Tars Compete at Florida Model U.N. Conference

Students in political science professor Mike Gunter’s Model United Nations course completed their first collegiate Model U.N. competition in late October at the Florida Model U.N. (FMUN) Conference in Gainesville, Florida.

Gunter’s class is an upper-level political science course that also counts toward Rollins’ international relations major and includes two field studies or competitions off campus. In the most recent competition, Rollins students represented three different country delegations: the People’s Republic of China, the Gabonese Republic, and the Republic of Ireland.

Polina Vlasova ’23 and Danny McCarthy ’25 won the Distinguished Delegation honor for their representation of Gabon while Alexis Matton ’23, Isa Sanchez ’23, and Kyle Bennett ’23 were recognized as an Honorable Delegation representing Ireland. Matton was also recognized individually within her committee on the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR) for the most outstanding position paper.

“The FMUN Conference was a great learning experience for our class as we got to experience firsthand the concepts and content we’ve been discussing this semester,” says Matton, a double major in political science and social entrepreneurship.

“Just like one singular state can’t do much within the U.N. by itself, Model U.N. shows how powerful cooperation and teamwork are and how much nations can achieve by incorporating them,” adds political science major Vlasova.

In November, the students will travel to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to represent Russia, Kenya, France, Germany, and Brazil.