by Brendan O’Donnell ’16
From March 14th to 16th, 39 delegates from Saint Ignatius competed with over 30 other schools at Michigan State University for a Model United Nations conference. The delegates debated in 13 distinct committees over topics ranging from Syrian refugees and drone warfare to a reenactment of the 1787 Constitutional Convention. This was their second conference, following the November conference held at the University of Virginia
Nine students from Saint Ignatius won awards. David Pietrow ‘17 and Kellen Dugan ‘15 won verbal accommodations for their performance in committee. Zach Keirn ’14 and Mark Raddell ’15 earned “book awards.” Tyler Delhees was awarded “honorable delegate” (3rd place) for his work. Charlie Heintel ’16 and Zach Stepp ’14 received outstanding delegate awards (2nd place), while Andrew Beddow ’14 and Alastair Pearson ’14 teamed up to win the best delegate award in their committee. Overall, Saint Ignatius won outstanding large delegation.
Head Delegate Kellen Dugan feels that this was one of the best delegations he has seen in his years of experience. “They performed above and beyond what I’ve ever really seen. Aside from Gannon [in 2011], we performed better at Michigan State than at any other conference.” Dugan believes that an increase in enthusiasm was the cause of this success. “[Delegates] really enjoyed the conference, and they wanted to get involved rather than being dragged along.” This is likely the result of 4 months’ worth of training put into the conference.
Dugan felt that the conference is “very efficiently run.” “It is run by people who know about Model UN and how to handle high school kids,” he said. “Michigan State was a perfect balance between being competitive and being fun.” Since Saint Ignatius has gone to MSUMUN several times in the past, it is possible that next year we will go. If this interests you, I recommend that you sign up for Model UN next year.
