, but it will happen.”
