February 25, 2014
K-State Model UN Team competes for first time in more than 30 years
Submitted by Jeffrey Pickering
For the first time in more than 30 years, K-State sent a team to a regional Model United Nations, or U.N., competition. The team was relaunched by John Fliter, associate professor of political science, as part of the activities associated with his year as the Coffman chair for distinguished teaching scholars. Carla Martinez Machain, assistant professor of political science, served as co-advisor for the team.
K-State's team sent 28 students from different majors and backgrounds to the 54th Midwest Model U.N. Conference, Feb. 19-22, in St. Louis. Eight international students — from China, Germany, Kazakhstan, Mexico and Paraguay — competed on the team. K-State represented four-country delegations at the conference: Philippines, Czech Republic, Senegal and Ecuador.
K-State’s team won three awards. Ian Harmon, freshman in biology, won a Delegate's Choice award for representing the Philippines on the World Food Programme. He also won the position paper award for the World Food Programme. Joel Blankenship, freshman in political science, and Jinhui "Diana" Hu, senior in dietetics, won an award for the best position paper on the General Assembly Third Committee for the Czech Republic.