NDNU Battles Big Dogs at Model Arab League
Alex Lazo
Issue date: 4/29/09 Section: News
You would never have guessed that NDNU produces competitive students,?since we are not considered a "top tier" school.?But,?if our experiences at the Model Arab League (MAL) are any evidence, we have just as much right to be proud of our education as those ?at other universities.
The Model Arab League is a simulation of the Arab League of Nations and involves?various schools representing their assigned countries. The West Coast division was held at UC Berkeley on April 3-6.
Joining us were prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara?who, incidentally, had far more time to practice than NDNU: our?preparation course for MAL was not only shorter, but we also met to a much lesser extent as a group; in other words, some of these other schools were better prepared than we were.
Having said that, it is easy to understand?why?our group of 15 students from the History and Political Science Department were somewhat anxious - we were, after all, being put up against the big guns.
The first day proved to be quite welcoming as we had some time to meet up and fraternize with the other students prior to the event.?After lunch, each school was separated into different councils?that met in different rooms with one to three people per school.?This meant each individual council had to?ensure?that all the members were well prepared and working in tandem with each other since they would?be going solo against 25 or so other students from?the other?schools.
The whole experience was very?enlightening.?By the end of each day, we were all very exhausted, but also felt very rewarded since we?clashed against some of the bigger names around the?West?Coast?and still?managed to?hold our own.
NDNU won second place in Honorable Mention for Best School, the Council on Environmental Affairs won the Outstanding Delegation award and Melanie Massey from the Council of Palestinian Affairs won an Honorable Mention Award for Outstanding Delegation.
I feel that all of us owe a great deal to our head delegate, Ismat Yassin, for navigating us through the dire straits of the event and bringing the experience that she had from previous years - along with some other students as well - to provide us with the basic foundation for success.
It goes without saying that we were all very excited after receiving such worthy nominations, especially?coming in second?only to Berkeley (who represented two countries, winning both first?and third?places).?The overall experience not only served to strengthen the bond between the students in our department, but it also allowed us to employ our education in a competition with better-known schools, reinforcing our pride of being students at NDNU.
The Model Arab League is a simulation of the Arab League of Nations and involves?various schools representing their assigned countries. The West Coast division was held at UC Berkeley on April 3-6.
Joining us were prestigious universities such as UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara?who, incidentally, had far more time to practice than NDNU: our?preparation course for MAL was not only shorter, but we also met to a much lesser extent as a group; in other words, some of these other schools were better prepared than we were.
Having said that, it is easy to understand?why?our group of 15 students from the History and Political Science Department were somewhat anxious - we were, after all, being put up against the big guns.
The first day proved to be quite welcoming as we had some time to meet up and fraternize with the other students prior to the event.?After lunch, each school was separated into different councils?that met in different rooms with one to three people per school.?This meant each individual council had to?ensure?that all the members were well prepared and working in tandem with each other since they would?be going solo against 25 or so other students from?the other?schools.
The whole experience was very?enlightening.?By the end of each day, we were all very exhausted, but also felt very rewarded since we?clashed against some of the bigger names around the?West?Coast?and still?managed to?hold our own.
NDNU won second place in Honorable Mention for Best School, the Council on Environmental Affairs won the Outstanding Delegation award and Melanie Massey from the Council of Palestinian Affairs won an Honorable Mention Award for Outstanding Delegation.
I feel that all of us owe a great deal to our head delegate, Ismat Yassin, for navigating us through the dire straits of the event and bringing the experience that she had from previous years - along with some other students as well - to provide us with the basic foundation for success.
It goes without saying that we were all very excited after receiving such worthy nominations, especially?coming in second?only to Berkeley (who represented two countries, winning both first?and third?places).?The overall experience not only served to strengthen the bond between the students in our department, but it also allowed us to employ our education in a competition with better-known schools, reinforcing our pride of being students at NDNU.
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samueljaxon
Custom Papers
posted 2/03/10 @ 6:16 AM PST
Thanks for great news!
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