Bethel’s Model UN Team Earns First-Ever Best Overall Delegation Award

For the first time ever, the Bethel University Model United Nations club was named Best Overall Delegation at the annual American Model United Nations Conference late last year in Chicago.

Bethel’s team of 18 students represented the People’s Republic of China, competing alongside about a thousand students from close to a hundred schools. “To win this as China really demonstrates that our students shine in the spotlight,” says Associate Professor of Political Science Christopher Moore, the club’s faculty adviser. “I'm very proud of the entire team.”

Before the conference, Bethel’s team met frequently to learn about China, familiarize themselves with the roles they would play at the conference, and write and submit position papers. Not only did the students need to be familiar with China and Chinese politics, but they also had to learn about specific issues related to their assignments. At the conference, participants worked in different bodies of the UN. For example, two students represented China on the First Committee, focusing on disarmament, while two others represented China on the Economic and Social Council for Asia and the Pacific. Over four days, members like Collins Nyangau ’26 worked to try to reach international agreements within their committees. “I enjoy Model UN because it challenges me to think about global issues through a different perspective—whether it’s a global perspective or that of a foreign country,” Nyangau says.

Representing China gave the team an important role at the conference. Since China is a powerful country, Moore says that little happens in world politics, economics, human rights, or law without China being involved. And Chinese policy often differs from U.S. policy, so Moore notes students had to be able to politely and diplomatically say: “No, that's not going to happen” to other countries. “Putting yourself seriously in another country's shoes is a great way to develop an appreciation for the complexities of international politics,” Moore says.

This experience led to many lessons for students like Noah Schmit ’25. “I learned more about how hard it is for countries to agree on things, especially representing China, which has such a different history and perspective on the world than we do in the U.S.,” says Schmit, who is majoring in history and Spanish. “It opened my eyes to different political and philosophical views on the global stage.” Similarly, Duncan Harro ’23 says he had to learn to be content with not pleasing others. “As China, we couldn’t always be on the side of Western nations due to conflicting values, and we were also often the bad guys in the room,” says Harro, a philosophy and physics major. “While I didn’t enjoy it, it was satisfying to be a counterweight to groupthink.”

For students studying political science at Bethel, Model UN provides an important chance to apply lessons they learn in their courses. “Model UN allows us to take a lot of cumulative knowledge that we develop in our classes and put it into action in a demanding and collaborative exercise,” Moore says.

But the club isn’t just for political science and international relations majors. Members come from a variety of programs, including philosophy, physics, community health, and psychology.

Though this was Bethel’s first time being named Best Overall Delegation—representing the collective work as a team—several Bethel club members have earned Best Delegate awards in the past.

For a more personal introduction to the members from this year’s Model UN Club, read Professor of History Chris Gerhz’s blog post “Meet Our Award-Winning Model UN Club.”

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