At this year’s virtual American Model United Nations (AMUN) Conference, held Oct. 23-25, Hendrix College won seven awards, including a “Best Overall Delegation” Award for Exceptional Representation of Japan. The team brought home the same honor last year, when they represented Austria, and the previous year, when they represented Italy.

Because limitations of the virtual conference platform meant that delegation sizes needed to be cut in half, the Hendrix team also represented Côte d’Ivoire at this year’s conference. 

“We were fortunate to have been able to pick up Japan, which another school had dropped,” said politics and international relations professor Dr. Daniel J. Whelan, who coached the team. “And because they moved the conference from November to October — basically a month earlier than normal — I had to re-engineer the entire course. I was concerned the students would not have nearly enough preparation time, but they rose to the challenge and met it brilliantly.” 

The following Hendrix students received individual Exceptional Representation Awards for committee work:

• Raven Johnson ’23 for the General Assembly First Committee (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Max Parker ’21 for the General Assembly Second Committee (Japan)
• Maya Kreczmer ’23 for the UNESCO Executive Board (Japan)
• Olivia Larson ’23 for the FAO Governing Council (Japan)
• Kailey Miller ’21 for the Historical Security Council of 1967 (Japan)
• Rachel Allen ’22 for the Historical Security Council of 1990 (Côte d’Ivoire)

The other students, and the simulations/country they represented, included:

• Gideon Drake ’23, General Assembly Second Committee (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Maggie Kleck ’22, General Assembly Third Committee (Japan)
• Katlyne Gilliam ’21, Commission on Narcotic Drugs (Côte d’Ivoire)
• Grace Wiggins ’21, Commission on Narcotic Drugs (Japan)
• Lauren Capes ’21, Human Rights Council (Japan)
• Thalia Fort ’22, Historical Commission of Inquiry (Japan)

Olivia Kelley ’21 served as the Permanent Representative for Japan, and Charlie McMahon ’21 served as the Permanent Representative for Côte d’Ivoire. These peer leaders were in charge of strategy and logistics for the delegations as a whole at AMUN.

About 70 UN Member States and Observers were represented at this year’s virtual conference.

“This is the first time Hendrix has won seven awards, breaking our record of five set just last year,” Whelan said. “And it was very pleasing to all of us to have won a ‘Best Overall Delegation’ award three years running. I couldn’t be prouder of the hard work all the students accomplished.”

At AMUN 2021, Hendrix will represent Austria and New Zealand.