ODU Model UN Wins Awards at Four Spring Conferences
ODU's Kimberly Ganczak, Best Delegate at the Virginia International Crisis Simulation, April 3-6
By Valerie Sprouse, Aaron Karp, Kimberly Ganczak, Sean McGuffin and Christopher Steadman
In addition to hosting its massive annual ODU Model UN Conference, the Old Dominion University Model United Nations Society represented the university at four conferences this spring, winning awards at each. It was the ODU Model UN's most successful spring in many years.
The first success came at the Model United Nations Conference at Ohio State University (MUNCOS), Jan. 25-26. This was ODU's first appearance at the OSU event, where the Model UN delegation took home three awards, including Outstanding Delegation. (See Inside ODU, 6 February 2014)
Before heading off to the spring circuit, ODU's Model UN Society hosted its 37th annual ODU Model United Nations Conference (ODUMUNC). Widely hailed as one of the region's premier simulation conferences, this year the three-day event was attended by more than 1,000 high school students, 70 teachers and a staff of 70 ODU students (see Mace and Crown, 5 March 2014).
Another new conference for ODU was &MUN, hosted by William & Mary, March 27-30. ODU had delegates in five bodies: the United States National Security Council, the United Nations Security Council, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the Ad-Hoc Secretary General Committee and Gerousia (Thermopylae) 480 BC, a historical simulation. ODU head delegate Brain Rinaldo, a graduate student in English literature, represented ODU in the United Nations Security Council as France, where he won Outstanding Delegate, working to end ethnic violence in Africa. One of two delegates in the U.S. National Security Council, sophomore Sean McGuffin, received a Verbal Commendation for his efforts portraying Susan Rice, the U.S. national security adviser.
In April, the ODU team first attended the Virginia International Crisis Simulation sponsored by the University of Virginia (VICS), April 3-6. Bringing 16 students, ODU was represented on 13 bodies. GPIS student Kimberly Ganczak won Best Delegate for her role as the Secretary of the Navy in the Confederate War Cabinet, American Civil War Joint Crisis Committee. She played her role well and was noted for her skill both by her committee and others. One maneuver was to successfully create a pirate force of Confederate ships; however, they were destroyed by her counterpart on the Union side.
A smaller delegation went to the University of Chicago's Model UN (ChoMUN), April 17-20. ChoMUN is one of the largest and most completive conferences on the circuit, with 22 crisis bodies. McGuffin again earned a Verbal Commendation, this time for his role in the historical simulation of the Finnish War Cabinet of 1939. He reports that "in the depths of the Second World War the brave Finnish cabinet fought against the Soviet Union to keep independence in the Winter War and then fought to resist the Germans after taking in refugees from the Holocaust." In the Salon of Catherine de Vivonne, Marquise de Rambouillet, simulating 17th-century France, freshman Felicia Fisher was Claire-Clemence de Maille-Breze, Princesse de Conde. Other bodies where ODU was active were the Union of European Football Associates, the Modern Cabinet of Turkey and the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Incoming MUN Society president Kimberly Ganczak said: "We all worked really hard in committee to advance our agendas while working out of committee to enhance the reputation of Old Dominion on the MUN circuit." She also noted that the team became very cohesive with everyone helping each other develop crisis ideas and initiatives. She hopes victories like those from this spring become an ODU tradition.