Campus & Community

Palm Beach State College’s seven-member team won a Distinguished Delegation Award for their representation of Luxembourg at this year’s National Model United Nations Conference in New York.

This was PBSC’s fourth year participating and third time earning an award, including its second for Distinguished Delegation, at the event billed as the world’s largest intercollegiate Model UN Conference.

During two conferences in March, more than 5,000 college and university students simulated the functions of the United Nations, which brings together diplomats from the approximately 200 countries of the world to pursue peaceful and multilateral solutions to the world’s most pressing issues.

PBSC’s team attended the second conference March 25-29 with more than 2,500 students from 160 schools.  The team included Sharmin Shahjahan, Trinity Stratemeyer, Liz Zayas, Sokolnicka Vilbon, Ariam Hernandez, Bryan Padilla and Joseph Morel, PBSC’s student trustee.

“The first year we sent a team to the conference was a learning experience because we were all new to it,’’ said Professor Terry Randolph, who teaches political science on the Boca Raton campus and oversees the team. “After the first year, we have developed a stronger and stronger program based on our experiences.”

For the first time this year, Randolph selected the team through a competitive audition process open to all PBSC students. He worked with the team for months to prepare for the conference. Students say the experiences gained are worth the extensive research and preparation time.

“The entire experience of Model UN was like nothing I had gone through before. Being surrounded by so many motivated and passionate people who all are striving for a better future was very inspiring,’’ said Shahjahan.

“This has been a dream for me for several years since I have always been interested in international politics and the [work done] by UN ambassadors,’’ said Padilla.

Ariam Hernandez said participating in the event gave him hope. “Participating in Model UN changed my view of the world in the area that we can be effective and generate solutions based on diplomacy and not war.”

In addition to the team award,  Shahjahan received an award for her General Assembly Fifth Committee  position paper. Morel, who was a member of last year’s team, served as this year’s head delegate.