For several years, FIU’s Model UN team held steady in the Top 5 of Model UN programs, jockeying for position with rival teams at Georgetown, University of Pennsylvania, University of Chicago and Harvard. FIU had been the top team in Florida and the top of any public university in the United States for more than a decade. In 2019, however, FIU Model UN took it up a notch and made history. Not only did the team receive more awards – 120 individual and nine team – than any other delegation in North America, FIU Model UN nabbed the No. 1 team ranking for the first time in the program’s 31-year history.
FIU MODEL UN IS
1
“No other college MUN team came close,’’ was the assessment by the editors at BestDelegate, the organization that rates Model UN teams based on performance at competition.
#
IN NORTH AMERICA
“Widely respected across the circuit for the training and hard work that the team puts in every year, FIU demonstrated this year that any university — including public schools outside of the elite Northeast — can become the No.1 team in college Model UN.” For members of FIU MUN, it’s all about unity and teamwork. “Awards are great but Model UN is not defined by the awards,’’ said Daniel Sixto, an international relations and history major who led the team as head delegate in the fall. “It’s the experiences you have and the sense of community and support everyone brings to it. We are able to thrive in the most difficult situations and always, always work as a team and think strategically.” At FIU, Model United Nations is centered around an international relations course supervised by John F. Stack Jr., founding dean of the Green School and faculty advisor for the program. It is generously funded by the FIU Student Government Association. “It’s an extremely rigorous academic program,’’ Stack explained. “Our students gain invaluable experience as leaders, negotiators, consensus builders and critical thinkers. The success they have in Model UN translates into success in life and in their careers, as evidenced by the many successful MUN alumni we have in top positions throughout the public and private sectors.” FIU Model UN was founded by Professor Dario Moreno in 1988, one year after he arrived at FIU as an assistant professor of political science. Throughout the 1990s, Professor Jeanne Kates engaged hundreds of students in the study and practice of Model United Nations until her retirement in 2005. Stack assumed leadership of the program after that. Since its inception the program has been funded by the Student Government Association.
FIU Model UN team was ranked No. 1 in North America by BestDelegate.com. Pictured are some of the team’s 75 member delegates.
4
“We are so grateful for the generous support of the Student Government Association all these years,’’ Stack said. “I have also witnessed a number of remarkable student leaders over the past 13 years challenge our students to be better, to be fearless and to understand the intricacies of international relations.”
Florida International University | Steven J. Green School of International & Public Affairs
