By Erin Runnels
Student Contributor
Every spring semester more than 5,000 students from over 32 different countries travel to New York City to attend and participate in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference.
Prior to the conference, schools are assigned a country and they begin the challenging task of researching their assigned country with the end goal of being as prepared as possible for a simulation exercise in which they become delegates from their assigned countries. They have the unique opportunity to deepen their understanding of international politics, learn the importance of consensus building, and develop problem solving skills and effective communication and negotiation strategies.
Over the last 10 years the Collin College Model UN program has produced teams who have excelled at the conference and who continue to contribute to their community. This semester, like many others, both returning students and new students were preparing to participate in the NMUN conference and represent Collin College with the same standard of excellence.
Everything was set and they were excited to attend the 2020 conference in early April, but what was promised quickly disappeared as COVID-19 took over the world.
Shelter-in-place orders engulfed the country from coast to coast, and in a matter of weeks colleges and universities were forced to move online. Not only were students finding the abrupt transition challenging, but professors as well. Collin College’s team spent time in quarantine figuring out ways to make the transition to online classes easier for students and professors.
The team was disappointed and blindsided by the sudden news, but Political Science Professor Sonia Iwanek, one of the Collin College Model UN advisors, decided that all of the team’s training and hard work would not go to waste. She temporarily turned that team into The Collin College National Model UN Covid-19 Student Task Force.
“I felt an obligation to still create a pivotal moment for the team to be able to demonstrate how they can use the skills that they were learning and apply them to something that is more of a real-world problem,” Iwanek said. “We were going to do something that we can actually implement. We were going to explore something that needs to be explored or be considered from the student perspective. And as long as I kept it in that Collin College space and for the team, it made it more realistic. What could the students assess and propose that would be realistic and doable at Collin College?”
They completed a resolution and policy brief to make the transition to online classes a better experience for everyone at Collin College. How did they do this?
Twice a week the team met on Zoom to discuss their ideas and what they had researched. The vast majority of the calls were spent crafting the documents to make the transition smoother. However, the calls were also filled with moments of laughter which served as group therapy sessions where the team shared their struggles of navigating this uncharted territory.
This year, the team created a living and breathing document that makes the transition to help online classes run smoother for Collin College’s 59,000 students and over 2,800 faculty members. The recommendations in the resolution and policy brief were piloted by Iwanek in her Maymester class. The student-led project delivered a resolution and policy brief to the administration of Collin College and an inside look at the challenges they faced from their perspective. This not only gives students a voice, but it makes the leadership aware of the challenges so they can make the necessary changes to benefit everyone.
The Collin College MUN team is resilient and has grown stronger through this experience. When it comes to the future of education beyond COVID-19, Iwanek said, “We need to look at how we deliver the classes and knowledge to students; We need to challenge how things have always been done.”
During these trying times, the boundaries of traditional education are being pushed to the limit. Educators are having to get creative so they can provide their students the information that they need to succeed and move ahead in their academic careers. Despite the evolving turbulence of COVID-19, the MUN team still found a way to make a positive impact.
Erin Runnels is a journalism/mass communication student at Collin College. She plans to pursue a career in public relations when she graduates.