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The Merciad
Est. 1929 Vol. 88 No. 10
Mercyhurst university
Wednesday, noveMber 19, 2014
’Hurst football Mercyhurst takes 1st wins 7th straight place at Model UN By Catherine Rainey Staff writer
Salina Bowe photo
Senior RJ Miller (25) powers through four defenders to run the ball for a Mercyhurst touchdown on during Saturday’s game against Shippensburg University. He scored two touchdowns and ran for 90 yards. See the full story on pg. 7.
Freshmen fill service event By Nathan Turner News Editor
A service experience offered on Nov 11 with the Second Harvest Produce Express, a refrigerator truck servicing up to 160 families in Erie every month, has shown an above-average interest in service opportunities among the class of 2018. Second Harvest began the Produce Express in January to enable increased access to nutritious food among families otherwise unable to afford it. Bethany Brun, the director of service learning, sent out an email to approximately 100 students through Campus Ministry asking for assistance. The responses quickly filled the 14 slots available to help
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with the project, and leaving her with an excess of over 20 students who responded, but not soon enough. The response rate, according to Brun, was above average, and about “80 to 85 percent of the ones I reached out to were all freshmen. And the majority of the ones who responded were freshmen.” Two freshmen, Jacob Chichester and Michaela Gerrace, who helped with the project gave their reasons for responding to Brun’s request and giving their time to this opportunity. Chichester’s reasons spanned from his involvement with the cross country team in high school and at Mercyhurst, which helped form “a passion to help people,” he said. “Whenever
I got the opportunity, especially in high school and now, I always felt the need to help those less fortunate than I was, or giving other people better opportunities in life.” Chichester’s ambition to serve others drove his choice to major in psychology in order to become a psychiatrist. “I feel like that’s the best way to help people,” he said. “Because even if they don’t have the same opportunities as others, you can still understand them.” Gerrace’s interests lie with helping the poor, as well as with the work she does as part of her public health major. “I want to make a difference,” she said. The experience was eye-opening for Gerrace, who learned first-hand about
the issues which are often only discussed. “Some of the families [who received food from the program] received an income of less than $700 a month,” she said. “You hear about these problems, but you actually don’t understand until you actually volunteer.” Brun is looking to accommodate the desire of members of the class of 2018 to engage in service learning. “I’m already looking into a couple of opportunities in early December before they get started on finals, that I think I’m going to push out to that same group if not try to expand it.”
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Mercyhurst’s Model United Nations team brought home a first place trophy from the 21st annual Lake Erie International Model United Nations (LEIMUN) Conference held in Huron, OH, Nov. 6 through Nov. 9. The team was comprised of student volunteers and students from Mercyhurst’s International Organization and Diplomacy political science class taught by Lena Surzhko-Harned, Ph.D., which requires conference participation. Surzhko-Harned is the team advisor. Students represented various countries and bodies of the UN at the conference. According to Surzhko-Harned, there are six committees at each conference, including two to three security councils, a historical security council or crisis committee, two to three ad hoc committees, two to three regional bodies, a Delegate A-Team and a Delegate Press Corps. Each committee contains approximately 15 to 30 countries. “What you do is research the country, determine their policies, and develop an understanding of their parliamentary procedure so you can represent the views of those countries in a specific body,” said AJ Zahuranec, senior Intelligence Studies and Political Science major. “You have to motion to speak, motion to vote. There’s a long series of rules and procedures.” Zahuranec was on the “Mystery” Security Council, which consisted of 15 states. Students did not know which country they would receive when entering the body, so they had to research all 15 beforehand. Representation can change during the conference, according to Zahuranec, who began representing Argentina, but ended representing China. The LEIMUN Corporation appointed committee chairs who evaluated the participants for performance
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in portrayal of their country, caucusing and resolution writing and debate parliamentary procedure. Teams were then given an overall score based on members’ performances. “I love the competitions,” said Zahuranec. “They are a really phenomenal way to learn about public policy issues, gain understanding about issues around the world, and also gain interpersonal skills.” Senior Stefani Baughman, Intelligence Studies and Political Science major with a concentration in international relations, is in the International Organization and Diplomacy class. She represented the Russian Federation for the UN Security Council at the conference. According to Baughman, Surzhko-Harned signed up for certain countries and councils at the conference and students on the team were able to pick among those. “I really like these conferences because you get to learn in a different setting than the classroom,” said Baughman. “Participating in these types of conferences adds a competitive element and makes it more interesting. No two conferences are the same, that’s for sure.” Surzhko-Harned said Model UN is beneficial to students with an interest in international relations and diplomacy or those who want to learn about global issues and international law. “This conference also allows them to hone a whole bunch of other skills: research, writing, speaking, interactions with others, trying to build coalitions, trying to work towards solutions, problem solving,” said Surzhko-Harned. “These are all very important skills that students can take into any field that they decide to pursue as a career.”
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