Double honors for Cal State L.A.’s Model United Nations delegation

July 20, 2011 - PRLog -- Representing the Kingdom of Spain, California State University, Los Angeles’ 17-member delegation garnered two top honors at the annual National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference in New York.

The National MUN—sponsored by the National Collegiate Conference Association—is an annual conference that provides students with the opportunity to engage in a simulation with other colleges and universities as a delegate of a nation.

Cal State L.A.’s student delegation, achieving national accolades for the third year in a row, received the “Outstanding Position Papers” and “Distinguished Delegation” awards. Out of more than 300 colleges and universities, only 27 schools were awarded Outstanding Position Papers and 27 schools were awarded the Distinguished Delegation prize.

The award-winning participants—nearly all political science majors in “Model United Nations” (Political Science 420)— were Francis Breidenbach, Gabriel Clift, Tiffany Frank (political science/mathematics major), Keith Gallarzo, Tewodros Haile, Krystal Henriquez, Morgan Hunter, Benjamin Kuehnle, Elva Lopez, Shanjida Milon, Phireak Na, Dennis Perez, Hugo Perez (engineering major), Laura Pintar, Gerardo Sosa, Sasha Verma (English major), and Katalina Villalba.

“CSULA’s NMUN team was awarded Outstanding Position Papers, which is a wonderful acknowledgment of the students who spent countless hours working on numerous iterations of their position papers,” remarked Emily Acevedo (Pomona resident), professor of the course and faculty adviser for the CSULA MUN. “Secondly, CSULA was awarded Distinguished Delegation for their portrayal of Spain at the national conference.”

Acevedo also said that this year’s honor is much more meaningful because nine new students were able to experience addressing global issues in a real-world context.

Gallarzo, a returning delegate, shared, “MUN is both a challenging and rewarding course; providing students with the opportunity to network and compete with students from all over the world. Definitely a class every student should try to experience at least once.”

“The NMUN was the most rewarding experience I have ever been a part of,” said Clift, a first-time Model UN delegate. “I made friends with people from all around the globe, got a chance to explore the best parts of New York, made tighter bonds with my classmates and Dr. Acevedo, and worked like a real diplomat for a week.”

Acevedo concluded, “I am very proud of the CSULA NMUN team for their commitment to the class, to their hard work and effort in preparing for the conference, and especially for their level of professionalism displayed in New York in their role as a delegate of the Kingdom of Spain.”

For more about the awards, visit the “NY 2011 Awards Recipients – Sheraton” listing at http://www.nmun.org/ny_recognition.html.

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Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 220,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six Colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to the Honors College for high-achieving students, opening in fall 2011. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center.