The University of Queensland will be represented by a delegation attending the Harvard World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) conference in March this year.
The delegates will travel to Vancouver, Canada from the 11th till the 15th of March to attend this prestigious event.
WorldMUN is the most internationally diverse college-level Model UN conference, and the largest outside of North America.
Hosted in a different international location each spring, WorldMUN features twenty-three simulated committees of the United Nations, international organizations, and specialized agencies discussing some of the most pressing problems of our era.
The conference combines committee sessions and educative and cultural activities during the day with nightly social events. Through lively and informed debate, exciting social events, and a unique conference spirit, the WorldMUN experience reaches across cultures and borders to inspire both cooperation and friendship.
UQ student, Ms Judith Bueving, attended WorldMUN last year in Singapore as an individual delegate after stumbling across the event online.
“I find out the event via google when doing research and assumed that The University of Queensland would be involved, but when I emailed Harvard they told me UQ did not have a delegation at all.”
Every year around 2,200 college students from over 60 countries attend WorldMUN in a different location around the world; past locations include Puebla (Mexico), Geneva (Switzerland), Beijing (China), Belo Horizonte (Brazil), Sharm el-Sheikh (Egypt), Taipei (Taiwan ROC), and Singapore.
Ms Bueving said she had a fantastic experience at WorldMUN in 2011 and was proud to represent UQ, however she felt it was important for UQ to have their own delegation attend the conference this year.
“Other people that attended the conference did so with a delegation representing their University and this was something I really wanted to do as well. I promised myself that I was going to set up a delegation for this year to have more people representing UQ and having more people experiencing this amazing opportunity and felt it was important to have UQ represented at such a prestige conference,” Ms Bueving said.
Ms Bueving said that she found people that wanted to go and people that also were thinking of setting up a delegation through UNSA (the UQ United Nations Student Association).
“I decided to merge with them and that resulted in having 10 people all very interested in international relations and debating international issues,” she said.
The names of all the other delegates attending this year are Alice Elizabeth Brabazon, Aron Gibbs, Benjamin Taylor, Caroline Amy Turner, Daniel Gillick, Elizabeth Placanica, Lea Marie Burek, Natalie Morris, Victoria Flannery. The group is comprised of members from different faculties namely (Social and Behavioural Sciences) SBS, Arts, Engineering and Business, Economics and Law (BEL).
Ms Bueving said that the Office of Undergrad Education has greatly sponsored every member of this year’s delegation (financially and with UQ caps).
The BEL faculty has also provided its students with additional funding.
“Without their funding, attending this event would not have been possible and some students have also received additional funds from their faculty or school.”
Media: Ingrid Rubie (07) 3346 7674 or i.rubie@uq.edu.au
