Model UN team meets with success at regional competition
Thursday, Feb. 27, 2014
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's Model United Nations team has successfully returned to competition.
The team won three awards at the 54th Midwest Model U.N. Conference in St. Louis, Feb. 19-22. It was the first Kansas State University team to compete at a regional Model U.N. event in more than 30 years.
The team was relaunched by John Fliter Jr., associate professor of political science, as part of activities associated with his term as the university's 2013-2014 Coffman chair for distinguished teaching scholars. Carla Martinez Machain, assistant professor of political science, is the team's co-adviser.
In Model U.N. competitions, teams typically role-play delegates to the U.N. Each team is assigned certain countries to represent, and awards are given for team members who excel in their delegate roles.
The Kansas State University team represented the Philippines, Czech Republic, Senegal and Ecuador at the competition. The 28-member team included eight international students from China, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Paraguay.
Team members earning honors included Ian Harmon, freshman in biology, Prairie Village, who received a delegate's choice award and a position paper award for representing the Philippines on the World Food Programme. Joel Blankenship, freshman in political science, Valley Center, and Jinhui "Diana" Hu, senior in dietetics, China, earned the best position paper on the General Assembly Third Committee for the Czech Republic.
Also participating on Kansas State University's Model U.N. Team were:
Eric Hampton, junior in sociology, Auburn; James Krotz, senior in political science, Belleville; Sid Arguello, senior in psychology, Garden City.
From Greater Kansas City: Sierra Leckie, sophomore in political science, and Shai Washington, junior in political science, both from Lenexa; Maddie Johnson, junior in political science, anthropology and modern languages, Olathe; Lauren Johannes, junior in political science, and Eli Woerpel, junior in political science, both from Overland Park; and Tyler Owsley, junior in political science, Shawnee.
From Manhattan: Taylor Bates, freshman in political science; Eric Fliter, sophomore in political science; Patrick Kenney, freshman in political science; and Monica Macfarlane, junior in political science and economics.
Ciara Chambers, junior in political science, and Morgan Wills, senior in political science, both from Liberal; Rebecca Kaye, sophomore in philosophy, Topeka; and Alec Khoury, sophomore in political science, Wichita.
From out of state: Justin Mainzer, sophomore in political science, Roslyn Harbor, N.Y.;
From out of country: Jenny Zhang, senior in business administration, and Tian "Betty" Liu, master's student in business administration, both from China; Bjorn Krausser, special undergraduate in political science, Germany; Akmaral Kuralbayeva, nondegree undergraduate in business administration, Kazakhstan; Ed Alvarado, May 2013 bachelor's graduate in economics and philosophy, Mexico; and Denisse Bernie, sophomore in political science, and Mayara Garay, freshman in pre-journalism and mass communications, both from Paraguay.
