The activity will gather more than 5,000 university students from all over the world to replicate the debate model of the committees of diplomats from the 193 UN member states.
Twenty-two students of Universidad de Santiago are finishing their training to participate in the National Model United Nations (NMUN NY 2017) Conference that will be held between March 19th- 23rd at the UN headquarters, New York, USA.For the fourth consecutive year, Universidad de Santiago will be the only Chilean institution to participate in the conference, an activity that gathers more than 5,000 university students from all over the world. During the activity, the students represent different states and simulate the debate model of the committees of diplomats from the 193 UN member states.On this occasion, the students at Universidad de Santiago will represent Ukraine at the Security Council and Greece at the other UN organs like the General Assembly, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNEP, UNHCR, WHO, and others.In this context, Alexandra Cabrera, student at the Translation program, and Sebastián Astudillo, student at the Public Administration program, met with the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Santiago, Alex Thiermann, to get a better understanding of the foreign policy of that country, and they also expect to meet with a representative of the Embassy of Greece.The other members of the group are the chief delegates Javiera Díaz (Translation program) and Emanuel Arias (International Studies program) and the students Paulina Caroca, Johann Golsworthy, Kimberly Robles, Yanira Díaz, and Erika Celsi (Public Administration program); Pablo Maturana, Militza González, Daniela Campos, Antonia Soto, Gabriela Correa, and Ángela Núñez (Translation program), Federico Izaguirre, Bárbara Góngora, Florencia Vega, Fabiana Guerrero, Catalina Solar, Daniela Peñaloza, and María Paz Pardo (International Studies program). Professor Sofía Schuster, of the Department of History, will accompany the group.“The training workshop enables students to develop academic and professional skills, like the ability for critical analysis, for research, for data collection, for identifying reliable sources and also the ability to speak English at an academic level,” professor Schuster says.Good diplomatsJaviera Díaz, graduate in English-Portuguese Translation, says that one of the main goals of the workshop is that students behave as “good diplomats”. “A good diplomat stands before everybody, persuades and negotiates, as he/her needs to get a solution to a conflict. The most important thing at the conference is the ability to convince, to persuade,” she says.It is worth mentioning that the only Latin American institutions participating are Universidad de Santiago de Chile, Universidad Central de Venezuela and Universidad Nacional Autónoma and Anáhuac Mayab of Mexico.Invitation to KobeThe participation of the students at Universidad de Santiago in the former National Model United Nations Conferences has been outstanding. Since 2013, they have received 8 awards in the categories of Outstanding Position Paper and Honorable Mention Delegation.For receiving the Honorable Mention Delegation award in the last conference, students were invited to participate in the NMUN Japan 2016, in Kobe, to commemorate the 60 years since that country’s accession to the UN. This activity was held between November 20th and 26th, 2016.A group of 14 students at the programs of Translation, International Studies and Commercial Engineering travelled to Kobe: Daniela Toledo, Diego Vidal, Arlette Leal, Marcia Pérez, Paulette Reyes, Catalina Rodríguez, Patricia González, Gabriela Albornoz, Nadine Givovich, Javiera Villarroel, Karla Acuña, Jhonatan Díaz, Marcia Muñoz, and Edgar Rodas. They were accompanied by Professor Sofía Schuster.Since this conference, the Department of International and Inter-University Relations (DRII, in Spanish) of Universidad de Santiago included the NMUN Conference as part of its student exchange program. In January, the students will continue their preparation to improve their English level, develop their personal skills and get a better knowledge of the Greek and Ukrainian cultures, to travel to New York on March 15th. Translated by Marcela Contreras