The University of Chicago Model United Nations (MUN) team spanked competition this weekend at the University of Pennsylvania Model United Nations Conference (UPMUNC) in Philadelphia, putting the team in position to earn a triple-crown sweep at February’s Harvard conference.
“Our performance demonstrates that we are the best team right now on the circuit by winning both Yale and UPenn,” said Team President Will Segal. “We have won the two most competitive conferences during fall quarter which constitute the two different types of simulations in Model UN.” He added, “The University of Chicago’s Model UN Team is now clearly the best team in the country, if not the world.”
If the team wins an upcoming Harvard tournament, they will have completed the MUN equivalent of the triple crown, a feat unaccomplished for over a decade.
This year, 11 of the 28 MUN members at the conference won awards, in addition to five verbal commendations. This was three times the number of best delegate awards any other school received. On every committee except for one, a Chicago delegation received an honor. David Siffert, team vice president and head delegate at UPMUNC, said, “Everyone we took put their best effort into the conference. We put in more work prepping for this conference than any other in recent memory and it paid off. We had a very strong showing from our first years, and each returning member had his/her name called at the awards ceremony.”
Emily Janoch, team secretary, said, “I am prouder of this group than any other group I have been a part of. We won more awards than any other school and close to a third of us won first place in our committee. We did this with a largely novice team and with an outstanding performance by returning students.”
Best Delegate awards were given to Yassar Ghanchi on the Security Council simulation, Janoch on the International Court of Justice Simulation, David Siffert and Danielle Zheng on the Disarmament and International Security Committee, Dan Michaeli on the Indian Cabinet, Koh Kim on the Legal Committee, Peter Bartoszeck on the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, and Segal, who was on the Ad-Hoc Committee of the Secretary-General, the top committee of the conference.
Matt Talbot, team vice president, was the outstanding delegate on the British Cabinet. Delegates who were given honorable mentions are Caroline Nelson and Peter Debaz on the Social and Humanitarian Committee, Varun Nangia on the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Conference, and Dan Worthern, who was on the Commission on Science and Technology. Verbal Commendations were given to Derek Russell-Kraft on the Legal Committee, David Clayman on the Summit on Global Anti-Terrorism, Ali Cirone on the European Council, Bonnie Doyle on the Commission on Human Rights, and Emily Brown on the Commission on Science and Technology.
