Your future, our focus
POWELL, Wyo. - Get ready, world. When it comes to international relations, Northwest College students know how to get the job done.
The NWC Model United Nations Team dominated the Wyoming Model United Nations Conference hosted April 20-21 in Laramie by the University of Wyoming. Model UN is a program that helps students develop skills in writing, speaking, negotiating and critical thinking.
Even though this is the first year NWC fielded a team, Northwest took 13 of the 37 awards it competed for, leaving three high schools, three other community colleges and UW to split the remaining 24.
Every member of the Northwest team won at least one award, with several members winning multiple honors. The team further distinguished itself as the only one with every member receiving an award.
Audrey Walleser (Edgar, Mont.), Brooke Craghill and Lisa O'Connor (both of Powell), Hyounju Jeon (South Korea) and Chunjin Guo (China) all won multiple honors while Yeunha Kim (South Korea) and Tyler Hetland (Lovell) won Dais' Choice Awards—a special recognition by the chairs of their particular committees.
Jeon earned the distinction of being the only delegate at the conference to garner three awards.
Steve Walker, NWC’s director of international studies, coaches the Model UN Team. An assistant professor of political science, he developed the new international studies program over the past year and instituted the Model UN Team.
Before taking his team to the Laramie competition, Walker traveled with them to a conference in New York City where they joined over 5,000 students from around the world in an intense four-day simulation. The New York conference was designed to teach diplomacy and a variety of other skills necessary for success in the field of international relations.
At the two-day Laramie event, the NWC team of seven students competed against 131 others from across the state.
“These noteworthy victories by such an inexperienced team,” Walker said, “bode well for the future of the program and the team. I’m very proud of how far they’ve come through hard work and serious commitment.”
