High school delegates receive
awards at ASU Model UN meet

Arkansas State University's Model United Nations Organization concluded its fall conference in Jonesboro recently with awards for excellence going to 12 of the participating teams.

Eighty high school and college students from around the state debated current world topics such as the Israel-Palestine situation and what to do about Iraq. Pulaski Academy teams from the Little Rock school took many of the top awards at the competition on the ASU campus.

John Jumper and Hassan Rayaz, who represented France in the Security Council, received one of the two "top delegation" awards for their performance as French diplomats in their committee during the two-day meet. The other top award in the Security Council went to Robert Frank and Will Eubanks from Valley View High School, who represented the Russian Federation. Taking honorable mentions in the Security Council for Pulaski Academy were Chad Butts and Robert Ren, representing China, and Andrew Stern, who represented Colombia.

In the Social and Humanitarian Committee, Pulaski Academy swept all of the awards, with "top delegation" awards going to Lorraine Root and Sarah Siddiqui, who represented South Africa, and to Scot Allison, for representing Indonesia. Honorable mentions went to the Colombian delegation of Samuel Kooistra and Lavern Zaffanoni, plus the team of Kate Guerin and Rachel Olsen, who represented Zimbabwe.

In the Special Political Committee, the University of Arkansas Community College at Batesville team of Bob Hunter and Jessica Davidson, who represented the United States, took one of the two "top delegation" awards, with the Indonesian delegation of Bill Hart and Nathan Sadler from Pulaski Academy receiving the other top award. Honorable mentions in this committee went to two Pulaski Academy delegations-- the Indian delegate Grant Page, plus the team of Stuart Sanders and Brendan Frazier, who represented Iraq.

The meet began with a keynote address on Friday evening by Driss El-Akrich of Morocco, northwest Africa. El-Akrich is a Fulbright instructor in Arabic and graduate student at Arkansas State University.

The conference committees were led by Model UN Organization Secretary-General Beth Ephlin of Luxora, Treasurer Gaylon Rainwater of Knobel, member Amy Williams of Paragould, and ASU and MUN alumnus Jeff Ezekiel of Tyronza. Other ASU student members who assisted with the meet were the Model UN Secretariat, including Angela Boyd of Paragould; Jennifer Cherry of McGhee; Misato Gakumura of Forrest City; John Manning of Walnut Ridge; Sandra Porter of Tuckerman; Scott Haven of Pensacola, Fla.; and Kylie Wickerham of Bloomsdale, Mo., who headed the Home Government office.

The ASU Model UN Organization advisor is Dr. Charles Hartwig, interim chair of the Political Science Department in the College of Arts and Sciences. The meetings took place in the Dean B. Ellis Library.

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