After winning more awards than any other university that attended the Midwest Model United Nations Competition in St. Louis, the members of the UW-Oshkosh Model United Nations prepare to attend a national competition.
The members of Model UN will be leaving for New York on March 28 to compete in the national competition.
On Feb. 17, Model UN members attended a three-day competition to discuss and debate the major issues of the world with Model UN organizations from other Midwestern universities.
The goal of the competition was to be able to step into the shoes of a citizen of the country they are representing.
Students have to write out agreements or resolutions concerning the issues being discussed, present them to a general assembly made up of the 600 students who attended the competition and convince them to come to a unanimous vote on the agreements.
Students are evaluated on their research, speaking, writing and negotiating abilities.
After this competition, Model UN will be headed to the National Model United Nations Competition to test their skills against even more universities in New York City.
UW-Oshkosh senior Brenna Ranzen, president of the Model UN said the competitions are a great experience for students who wouldn’t usually get to travel and experience something like this.
“Most kids [who] are coming from rural Wisconsin and not international schools have this chance to go to this international event that no one else gets to do from any other school in the state, so that’s something that really sets Oshkosh apart,” Ranzen said. “[We] get to go to New York City and compete with students from all over the world.”
Beyond giving students the experience of learning to view the world from another’s point of view, the program allows students to meet with United Nations officials and diplomats who actually represent the countries the students chose to represent in the competition for a question-and-answer session.
However, Model UN does more than give students a chance to experience the world from a different point of view; it gives them valuable skills that they are able to apply to their studies in other classes and in their lives and careers later on.
“One of the biggest things that we learn how to do is … be able to get up and speak in front of a group of 400 people with only 30 seconds of preparation,” UW-Oshkosh sophomore Austin Jones, secretary of the Model UN, said. “Another thing it teaches you that you can take with you for the rest of your life is being able to sound confident … that’s something that anyone can use in any aspect of their life.”
Kenneth Grieb, the faculty adviser for Model UN said that as of now, Model UN has earned the Outstanding Delgates Award for 25 consecutive years, giving this campus’s Model UN “literally the longest winning streak in the world.”
Grieb said the students’ abilities to research, write and speak efficiently have proved to be advantageous to the organization’s success.
“The fact that we have been able to win for so many years in a row speaks volumes for the (quality) of students we have here,” Grieb said.
According to their Web site, Model United Nations started at Oshkosh in the 1960s.
The Web site also stated that for the past 23 years, the team has ranked among the top 10 schools in the national competition.
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