Rider repeats as top award winner at national Model UN conference

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For the third year in a row, Rider University's Model United Nations (UN) team earned the top award at the national Model UN conference in New York City. Rider has now received the Outstanding Delegation Award at the conference 15 times over the past 21 years. 

This year's Rider team represented Poland. Delegates spent the spring semester immersing themselves in the country’s history and culture so they could effectively represent it in a diplomatic setting. 

“We were very excited to represent Poland because they have a very important role in today’s global landscape,” says senior Paola Carlesso, the team’s head delegate. “Especially with the war in Ukraine, they play a pivotal role as a member of the European Union.” 

Delegates Eden Nadella and Nick Smith, both first-year political science majors, also earned the team a Position Paper Award for their work on the United Nations Environment Assembly. In addition to political science, nine other majors from a variety of disciplines were represented on this year’s team of delegates. 

“Diversity, strength and excellence were vividly on display by the members of Rider's Model UN team, with students from many of Rider’s colleges and departments,” says Dr. Barbara Franz, professor of political science who is the University’s Model UN advisor. “The student delegates brought very different skill sets to the team.”

More than 200 colleges and universities from around the world typically compete against each other, with thousands of student-delegates going head to head in diplomacy, negotiation, public speaking and more. This year’s competition was held from April 1-5 in New York City, with the closing ceremony at the UN Headquarters taking place on the final day. 

At Rider, participation in Model UN is offered through a student-led course that runs from January through April. Tryouts begin earlier in the year, in September, with the team’s final roster announced in December. The coursework requires students to write position papers and develop their ability to speak extemporaneously during debates. This preparation helps the students negotiate, persuade and gain the cooperation of other student groups, each of whom are representing different UN member states from around the world. 

The win culminated a year-long process for the team’s leadership. “As soon as the conference ends, it’s the start of the new season, so to speak,” says Carlesso. “Obviously it’s a lot of work, but especially as a senior, I wanted to make sure during my last year at Rider that I did everything I wanted to do and to leave school with no regrets. I put every ounce of my energy into this project so I could look back and see that I achieved even more than I set out to. It was worth the extra hours.”

Rider is a founding member of the competition and has attended every conference since 1967. With the University having had so much success in the competition, student leaders report being motivated to excel and continue the University’s legacy of success. 

Having achieved that goal, Carlesso, who is originally from Venezuela, plans to return home this summer after she graduates in May with a bachelor’s degree in global studies. She intends to apply to graduate school and ultimately build on her previous internships with NGOs and work in international relations. 

“I was able to have field experiences in college where I was on the ground working with people in underprivileged communities,” she says. “I want to do that on a bigger scale. It’s very easy to get lost in the world’s big problems, but I’ve seen that you can change lives one at a time and that those individual actions can add up and, in the end, can have a broader impact.”