Roanoke students participate in Model Arab League and National Model U.N.

On two occasions over the past month, Roanoke College students represented the college in international relations simulations: the Southeast Regional Model Arab League and the National Model United Nations conference. The students negotiated through current issues within the political climate with peers, some traveling to participate from outside of the United States.

Seven Roanoke College students brought home the Superior Delegation award, a bronze medal, and fifth place out of 20 teams from the Southeast Regional Model Arab League. The group, under the supervision of Dr. Rob Willingham and Dr. Holly Jordan, traveled to Spartanburg, South Carolina to take part in the three-day long simulation conference of the Arab League. Hunter Neary '18, Sarah Hoose '20, Paul Manville '19, Mia Petrucci '20, Jacob Joyce '19, Timothy Shay '19, and Hayley Moe '18 acted as representatives of Bahrain over the course of the conference, where they drafted resolutions to modern issues within their country.

Accompanied by Dr. Joshua Rubongoya, Neary, Manville, Joyce, Hoose, and Sahar Mechmech participated in the National Model United Nations conference in New York City.

"The National Model UN conference was an eye opener for the Roanoke College delegation," Rubongoya said. "Students learned that multilateral diplomacy at the global level (as opposed to regional level, i.e. Model Arab League) presented different challenges. It was harder to arrive at a consensus on many of the thorny issues plaguing the international community and smaller actors such as we represented (RC represented Palestine) had an uphill battle in making their voices heard. Non-voting UN-members such as Palestine find themselves in even a more paralyzing situation when it came to efficacy and influence. The lesson was that forming alliances with bigger, voting members was the cornerstone to small state diplomacy."