The University of Montana's Model United Nations Team won several awards at the Chicago Model United Nations Conference. Jessica Reynolds received an Outstanding Delegate Award for representing Luxembourg, and Kelly Kirwan and Cassidy O'Connell received Honorable Mentions for their roles as a 1930s mob underboss and Liberia, respectively. The conference was held from March 31st to April 3rd at the University of Chicago and had over 250 students from universities across the US participating in mock UN simulations.

1. PRESS RELEASE
April 5, 2005
MODEL UN TEAM WINS AWARDS IN CHICAGO
The University of Montana’s Model United Nations Team recently returned from the
Chicago Model United Nations Conference with three of its six delegates winning
awards.
Jessica Reynolds received an “Outstanding Delegate Award” for her representation of
Luxembourg on the NATO committee, and Kelly Kirwan and Cassidy O’Connell
received “Honorable Mentions” for their work as 1930’s Bonanno Underboss John
Bonventre on the New York City Mob committee and Liberia on the African Union,
respectively.
Other UM students attending the conference were James Ranne, who represented the
Chief Arbitrator in Provincial Administration for the Mughal Empire; Derek Sturm, who
played Prince Met’eb bin Abdul Aziz Al-Saud, Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs
of the Saudi Arabian Council; and Leslie Venetz, who represented San Diego Padres
owner John Moore in a Meeting of Major League Baseball Owners.
The conference was held at the University of Chicago from March 31-April 3, and was
attended by more than 250 students from universities across the United States.
At Model UN conferences, students participate in mock simulations of United Nations
sessions, debating, negotiating, caucusing, drafting, and voting on resolutions in an
attempt to find solutions to real world problems. Chicago’s Model UN Conference
differs slightly from this tradition in simulating contemporary and historical, as well as
international and domestic, committees and conferences.
Earlier this year, the UM team attended Model UN conferences at the University of
Pennsylvania and the University of California, Berkeley.
This year, the Team was sponsored by the Office of the President, the Office of the
Provost, the Office of International Programs, the Vice President for Research, the
College of Arts and Science, the School of Business, the School of Journalism, the
Department of History, the Department of Political Science, and ASUM.
For more information, visit the website for the Chicago conference at
http://chomun.uchicago.edu/, or contact Cassidy O’Connell, president of the Montana
Model UN collegiate team (sheereality@hotmail.com) or Karen Adams, faculty advisor
(karen.adams@umontana.edu).