Department of Political Science, 308.865.1555
Joel Roos, a University of Nebraska at Kearney student from Lexington, was one of five UNK students who recently attended the McGill Model United Nations Assembly XVI (McMUN) held in Montreal, Canada.
Roos, an international studies major, attended Model United Nations meetings weekly to qualify to attend McMUN. After Roos graduates from UNK he plans to travel to Japan and teach English.
McMUN drew 1,400 students from more than 80 universities around the world to Montreal. The assembly was the largest student-run, university-level Model United Nations conference in Canada.
Organized by students from McGill and Concordia University, McMUN is a simulation of real UN bodies, and some multilateral and national bodes that are outside the UN system. The keynote speaker for the event was her Royal Highness Princess Badiya El Hassan of Jordan. Princess Badiya graduated with honors from Oxford University with a Bachelor’s of Arts in history, qualified as a lawyer in the higher courts of England and was called to the Bar by Lincoln’s Inn in 1998. She then completed her Master of Laws, LL.M., in public international law at the London School of Economics. Princess Badiya has worked for various UN agencies including the United Nations High Commission for Refugees where she worked in the Promotion of Refugee Law Section of the Department of International Protection.
The purpose of McMUN was to allow students to develop their leadership, diplomatic, research, social, humanitarian and economic skills, which they will need as future world leaders. During the conference, students like Joel from the various participating universities were given the chance to debate such topics as international security and human rights. Students were seated on simulated committees ranging from the full-scale UN General Assemblies to smaller specialized agencies. Regardless, each of the 23 committee simulations had to go through the process of passing at least one resolution during the course of the event.
Roos said about his whole McMUN experience, “I gained a greater understanding in the inner workings of the United Nations. It was a great experience in general.”
