College students compete in mock UN summit in N.Y.

Two teams of Lynchburg students joined nearly 4,000 student delegates from colleges and universities around the world at the Model United Nations conference in New York City last week.

Twenty students each from Lynchburg College and Randolph College represented Bangladesh and Finland in the six-day conference.

“There’s such a wide variety of opinions that exist, and such a wide variety of cultures and affairs,” said Lynchburg College junior Fallon Page, whose team represented Bangladesh. “It was an eye-opening experience in terms of recognizing the diversity everywhere.”

Students role-play the stances of the country that they represent. They must collaborate with other delegates and prepare both written position papers and statements for oral discussions with other countries.

At both colleges, students spent all semester learning the history of their country and how that relates to society, politics, trade, culture and regional priorities.

At the conference, students are divided into committees where they are assigned specific topics for discussion, said Sabita Manian, who led LC’s class of delegates.

“Other than merely voicing Bangladesh’s national interest, they have to learn to do it diplomatically,” she said.

The teams also met with real-life diversity — students from countries around the world, including Mexico, Iraq, Japan, Egypt, Italy and Germany, traveled to participate in the conference. And both LC and RC’s groups met with diplomats from their designated counties.

Ashley Thomas, a Randolph College senior, said her team members enjoyed the range of discussions while representing Finland.

“They’re known as the UN peacekeepers,” she said. “We don’t have a lot of disputes; we really just advocate peace and love.”

“We’re a very environmentally-friendly country, so we pushed for that. We pushed for nuclear non-proliferation.”

The Randolph group, led by Professor Jennifer Abbassi, won awards for outstanding position papers and honorable mention for delegation performance.

The LC group, which traveled with RC in the same bus to New York and back, also was recognized with a distinguished award for position papers and an honorable mention for the delegation.

Representing Bangladesh presented a much different set of priorities, said Page.

“You don’t have the same kind of influence (as more developed countries) so you need to bide your time, see what others’ viewpoints are, then say what you want passed,” she said. It’s a much different process that often involves compromise to have a clause that would benefit the country interested into a resolution.

LC student Amanda D’Arcy said the conference was a good experience for students, many majoring in political science or international relations.

“It really taught you a lot about diplomacy,” she said. “Going in and having your own agenda, but having to compromise with other countries. That’s the world we live in, and that’s how things happen.”