Rider Model U.N. team hosts first Tri-State Mock Invitational

By Caroline Haviland

In preparation for the National Model United Nations conference, Rider’s Model U.N. team, a simulation of the United Nations, hosts a mock conference each year, usually inviting a small number of delegates from Mercy University to imitate the upcoming event. 

This year, to have a more accurate representation of the five-day-long conference in New York, Ursinus College and Stockton University joined, creating the first Rider University Tri-State Mock United Nations Invitational on March 28. 

The idea to welcome other schools to the yearly event sparked from sophomore psychology major Adrienne Bishop, who noticed the grander size of mock Model U.N. conferences in the tri-state area, and said, “Why can’t we do that?”

Bishop reached out to Model U.N. teams in Pennsylvania and New York that were also sending delegates to the national conference, hearing back from several teams either eager to join Rider’s mock conference this year or in the future. 

With the additional two schools, 48 delegates gathered to represent 25 countries, better preparing the students for New York’s National Model U.N. conference featuring delegates from countries such as France, Germany, Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom. 

In contrast to the conference in New York, where each institution is assigned a country, the mock conference paired delegates up to each represent a nation, the goal being to imitate as many governments as possible and prepare students for the reality ahead of them. 

“The research for the real conference is very intensive. It happens for months and months and months. For the mock conference, it’s just finding some programs and getting an idea of what your new country feels,” Bishop said. “It’s just more of an emphasis on saying the right things, and knowing the processes of being able to respond to any curve balls thrown a delegate’s way.”

This year’s head delegate, sophomore political science major Eden Nadella, shared the same sentiment as Bishop on the need for a larger mock conference. 

“It’s a lot different talking about it versus experiencing it,” Nadella said. “That’s why I was very happy to grow it this year. A lot of the delegates are going to face way bigger crowds than just nine delegates coming from another school.”

Rider has a long streak of receiving outstanding delegation awards at the National Model U.N. conference, which are given to the top 10% of schools out of the over 200 institutions in attendance. According to sophomore political science major Nick Smith, it is the most coveted team award at the conference. 

Out of the two individual awards possible, Smith and Nadella won the position paper award at last year’s conference, an award pertaining to the preliminary paper written about a country’s thoughts on a variety of issues within an assigned committee, theirs being the U.N. Environmental Assembly.  

The preparation for the National Model U.N. conference began at the end of spring 2024 for the leadership team, this year’s being Smith, Nadella and junior political science major Adrian Kebuz. 

For any interested students wanting to join Model U.N. at Rider, the team is put through a three-step tryout process involving an interview with leadership, partnering with other prospective students to see how well they can work together and lastly, placing everyone together to practice speeches and caucusing. 

Kebuz said, “It gives students a really good opportunity to also look in depth at another country, and look about their system, their problems, the issues that are important to them which I think is really important to broaden your view and expand your horizon in any kind of way, whether you’re a political science major or not.”