Congratulations to CSUN's 2015 Model UN delegation!
The 2015 National Model UN Conference was held in New York and is the largest annual model UN conference in the world.
This year, CSUN team won the coveted "Outstanding Delegation Award," which is the highest team award of the conference. This award, which is given by the National Collegiate College Association, is a testament to the preparation and hard work of the CSUN team in formulating and proposing solutions to global and regional problems. About 3,000 students from hundreds of colleges around the world participated in the conference. It is a great honor that CSUN was selected to receive this highest award.
In addition to the Outstanding Delegation Award given to the CSUN team, students also won a number of prestigious individual awards.
Jesus Martinez-Ramirez and Xochitl Medrano: Outstanding Position Paper Award in the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Committee. (This award is in recognition of their their rigorous research and outstanding paper on international human rights issues, which they analyzed from the perspective of their assigned country, Senegal.)
Blanca Martinez and Eric Martinez: Outstanding Delegates Award in the General Assembly First. (This award was based on the students' leadership in the General Assembly First in working with other delegates to develop working papers and resolutions. This committee was very large, with nearly 300 members, so it is especially impressive that these students were selected out of this large number of students.)
Saleem Hawatmeh and Hoory Minoyan: Outstanding Delegates Award on the Rights of the Palestinian people. (This award was given in the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. These students gave impeccable speeches to the audience and played a valuable leadership role on the committee.)
According to Political Science Associate Professor, Keiko Hirata, CSUN's delegation performed with extraordinary diligence, starting with their tireless preparations in advance of the conference. During the conference, they worked around the clock, starting their sessions at 8:30 am and ending at 11:00 pm. After the long days, they held midnight team meetings for further planning. Our students were extremely well disciplined and worked harder than any other participants at the conference. Our team leaders, Jesus Martinez-Ramirez and Andrew Heineman, played an outstanding leadership role in assisting other students.