Florida International University received Best Delegate in all 12 committees they participated in
NMUN published the list of awards on its website earlier today and I wanted to share a few observations.
Four schools in particular received Outstanding Delegation awards (decided by the NMUN staff) and the greatest number of Best Delegate awards (decided by fellow delegates):
- Florida International University, representing Uruguay, received 12 Best Delegate awards in all 12 committees they participated in.
- University of Wisconsin Oshkosh took home 8 Best Delegate awards as Namibia and Barbados.
- Universidad Catolica Andres Bello represented Germany and received 7 Best Delegate awards.
- Brigham Young University received 6 Best Delegate awards as the Republic of Korea and Tonga.
Of these 4 schools, FIU was the only one in the Sheraton and the other 3 were in the Marriott.
Click “Learn More” below to find out how many schools received awards!
I also did a rough analysis of award winners by the numbers (figures below are approximates):
- NMUN gave about 120 delegation awards, which is about one-third of the schools attending. Outstanding Delegation went to 8% of total schools — Distinguished Delegation went to 11% — and Honorable Mention went to 12%.
- The conference gave about 120 Best Delegate awards. With more than 5,000 delegates in attendance, the Best Delegates made up 2.5%!
- Schools that won Outstanding Delegation also received 58% of the Best Delegate awards — Distinguished Delegations received 23% — Honorable Mentions received 9% — and schools that did not win delegation awards received 10% of Best Delegates. The correlation between delegation awards and Best Delegates suggests that the NMUN staff and delegates agreed overall on the top-performing schools of the conference.
I wanted to share these observations because I thought others would find them interesting. I also wanted to note that NMUN aims to de-emphasize competition between delegates and focus on cooperation. Their awards policy states:
“No one can observe every action in committee or truly judge an individual’s learning and growth. We believe participation in the simulation is its own reward. It advances understanding of the UN and contemporary international issues, and it has changed the lives of many delegates. We urge participants to maintain an appropriate perspective regarding the awards. The fundamental basis of the simulation is collaboration and cooperation among nations, which includes working together through multilateral diplomacy. There are no winners and certainly no losers.”
From my own observations of the conference, NMUN does a good job of striking a healthy balance between competition and cooperation. Delegates were intent on working together to produce the best possible resolutions and reports in their committee. At the same time, they found awards valuable — they saw delegation awards and Best Delegate as recognition of the hard work they put into preparing for and performing at the conference.
Did you attend NMUN? What did you think of the conference and its awards? Let us know in the comments below!
Additional Links
Click here to see the Sheraton awards and here for the Marriott awards.
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