[UPDATE (11/11/15): NMUN Europe will also be competing on November 23 to 27 in Czech Republic]

The College’s official delegation to this year’s Model United Nations (MUN) held at Washington, D.C. bagged 13 awards, setting a new record for the most number of awards a delegation has brought in since the College has started participating in various MUNs.

The following awards with the corresponding committee, country, and delegates are as follows:

1. Outstanding Position Paper

a. General Assembly First Committee (GA1) – Denmark; Kryns Arenn Herrera and Jonas Ponte

b. General Assembly Second Committee (GA2)
i. Costa Rica; Jovelle Balani and Samantha Davidson
ii.Denmark; Alexandra Mae Silos and Mary Gail Abenio
iii. Lithuania; Angeline Blanco and Aaron Bernardo

c. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)

i. Costa Rica; Rae Catherine Roldan and Corazon Palang
ii. Denmark; Norika Pineda and Mitchell Espinosa

d. United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

i. Costa Rica; Laurette Nicole Ramos and Quim Allystaire Morales
ii. Denmark; Ricki Anne Literal and Marvie Gayle Uy

e. Security Council (SC) – Lithuania; Bianca Buenconsejo and Paolo Rodriguez

f. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) – Denmark; Joy Bautista and Vladimir Pattugalan

2. Distinguished Delegation Award

a. Costa Rica

i. GA1 – Jorlyn Legayada and Arthur Sebastian
ii. GA2 – Jovelle Balani and Samantha Davidson
iii. UNEP – Rae Catherine Roldan and Corazon Palang
iv. UNESCO – Laurette Nicole Ramos and Quim Allystaire Morales
v. UNHCR – Nicole Stephane Lin and Franelle Lareza

b. Denmark

i. GA1 – Kryns Arenn Herrera and Jonas Ponte
ii. GA2 – Alexandra Mae Silos and Mary Gail Abenio
iii. UNEP – Norika Pineda and Mitchell Espinosa
iv. UNESCO – Ricki Anne Literal and Marvie Gayle Uy
v. UNHCR – Joy Bautista and Vladimir Pattugalan

3. Honorable Mention Delegation

a. Lithuania

i. GA1 – Joseph Fernandez and Koko Pataunia
ii. GA2 – Angeline Blanco and Aaron Bernardo
iii. UNEP – Holly Marie Pasano and Ralph Tagabuhin
iv. UNESCO – Juhi Vaswani and Kimberly Yu
v. SC – Bianca Buenconsejo and Paolo Rodriguez.

According to Head delegate Roldan, the delegation “was overwhelmingly composed of first timers in the field of International Model United Nations,” and that “it was an exhilarating experience seeing everyone grow from literally people who knew almost nothing about public speaking, position paper writing and lobbying to delegates who stepped up and gave it their best shot during the conference.”

She also expressed her nervousness and how she told them to “disregard the idea of awards and recognition” because the main point in joining the conference, according to Roldan, was for the team to gain exposure as well as to gain experiences and lessons. Other than that, she admitted to feeling the pressure of living up to the challenge because of the track record the College has set up in previous MUN conferences before them, pushing her “to give justice to that”.

“Leading the team and being a head delegate definitely was not an easy job,” she continued, “but with all the support [from] everyone, we were able to make it through with unforeseen results.”

Dean of the School of Multidisciplinary Studies Mr. George Binay said in his recent Facebook post, “this will be a record that will be aspirational and humbling for any institution of higher learning to surpass including ourselves.” He further adds, “we will always embrace the Little David title of International Model United Nations. We are humbled beyond words. Remember that it is not the award that defines you neither it is the sole objective but only a manifestation of how true you are to the Lasallian Mission and in doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.”

NMUN DC was held last October 30 to November 1. The annual UN simulation brings in over 800 students from all over the world. The next conferences the College will be participating in are NMUN Europe on November 22 to 28 in Czech Republic, Citi Pan Asia MUN on December 10 to 13 in Taiwan, NMUN New York and Harvard WorldMUN in Italy, both in March 2016.