Model UN team earns honors

^{Clark’s Model UN Team: Lanie Smith, Professor Joseph Cavalli, Model UN program director, Tammy Pham, Kathryn Johnston, Kaden Bartley, Casey Figone and David Goebel}

Clark College’s Model United Nations team earned honors at the 72^nd session of Model United Nationals of the Far West, A Force for Good: Global Health and Development for a Sustainable Future from April 21-25 at Whittier College in Burlingame, California. Clark competed against 29 other colleges, most of them four-year institutions. See a list of all participating colleges and their assignments here.

Model UN activities were on hiatus during the COVID pandemic.

“It’s been three long agonizing years since the last Model UN Far West,” said Professor Joseph Cavalli, Model UN program director at Clark. “I am ecstatic to report that your Clark College MUN team won honors this this year, picking up where we left off in 2019. This year, in a highly competitive field, Clark College represented Malta and Vietnam.”

Topics included promoting the safe use of nuclear technology in the eradication of marine microplastics, protecting civilians—especially those with disabilities—in combat zones, and human rights and unilateral coercive measures such as sanctions.

Model United Nations is a simulation program in which hundreds of thousands of students worldwide participate in model sessions of the United Nations to advance their understanding of the principles and means by which international relations are maintained.

Clark’s student delegates recognized

“Special kudos go student delegates Kathryn Johnston, Lanie Smith, and Casey Figone,” said Professor Cavalli. “All three received the Mike McBride Outstanding Resolution Certificate Third Committee for their position paper on UCMs (unilateral coercive measures).”

Additionally, Kathryn Johnston and Lanie Smith were selected to chair committees at the MUNFW conference in 2024.

Professor Cavalli added, “Lanie was asked to chair one of the most challenging committees in the MUN universe, the Security Council. This is a big, big deal. Chairing a committee at MUNFW has always been the exclusive purview of the elite California universities as well as Arizona State and University of Arizona respectively. Keep in mind 95% of the student delegates competing are political science and prelaw majors.”

He added that on Clark’s Model UN Team, “Lanie, Kathryn, and Casey are physics, engineering, and computer science majors respectively. It is nice to see STEM mix it up with the liberal arts.”

In February, Clark’s Model UN team attended the NW Model UN Conference in Portland, its first in-person conference since the pandemic. Clark’s team represented Japan, Kenya, and Latvia. Topics included sustainable mountain development, Human Rights Council periodic reviews of Haiti, Japan and Israel as well as nonproliferation regarding the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Two of Clark’s Model UN team members had been chosen to serve as leaders for the Portland conference. Casey Figone was Assistant Secretary-General of Conference Services. Lani Smith was Director of the Security Council, a much coveted position.

Next, Clark’s team will compete in Northwest Model United Nations conference November 17-19 in Seattle.

To participate in Clark’s Model UN team: