Eight West Virginia University students traveled to the Netherlands in July, as the lone American representatives at a Model United Nations conference, and came home with a handful of honors and a plan to return.
The European International Model United Nations, or TEIMUN, is the student organization that sponsors the annual seven-day, summertime conference in The Hague, Netherlands, as part of its effort to encourage a multilateral view of world affairs.
This year was WVU’s first time participating in the conference and they joined 220 students from 80 countries. That’s a small event by American standards, but its size was actually advantageous for WVU’s purposes.
Joe Hagan, Barnette professor in political science and director of the International Studies Program and David Stewart, associate vice president for Student Affairs, found TEIMUN while searching for a conference that would give future freshmen and sophomores their first international experience. The joint venture between International Studies and Student Affairs aims to not only give students a taste for traveling abroad, but also an understanding of what it means to be a global citizen.
For the inaugural trip, Stewart enlisted the help of Director of WVU Housing Corey Farris to accompany a contingent of mostly accomplished upperclassman, who had previous Model UN experience, to gauge TEIMUN’s quality and its suitability for untraveled undergrads.
Hagan, who also joined the group at the conference, couldn’t have been more pleased with the result.
“It was wonderful, very professional,” Hagan said. “It gave our students an opportunity to speak publicly and to debate rigorously, and to really get to know students from, literally, around the world.”
Each of the 220 students at the conference was charged with representing the interests of a foreign country on a United Nations committee. The WVU contingent—made up of international studies students Katie Wilson, LeighAnn McChesney, Alanna Markle, Gary Shaw, Philip Haxel, Andreina Varady, Kelly Bryant and Kara Dray—represented Ukraine, Afghanistan, Uruguay, Iraq, Sudan and Romania.
But, unlike many conferences of its kind, TEIMAN didn’t focus exclusively on simulating the work of the United Nations. Organizers put an equal emphasis on the importance of making global connections and allowed plenty of time for participants to interact outside of their committee assignments at excursions, parties and international food tastings.
“It was a fantastic experience,” said Wilson, now a WVU graduate student. “I’d recommend it for any student, regardless of their background or experience. It was really the best of both worlds.”
Wilson spent the week representing Uruguay on the Economic and Social Council and, for helping to steer truthful debate among her peers, was named “Best Delegate.”
McChesney, who represented Afghanistan, was asked to return to the conference in 2010 to serve as vice-chair of the Economic and Social Council and as the first American staff member.
By that time, Hagan hopes to have recruited another group of students to return to The Hague. He’s looking for outstanding freshmen and sophomores with an interest in international affairs and an enthusiasm for engaging students from throughout the world in an academic setting.
If his first contingent was any indication, Hagan shouldn’t have any trouble finding willing travelers.
“I absolutely loved the TEIMUN experience,” Varady wrote in an e-mail to Hagan shortly after returning. “If I could, I would do it every year. Thank you very much for giving me this opportunity that was equally enriching academically and personally. Even though my first identity is Venezuelan, during this trip I felt like a true Mountaineer.”
-WVU-
aj/08/31/09
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