UA Club Hosts Model UN for High Schools

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – About 150 high school students from 10 high schools in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee will participate in the sixth Alabama Model United Nations Conference from Friday, Feb. 21, to Sunday, Feb. 23, at The University of Alabama.

UA’s Alabama International Relations Club is the sponsor

About 25 UA students will run the conference. It will feature guest speaker Dr. Mark Conversino, dean of the Air War College in Montgomery, at 11:30 a.m. Feb. 21, in 125 ten Hoor Hall on the UA campus. He will address the unrest in Ukraine.

Conversino joined the faculty of the Air War College in 2002 after he retired from active duty with the Air Force. He has taught at the School of Advanced Airpower Studies and in the department of history at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Dr. Mark Nelson, UA vice president for student affairs and vice provost, also will address the students.

The conference strives to provide delegates of all experience levels with debate that stimulates students intellectually and brings attention to international issues. In the model UN conference, high school groups will represent and play the parts of UN-member nations.

This year’s model UN also will feature a “Hunger Games” component, in which students will represent the 12 “districts” as depicted in the young-adult novel and feature film. Also, the organizers will stage a “Clinton 1997 National Security Council,” in which students play U.S. Cabinet members during the Clinton administration.

The Black Belt Development Initiative, through UA’s International Relations Club, is helping students from Greene County High School attend the model UN. This program strives to help those students in the underfunded schools in Alabama’s Black Belt learn about international affairs. The club sponsors these students to attend the conference at no cost and raises funds through events during the year as well as through funding from UA.

The conference begins at 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.

After the opening in ten Hoor Hall, the conference will continue in UA’s Lloyd Hall. For more information, contact Brandon Hooks, a UA student and secretary-general, of the Model United Nations, at 334/318-2459 or almun.sg@gmail.com.