The 2012 Montana Model UN team in the UN General Assembly at UN headquarters in New York.

The Montana Model UN (MMUN) Travelling Team travels to national and international conferences to compete with other collegiate Model UN teams.  In recent years, the Team has attended conferences at Harvard University and in Chicago, Berkeley, New York, and Lille, France.

Team members are chosen from the fall-semester Political Science course that plans and staffs the Montana Model UN High School Conference.

In Spring 2012, a four-member team attended a week-long collegiate National Model UN (NMUN) conference in Lille, France, and an eight-member team attended the week-long NMUN conference in New York, NY.

The Lille Team represented Cambodia,and won three awards:

--Outstanding Delegation (entire team, top 10% of the 50 countries represented at the conference, selected by the NMUN conference staff).

--Outstanding Delegates to the General Assembly Plenary (Stephen Carnes and Madison Brooke, top 10% of the countries on the committee, selected by their peers).

--Outstanding Delegates to the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Robert Cahill and Madeline Bermes, top 10% of the countries on the committee, selected by their peers).

The New York Team represented Bhutan and won two awards:

--Outstanding Position Paper (Pauline Eluere, Rio+ 20)

--Outstanding Delegates to the General Assembly First Committee (William "Min" Sheehy and Brianna Sefcak, top 10% of the countries on the committee, selected by their peers).

In Spring 2013, the MMUN Team will represent Armenia and China at the National Model UN Conference in New York.  Team members will spend five days “representing” their countries on UN committees such as the General Assembly and Security Council.  In addition, they will meet students from all over the world, be briefed by diplomats from the countries they are representing, attend talks by international scholars and policy makers, and visit UN headquarters.   

In 2012, in recognition of the Team's accomplishments and of the regional diversity the UM Team brings to National Model UN conferences, the Montana Model UN Team received a $1,000 scholarship from National Model UN.

Because MMUN Team members serve as chairs and other staff members at UM's Montana Model UN High School Conference each fall, they are often selected to serve as NMUN committee and conference staff.  In 2011, Aimee Ryan (B.A. Political Science, 2010) was selected as the Co-Director of the NMUN-NY Security Council.  In 2012, Thecla Backhouse-Prentiss (B.A. Political Science, 2011) served as the Assistant Director of the NMUN-NY Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty.  Since 2010, Jennifer Hathaway Spaulding (M.A. Political Science, 2006) has served on the NMUN Advisory Committee.

In coming years, the Montana Model UN Team will continue to attend the National Model UN conference in New York, which is the largest collegiate UN conference in the world, drawing over 3,000 students from 250 schools and five continents.  The Team also hopes to participate in international conferences and partner with international delegations.

For information on National Model UN conferences, see http://nmun.org/

The 2012 MMUN Team at the National Model UN Conference in Lille, France.