Rider Model United Nations team wins top award

By Caroline Haviland

The five days spent in New York City for the National Model United Nations Conference proved to be fruitful for Rider’s Model United Nations team, as they walked away with the Outstanding Delegation Award, the highest award of the conference, for the 17th time.

Prior to attending the simulation, the team members were paired off into committees, ranging from larger general assemblies of over 200 delegates to smaller ones with 100 or less delegates, with each committee pertaining to topics like economic development, environmental protection, international security and human rights. 

To share their success with the Rider community, a debrief teach-in was held on April 14 in Sweigart Hall, giving each delegate the chance to share their experiences of the long days spent negotiating while representing the country of Bolivia.  

Sophomore political science major John Stollsteimer said, “It’s a really good experience to work with people who you kind of don’t see eye-to-eye with on everything, and to find a common compromise because the [United Nations] is all about inclusivity and everyone’s voice.”

Stollsteimer and senior environmental science major Nicole Filipowicz added onto MUN’s accolades with an award for their position paper regarding their work in the environmental agency committee. 

Additionally, two peer delegate awards were given to senior political science major Lady Baldeon alongside senior political science major Eloise Jones, as well as sophomore English major Sofia Santiago and senior political science major Ben Collins. 

However, junior political science major Nick Smith, one of the team leaders, said he felt the team deserved more recognition for their hard work, specifically regarding their numerous position papers, calling them “some of the best papers” he has ever read.

Another struggle the MUN team vocalized at the teach-in was the usage of artificial intelligence by other schools at the conference. 

Head delegate and senior political science major Adrian Kebuz said “When I did the math, about 60% of the papers that won position paper awards had AI disclaimers, noting that the papers that had won these awards had generative AI to help develop the research or writing.” 

Junior psychology major and one of the team leaders Adrienne Bishop said Rider’s MUN stayed true to their zero tolerance of artificial intelligence. However, Bishop ensured that the delegates were “well over prepared” in their research and necessary skill sets before attending the conference. 

As the teach-in went on, various team members attributed their personal growth to MUN and encouraged those interested, regardless of their major, to join the team.

“There is some level of exponential growth between years. I think who I am now is a completely different person than who I was last year,” Smith said. “This has helped me come into myself and kind of helped me grow as a person. I think that’s kind of what [MUN] does for everyone.”

Features Editor Sofia Santiago is a member of Rider’s Model United Nations Team and attended the conference. She had no part in the writing or editing of this story.