By Rebecca J. Flavin, senior lecturer in political science and Model UN advisor

On Feb. 5-6, 2021, 21 members of Baylor’s Model United Nations Team participated in the 7th annual TexMUN conference, hosted virtually by the Osgood Center for International Studies. At the conference, approximately 100 students from the United States, Ecuador and Jordan participated in committees simulating the work of the General Assembly 3rd Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural), the Security Council and the World Health Organization.

In advance of the conference, students researched and wrote position papers on committee topics including:

• Mitigating Climate Change for Inequalities (GA 3)
• Supporting the Involvement of Women in Governance and Decision-Making (GA 3)
• Maintaining National Safeguards and International Cooperation in a Pandemic (WHO)
• Viral Mitigation to Promote Global Public Health (WHO)
• Sovereignty and the International Responsibility to Protect (SC) and
• Safety and Peacekeeping (SC)

At the conference, delegates choose one of the two topics for focused discussion in committee, working together in caucuses to draft resolutions that sought broad international consensus and cooperation. Sophia Fulton, the co-head delegate of Baylor’s MUN team and chair of the World Health Organization simulation at TexMUN, captured well the work her committee did at conference, saying:

In the model World Health Organization committee, the participants professionally and expertly debated the international response to COVID-19. The Baylor student participants took the facts and research they had about COVID-19 and turned them into concrete policy proposals on stopping the spread of the pandemic. Learning how to take facts and research and turn them into policy proposals is an incredible skill that these students can utilize in whatever career path they take.

Baylor’s team, which was comprised of 20 delegates representing 10 different member states and one committee chair, won an impressive five Outstanding Position Paper Awards, in recognition of their work preparing for the conference, which was completed over the extended holiday break and submitted in advance of the start of the Spring 2021 semester.

In addition to these position paper awards, multiple members of Baylor’s team were recognized for the work they did in committee during the virtual conference, receiving four Outstanding Delegate in Committee, four Distinguished Delegate in Committee and five Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee commendations from the conference staff. The list of students receiving awards is provided below.

These accolades are all the more impressive considering that this was the first collegiate conference for 13 of the 20 delegates on Baylor’s team, and because the conference was held on a virtual platform, which presents special challenges for MUN conference models that are based on group work and interpersonal connection. As team co-head delegate Fulton notes:

The success of Baylor’s Model United Nations participants at the TexMUN conference points to the resiliency of the program to adapt to the challenges of participating in conferences during a global pandemic. The skills we cultivate in Model United Nations –– public speaking, cooperation and research –– matter even more in the online conference setting.

Joining the three TexMUN committees in the virtual conference was a concurrent High School Security Council simulation, OSMUN, which included 12 delegates from the International Leadership of Texas Lancaster-Desoto High School, mentored by Baylor Model UN alumnus Andrew Person (Class of 2020, BA in History). Mr. Person’s team received two awards in the OSMUN simulation –– one Outstanding Delegate in Committee award and one Distinguished Delegate in Committee award.

In March 2021, 14 members of Baylor’s Model UN team will represent Malaysia at the 2021 Virtual NMUN-NY conference. The team members will be chosen later in February, following club research and simulation auditions.

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Baylor Model United Nations TexMUN 2021 Award Winners

General Assembly 3
• Croatia: Pricilla Mora Garcia (senior, political science) – Outstanding Position Paper; Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee
• France: Abby Geisler (freshmen, international studies) – Outstanding Delegate in Committee
• Greece: Giuliana Hays-Angelelli (senior, philosophy) – Outstanding Delegate in Committee
• Iceland: Morgan Arnett (senior, political science) – Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee
• Malaysia: Vyda Nguyen (junior, political science) – Distinguished Delegate in Committee

World Health Organization

• Croatia: Emily Warwick (sophomore, political science and economics) – Outstanding Position Paper; Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee
• France: Giana Pirolli (senior, political science) – Distinguished Delegate in Committee
• Greece: Drue Powers (freshman, Baylor Business Fellows) – Outstanding Position Paper; Distinguished Delegate in Committee
• Vietnam: Cameron Kallina (senior, political science) – Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee
• Zimbabwe: Ashton Kuhn (freshman, international studies) – Outstanding Delegate in Committee

Security Council

• France: Rachel Jillson (junior, neuroscience) and Anna Kate Walker (junior, economics and international studies) – Outstanding Position Paper; Outstanding Delegation in Committee
• Germany: Krish Kothari (freshman, international studies) – Outstanding Position Paper and Distinguished Delegate in Committee
• Vietnam: Danish Ahmad (sophomore, economics and biology) – Honorable Mention Delegate in Committee