WTAMU heads to the Windy City

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Marcus Rogers

Chicago, IL – Nov 23, 2021: From left to right, Sara King, Madelynn Luckey, Zyna Abjuma, Marcus Rogers and Sharon Quintero-Diaz stand with the WTAMU hand sign on the Chicago Riverwalk during the last day of the AMUN conference.

A group of five West Texas A&M University students landed in the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the day before Thanksgiving, after attending the American Model United Nations (AMUN) conference in Chicago, Illinois.

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, TX – Nov 19, 2021: WTAMU students line up at the gate with their boarding passes on hand to prepare for take off to the Chicago O’Hare Airport.

Skills, such as statesmanship, delicacy and electoral skills, are essential for the successful drafting of resolutions, amendments and their passage in the governing body within Model United Nations. West Texas A&M Model United Nations (WTMUN) “hosts and attends conferences in which they simulate the workings of the United Nations.” Such skills are applicable in any job genre.

WTMUN has been on campus at West Texas A&M University since its inception in 2018 to provide bright dialogue about international issues to students interested in diplomatic practice, not just to political science students.

“My favorite thing was getting to travel to a new place and meeting a lot of people from different places all from different backgrounds and perspectives when representing their countries,” said Sara King, the Under Secretary for General Technology.

The organization is formatted to function like the real United Nations in New York. Students around the country, and even across the globe, collaborate with each other to create an engaging environment centered around meaningful discussions about topics that trouble the world.

One of the commissions that students participated in was the Human Rights Council. In the room, “water sanitation, and how to increase accessibility and affordability,” said Zyna Abjuma, a freshman who recently joined the organization. For the first time in AMUN history, “the second topic was indigenous peoples rights.”

Topics included in the conference surrounded what the real UN touches on, such as solving global racism, refugees, “Preventing a global food crisis in developing countries, Women’s economic empowerment in the changing world of work,” and other incredibly important topics that the world faces.

Zyna Abjuma said in her committee, the Human Rights Council, that she represented the country of Bulgaria. “Regardless of anything that could happen around the country, Bulgaria, whether it’s war, war conflict between I think 10 ethnic groups or anything will go be able to provide a renewable form of energy that would allow them to have sanitary water accessible to them at all times.”

Chicago, IL – Nov 23, 2021: Zyna Abjuma, representing Bulgaria, reviews the final edits to a resolution drafted to help tackle issues impacting water security around the globe.

These different committees were focused on several cultural and economic issues that impact the countries that students represent. Students in attendance were mainly from the midwest region and WTAMU was the farthest delegation in attendance at the physical AMUN conference.

“It’s very different,” said Sharon Quintero-Diaz, senior and acting Secretary-General for WTMUN. “[Previous conferences] are more military, but these are more of what we’ve been doing this whole time. It was just really nice to finally go to a Model United Nations conference.”

Other conferences that WTMUN has been included in was the Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA) conference at Texas A&M University in College Station. This conference is structured as a military conference and is similar to the Model United Nations, but has its own respective virtues.

“My favorite part of the trip was seeing all the different personalities and how people acted as their country,” said Madelynn Luckey, the Co-Secretary General.

WTMUN meets every other Wednesday in the senate room at 6:30 pm and will be preparing for the Model United Nations Conference at WTAMU. WTAMU-UNC is hosted in the Jack B. Kelley Student Center, during early fall for local high schools to participate in over a weekend. Some current members of WTMUN found their start for the organization via the event that was hosted virtually last year.

In her closing remarks Abjuma said, “it takes a lot of work and a lot of cooperation with other delegates. There are definitely some delegates that were not willing to work with me, but we at least found common ground and compromised on major topics.”