Model UN, BPA Win Big at Regional Competitions
Model UN keeps “outstanding” streak alive, while BPA takes home several first-place awards.
The Alma College Model United Nations (MUN) team competed at the Midwest Model UN conference in St. Louis, Missouri, in February, earning Alma two “outstanding delegation” awards, the highest recognition at the conference, and two “distinguished delegation” awards, the second highest recognition. Meanwhile, the Alma College chapter of the Business Professionals of America (BPA) competed in the State Leadership Conference for Michigan in February and won several awards, including three first-place awards.
For MUN, the “outstanding delegation” winners were Abigail Haag, Lucas Hartwell, Alex Herin, Helena Kucera, Prarthita Nath and Robert Preni, who represented Gabon, and Marwa Assiad, Syrine Ben Driss, Maris Fett, Claire Neeb, Emily Patzkowsky, Rakkshet Singhaal and Elizabeth Vredevelt, who represented the Philippines. A full list of Model UN winners is below.
2022 marks the 29th consecutive year that the team has received an “outstanding” award, and its 54th and 55th “outstanding” awards since 1994.
“Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was our first in-person MUN conference since February 2020, and it was great to be back to the real thing,” said Derick “Sandy” Hulme, Arthur L. Russell Professor of Political Science and faculty advisor to MUN. “Our team had a fantastic performance competing against schools from across the Midwest, and we’re looking forward to competing at the National MUN conference in April.”
For BPA, the presentation management team of Gracie Allen, Sondes Gasmi and Brianna Sharpsteen took home a first-place award. Braxton Lamey won a number of individual accolades; including two first-place nods, two second-place awards and a fourth-place award. Sharpsteen and Gasmi won one second-place award each.
“I’m very proud of our team,” said Sharpsteen, a senior student from Prudenville and the president of the BPA. “We’ve come a long way in the past few years and have set ourselves up for success at nationals and in future years. We faced some challenges in this competition and worked together to overcome them.”
The BPA team, advised by Tina Rolling, associate professor of business administration and accounting, will take part in the 2022 National Leadership Conference in May in Dallas, Texas. The MUN team, meanwhile, will travel to New York City in April to compete in the National MUN Conference.
“Distinguished Delegation” members (representing Malawi):
Jacob Keeley
Taylor Neeb
Chloe Pace
Aditya Shankar
Maria Vostrizansky
“Distinguished Delegation” members (representing Uruguay):
Liudmila Budaragina
Regina Galeeva
Mariem Hamdi
Madison Ryan
Isabel Umanzor
The following students received individual recognition as “outstanding delegates”:
Maris Fett
Regina Galeeva
Abigail Haag
Lucas Hartwell
Alex Herin
Helena Kucera
Prarthita Nath
Claire Neeb
Robert Preni
Isabel Umanzor
The following students received individual recognition as “honorable mention” delegates:
Marwa Assiad
Liudmila Budaragina
Taylor Neeb
Chloe Pace
Emily Patzkowsky
Aditya Shankar
Maria Vostrizansky
Elizabeth Vredevelt
The following students received individual recognition as “delegate choice” awardees:
Maris Fett
Abigail Haag
Lucas Hartwell
Prarthita Nath
Claire Neeb
Aditya Shankar