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Meredith Model UN Team Earns Award
By
Melyssa Allen
The Meredith College delegation to the Southern Regional Model
United Nations conference received an award for their work
representing the Russian Federation.
Only 12 of the 71 participating delegations received an award.
Meredith finished ahead of model UN teams from colleges and
universities such as Clemson, Furman, Agnes Scott, Penn State,
Georgia State, Mississippi State and LSU. The Meredith delegation
also earned scholarships to participate in the International
Model UN conference, to be held in Costa Rica.
Faculty sponsors of the Model UN Team are Jim Piazza, assistant
professor of politics, and Michael Novak, professor of history.
“This is a very difficult but rewarding task. Students
must learn about a country - its culture, history, economy,
government and foreign relations - well enough to represent
that country as though they are natives,” Novak said.
“Then they have to put that knowledge to use in three
straight days of giving speeches to various assemblies, taking
part in caucuses, and drafting resolutions that will address
world problems without violating national interest or character.”
 According
to Piazza, students gain valuable skills by participating
in programs such as the Model UN.
“Perhaps the most important things students gain from
Model UN are research and professional presentation skills,”
Piazza said. “You cannot be a wallflower and do well
at Model UN - you have to be assertive, confident, prepared
and diplomatic. It’s great preparation for the professional
world.”
Model UN team members were Karen Bobinyec, Margaret Cooney,
Rebecca Lee, Sarah Margaret Tullos, Emily Collins, Kelly Friend,
Jackie Neustel, Jessica Willson, Sarah Owen, Lyndsey Thompson,
Courtney Crute, Ashley Williams, Megan Register, Rose Hartfield,
Jenee Ciccarelli and Kelly Johnson. Model UN President Lindsey
Jones served as assistant director of the League of Arab States
during the conference (see story in November
issue of In A Nutshell).
“It’s difficult to imagine a more complete learning
experience,” said Novak. “Our students usually return
much more aware and confident, with feelings of satisfaction
and accomplishment unlike those available in the classroom.”
Weekend
Activities Keeping Meredith Students Around
By
Erin Hege, ’04
The question of “what activities are there to do at Meredith
on the weekend?” has changed to “which activities
do I choose to do?” The Campus Activities Board (CAB)
has been making an effort to increase the weekend involvement
of Meredith students, faculty and staff.
To increase campus awareness of activities two new positions
were added to CAB. The first addition is a Weekend Activities
Chair. Senior Ginny Byrd is serving in this position and has
been hard at work to create a yearlong calendar containing
information and events about weekend activities. One of her
goals was to have at least one activity each weekend of the
academic year. To do this, she has contacted every student
organization to get them to sponsor a weekend activity.
Senior Amanda Denny holds the position of publicity chair
on CAB. Her role is to heavily publicize weekend activities
and inform the students, faculty and staff of upcoming events.
She has started a monthly weekend activities calendar, located
in the side entrance of Cate Center. CAB also publicizes events
on E-news every week and produces a “Weekends-at-a-Glance”
flier that is distributed to residents and commuters.
CAB adviser and Director of Student Activities and Leadership
Development Cheryl Jenkins said, “We want Meredith’s
students to feel like the weekends are valuable and that they
can find both educational and entertaining activities on the
weekend.”
Also included in weekend announcements from CAB are class,
club and campus activities. Some weekend events on campus
have been movie screenings, Cornhuskin’ and the White
Iris Ball. CAB also publicizes events taking place in and
around the Raleigh community. The Weekend-at-a-Glance flier
also lists times and locations of concerts, theatrical performances,
gallery openings and special events nearby.
Jenkins said, “It is important for students to think
about events going on in and outside the Meredith community.
We want them to know that the life of the campus does not
end on a Friday afternoon.”
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