Denison wins big at Model UN Conference

Denison students excelled at this fall’s American United Nations Conference, tying for most awards won and leaping over students from 68 other leading colleges and universities to take the conference’s highest honor.

Model UN students learn about the UN, international relations, and diplomacy as they role-play as delegates to UN committees, debate issues from their country’s perspective, and work with other delegates to pass resolutions.

Denison’s 21 student delegates represented Algeria, Nepal, and the International Press Delegation. The students won six Outstanding Delegation awards at the conference, including Overall Best Delegation for their exceptional representation of Algeria. Individual students won the following awards for specific committee assignments:

• Drew Duffy ’27 and Velma Hall ’26 for Exceptional Representation of Algeria: General Assembly Second Committee, Economic & Financial Affairs.
• Katherine Mims ’25 and Maddie McIntosh ’25 for Exceptional Representation of Algeria: General Assembly Third Committee, Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Affairs.
• Julia Assis Azevedo ’25 and Elijah Van Farowe ’26 for Exceptional Representation of Algeria: Security Council.
• Jack Helms ’26 for Exceptional Representation of Nepal: General Assembly Plenary.
• Karishma Luthra ’26 and Hieu Tran ’26 for Exceptional Representation of Nepal: General Assembly Second Committee, Economic & Financial Affairs.

“I already had high expectations for this cohort, but they still managed to exceed them,” said Andrew McWard, assistant professor of politics and public affairs, who led the group. “No other school won more awards. That’s indicative of the hard work every student did to prepare for this semester. I couldn’t be more proud.”

Most students attended the conference as part of McWard’s course, The United Nations and World Problems. Three students — Azevedo ’25, Reya Islam ’25, and Khoa Nguyen ’26 — returned as peer mentors after previously taking the course and attending the conference last fall.

“The mentors were invaluable,” McWard said. “They volunteered a significant amount of time to share their past experiences and guide the new students. It was wonderful to see them emerge as leaders. We really felt like a team this time around.”

Denison students participated in the following simulations and assignments:

• General Assembly Plenary
  • Jeremy Hutton ‘26 and Matthew Roth ‘26 (Algeria)
  • Jack Helms ‘26 (Nepal)
• General Assembly First Committee: Disarmament & International Security
  • Reya Islam ‘25 and Gigi Yakes ‘26 (Algeria)
  • Caroline Cavalier ‘26 and Sadie Frank ‘27 (Nepal)
• General Assembly Second Committee: Economic & Financial Affairs
  • Drew Duffy ‘27 and Velma Hall ‘26 (Algeria)
  • Karishma Luthra ‘26 and Hieu Tran ‘26 (Nepal)
• General Assembly Third Committee: Social, Cultural, and Humanitarian Affairs
  • Katherine Mims ‘25 and Maddie McIntosh ‘25 (Algeria)
  • Meg Simpson ‘26 and Serkan Tan ‘26 (Nepal)
• Economic and Social Council
  • Gray Jackson ‘26 and Khoa Nguyen ‘26 (Nepal)
• World Health Assembly
  • Malik Ahmed ‘25 (Nepal)
• Security Council
  • Julia Assis Azevedo ‘25 and Elijah Van Farowe ‘26 (Algeria)
• International Press Delegation
  • Noah Fishman ‘25