ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – Winthrop University’s Model United Nations program will welcome hundreds of high school students to campus March 29-31 for the program’s 47th annual conference. This year’s conference theme is “Promising a Future: Protecting the Planet, Preventing Conflict, Promoting Equality.”
Winthrop collegiate delegates will debate in a General Assembly cultural event on Wednesday night, March 29, while close to 400 delegates from 28 high schools from around the Carolinas representing 90 countries will debate during the day on March 30-31. Each year, high school students write and debate resolutions for three committees: Legal, Political-Security and Social-Humanitarian. They also simulate the UN Security Council and participate in one special committee. This year’s special committee is the Human Rights Council.
The cultural event keynote speaker is Christianna Leahy, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at McDaniel College. Leahy earned her Ph.D. from Georgetown University. She has been a Faculty Fellow at the United States Institute for Peace & The International Institute for Humanitarian Law, a Faculty Fellow at the East-West Center, and a board member of Amnesty International.
“Dr. Leahy is also my mentor,” said Professor Jennifer Leigh Disney, chair of the Department of Political Science and director of the Model United Nations program. “She was the Lusophone country expert for Amnesty International for all the formerly Portuguese-colonized countries of Africa. She is the reason I wrote a dissertation and book on ‘Women's Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua.’ I am thrilled that out of a long list of human rights experts, the program’s student leaders chose Christianna!”
As the Winthrop conference celebrates more than four decades of existence, it stands out for its ability to encourage global literacy, build student confidence, professionalism, public speaking skills, and raise awareness about the cutting-edge issues of our time. The Model United Nations program consists of a suite of college classes to participate in the Winthrop Model UN conference, other collegiate competitions, and assistance with running the conference for Carolina high schools.
In fall 2022, Winthrop Secretariat members had their most award-winning competition yet, where eight out of 14 participating students won five awards at The Southern Regional Model UN Conference in Atlanta.
This year’s Secretariat is under the student leadership of Henry Waldrep, secretary general; Alyssa Robinson, director general; and Hannah Switzer, coordinator general. The three have worked tirelessly to organize the conference, contact the high schools, and plan the logistics for the three-day event, as well as coordinate Winthrop students’ participation in the conference as committee chairs.
The Winthrop Model UN is unique in that it was the first program of its kind to combine participation of college students with high school students. The Winthrop students, who enroll in the PLSC 260: United Nations course, are each assigned a country. Throughout the spring semester, the college students study and debate issues commonly discussed in the General Assembly of the United Nations.
Since the start of the program, more than 2,500 Winthrop students and 12,000 high school students have participated in the Model UN conferences.
For more information, contact Judy Longshaw, news and media services manager, at 803/323-2404 or longshawj@winthrop.edu.
