Lea Pavlovic, a Politics and IR student, recently won the Best Delegate award at the Oxford International Model United Nations Conference which was held from 13-15 November 2015. Lea won the award in the Disarmament and International Security Committee while representing the Kent Model United Nations Society.
Lea was in the First Committee as a delegate of Algeria, and was part of a delegation of 7 students, who are mostly studying Politics, International Relations, and CPS (Conflict, Peace, and Security). She has had extensive experience with Model United Nations, mostly through high school. Last year she participated in the London International Model United Nations conference and took home the distinguished delegate award.
Lea describes the preparation involved for this specific event, “We had weekly preparation sessions which lasted for more than an hour each. We had to memorise special rules of procedure, a tedious task, albeit necessary, in order to truly understand the ‘how to’ of model UN. This can be very overwhelming for any person, no matter the amount of previous conference experience.”
Oxford’s conference opened with an inspiring speech by Sam Daw, who previously held a UN position as Deputy Director in the UK Cabinet Office. The opening speech was then followed by a series of debates over three days. “I thought debating was difficult, and it can be overwhelming for first-time debaters, but is nonetheless, always a fantastic challenge. With over 50 different universities represented, we had a vast and varied array of perspectives and delegates from countries all over the world. We debated for 4 hours on the day of arrival, 8 hours the next, and 7 hours the last day. The debate concluded with a wholesome resolution passed through consensus as the entire committee communicated and cooperated to find an agreeable solution.”
Chairwoman Kim Nam-hee, Chairman Man-hee Lee, and Dr Kamal Hossain presented powerful closing speeches. The coveted awards were presented shortly afterwards. We would like to congratulate Lea for her dedication and success in receiving the award for best delegate. It is an extremely competitive conference due to the range of students in attendance, and a high level of debate was seen across all committees. The award was very well deserved due to the time and preparation that Lea had put into the event, and is very impressive to all of us.
The Kent Model United Nations Society takes their representation very seriously and will be sending students to more than a dozen conferences around the world this term and next year. Model United Nations stimulates and embodies a high level of discipline and participating in Model United Nations not only builds on priceless skills such as cooperation, communication, and presenting but also provides students with the opportunity to travel and network with students from other universities.
To learn more or to join the Kent Model United Nations Society, visit their website.