Following an invitation from the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage in Qatar, students of Stenden University Qatar officially represented Qatar’s higher education institutions at the 8th Model United Nations Conference held in Bahrain at the end of November 2012. The Stenden University team was one of two teams selected for participation. Kody Gerkin, lecturer of the foundation programme offered at Stenden University Qatar, coached the team of four Qatari students.
Representing Japan in the United Nation’s International Atomic Energy Agency is not part of a Stenden University student’s normal weekend routine. Neither is giving a speech in front of one hundred other college students about Qatar’s policy on human trafficking. However, that is exactly what two of Stenden University Qatar’s sutndets, Hamayan Al Shereem and Mohammed Kafoode, did at the conference in Manama. The other two members of the Stenden University Qatar team, Maryam Al Nasr and Ahmed Fareed, were busy as well. Maryam represented Togo in the UN Security Council, and Ahmed was pulling double duty, representing South Africa in the committee on environmental and social issues and representing Tunisia at the Model UN General Assembly.
The four-person team from Stenden University had been preparing for the conference for several months, participating in training sessions and researching their individual country assignments for the Model United Nations (MUN) event. “The students were prepared when we arrived in Bahrain,” said Gerkin, coordinator of Stenden University Qatar’s MUN team. “They worked hard preparing, and felt they had a competitive edge compared to many of the other teams who travelled to Bahrain for the conference,” he said.
During the two-day conference, Stenden University Qatar students gave impassioned speeches and worked on their public speaking skills to convince delegates from other countries to agree with their country’s views. Hamayan Al Shereem, who represented Japan in the IAEA, spent her time trying to convince the other members of her committee that more needed to be done to safeguard atomic facilities against the kind of disaster which occurred last year at Japan’s Fukushima power plant. Hamayan’s task was to represent the view of Japan and make sure Japan’s voice was heard. Much of this debating takes place in “informal caucus sessions” where the different delegates speak informally and debate which topics to include in their “resolutions”, which are similar to those passed by the United Nations..
The event, held at Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manama, was considered a success by the Stenden University Qatar delegation.
“All of the students hope to practice throughout the year and come back next year even more prepared,” Gerkin said at the conclusion of the event.
The Peninsula
