Students represented the University of Wisconsin-Superior as delegates of different countries at a model United Nations to speak about politics, human rights, and environment, in Sault Sainte Marie, Mich. last weekend.

The conference started on Friday night, with the General Assembly. The weekend follows the steps and regulations of the United Nations Organization, with different sessions for each committee/council. For the 36th Arrowhead Model UN, hosted by Lake Superior State University, UW-Superior students represented Uganda, France and Spain.

Jacob Lindberg, a senior at UW-Superior who has been participating to Model UN since his freshmen year in high school, believes in the importance of such a conference for the students.

“The time is coming for change, and that is what we see in the Model UN," Lindbergh said. “We see the significance of the uprisings in the Middle East, and we cry for the suffering which is emerging in Cote d’Ivoire. And we most importantly know for the first time again for many of us that in our hands lie the tools that can save lives all around the world."

Each student appointed to a council or a committee was asked to turn in a resolution for the committee. The resolution was then presented by the delegate in front of the whole committee. 

“Within a weekend we get to peek into the world that defines our every aspect of our lives, and we get to realize, many of us for the first time, that we are all connected," Lindberg said after a session of the Political and Security Council, representing France.

On Saturday evening, the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, spoke in front of the students. Also a former UN commissioner, she concludes her speech offering the students a discussion on what it means to participate in Model UN.

“The first step in the making changes in the world is to act locally," she said.

The International Peace Studies association is the student organization in charge of sending delegates to this annual event. Binta Sidibe, an active member of IPSA, and also an international student from Cote d’Ivoire, is proud of the work put on by students.

“In such a short amount of time to prepare, but with the help of our advisor (Haji Khalil), we have worked hard to make this happen,” Sidibe said.

Awards were submitted to the best delegation of each committee by the chair of the committee who supervised the entire week-end. Lindberg was appointed rapporteur of the Political and Security Council, and he also received an award for Nominee for best delegate in the Political and Security Council. Lindberg remembers one of his mentor’s quote from his freshmen year here at UW-Superior.

“Some things are worth dying for or losing a job for, those things are human rights and dignity, and I should never go to school to work; I should always work to go to school," he recalled.

The University of Minnesota at Mankato will hold the Arrowhead Model UN next year. IPSA is hoping to send active members to represent, once again, UW-Superior in the Model UN.