Life has returned to some kind of normality for UQ students Hugh Jorgensen and Jo Sampford, who organised this year’s Asia-Pacific Model UN Conference.
About 443 delegates descended on the University’s St Lucia campus during the 2009 mid-year holidays for the international event – the premier model UN conference in the region.
This year was the first time the event had been held in Queensland and was the culmination of two years hard work for Hugh (economics and international relations) and Jo (law), along with a team of about 50 volunteers.
“Jo had been to the AMUNC conference in Sydney in 2006. I went to the event in Auckland in 2007 and was just blown away and wanted to get involved,” Hugh said.
“It was a steep learning curve, organising sponsorship, motivating a team – these were all things I’d never done before.”
Throughout the course of the week, students from around the world debated such issues as climate change, human trafficking and the global financial crisis.
UQ was the host sponsor with support from the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, the School of Economics; and the School of Political Science and International Studies.
The team also won the support of Brisbane City Council, AusAID, the Australian Youth Forum, Griffith University, the Q150 Community Grants Program and the Co-op Bookshop.
“The feedback from delegates was ‘thank you for the week, it was a good feeling’,” Hugh said.
“One of the main things you take from a conference like this are friendships.
“It’s a strange feeling now the conference is over… it’s been such a valuable experience unlike any other.”
Media: Gillian Ievers, Externalisation Support and Promotions Officer, School of Political Science and International Studies on (07 3365 1524, g.ievers@uq.edu.au)
