Baylor Model U.N. Team Wins First Place At Penn Tournament
The Baylor University Model United Nations team received the Best Small Delegation award at the University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference, marking the second year in a row that the Baylor team has taken the top small delegation award for the conference. A small delegation is typically 15 students or less representing smaller countries. The Baylor team represented Australia and Mauritania, in North Africa.
"I'm very proud of the team this year," Dr. Andrew Konitzer-Smirnov, visiting assistant professor of political science and team sponsor. "While we maintained a strong core of veterans, a large portion of the team consists of some extremely talented new members. Abby Foster brought a fresh leadership style to the organization and has done a fabulous job molding these two groups into a coherent team. Finally, Jenice Langston has been an extremely valuable addition, handling all the behind the scenes work. They've all done a fantastic job - we really nailed it!"
Penn's tournament is one of the largest and most competitive on the national Model United Nations circuit. Baylor competed against 60 other schools, including Harvard, Yale, West Point, Berkeley and the University of Chicago.
The Best Delegation award is based on the cumulative number of individual awards received by team members plus the overall performance of the entire team. Best Delegate, the highest individual award, was given to Sushmita Dhar and Lydia Jennings. Musheer Kamau, Robert Watson, Alex Jacobsen and Jessie Rhoads received Outstanding Delegate awards. Honorable Mentions went to Rosica Popova and Angela Hackett. Receiving verbal accolades were Abbigale Foster, Leah Arnold and Clay Schramm.
Other team members included, Preston Edwards, Jacob Colson and Thomas Herndon. The team was accompanied by Konitzer-Smirnov and Langston, who provided the team with critical administrative support.
The Baylor team will compete in February at the University of California, Berkeley, tournament.