Miles Flora, Campus Carrier Staff Writer

PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY KASSIE JONES

Berry’s Model UN team traveled to New York for the annual National Model United Nations Conference and represented Albania. They received a honorable mention.

Berry’s Model UN student delegates recently went to New York for the National Model United Nations conference (NMUN). While there, they represented the nation of Albania. They participated in simulations in order to work together with other nations to find compromises for real world issues. For their efforts, the team won honorable mention at the conference. 

This was Senior Lydia Schlitt’s third time going to the conference. She first went as a freshman, then as a junior and finally as a senior. She would have gone her sophomore year had she not studied abroad. 

“Model UN has taught me to appreciate and understand different cultures,” Schlitt said. “I have learned how people from different cultures and perspectives approach some of the world’s toughest problems.”

Junior Kassie Jones said that she has taken part in four Model UN conferences; two in Atlanta and two in New York City.

Jones enjoyed meeting so many different people from all over the world. 

“I mean I’ve met people from Italy, Germany, Brazil [and] Egypt,” Jones said.

Schlitt said she has improved as a Model UN delegate by learning how to communicate and negotiate effectively with others. She also said she has improved as a person through her leadership skills by being Vice President and now President of the Berry College Model UN club.

Jones said she learned that global politics are more complicated than one might think, but that compromise between countries really is possible.

Through Model UN, the students have grown in their abilities to engage in global affairs and learned what it’s like to represent a nation in regards to global peacemaking. 

“Model UN has helped me figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Jones said. “I’m not really sure what kind of job that is yet, but I know it is in the political realm.”

This year, Schlitt accidentally met the Sudanese Ambassador to the UN, Omer Dahab Fadl Mohamed. She was in the General Assembly Hall to see what was happening when the two of them started talking. She did not realize until about five minutes into their conversation to whom she was speaking. 

“It was really cool to talk to an actual UN Ambassador about the inner workings of the UN and explain how Model UN works,” Schlitt said.