TORONTO—The Soka University of America Model United Nations (MUN) club earned its first “Best Small Delegation” award at the North American Model United Nations Conference, held Feb. 20–22 in Toronto.
The annual, university-level MUN conference hosted at the University of Toronto drew some 200 delegations from around the world, where students debated topics drawn from issues deliberated at the U.N.
Eight students from the SUA club, which includes members from Brazil, Ghana and Ukraine, took part in the conference. Four club members received individual awards, including one for a position paper and three as outstanding delegates.
Tetsushi Ogata, a visiting assistant professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and managing director of the Soka Institute for Global Solutions, has served as the club’s faculty coordinator since November 2022.
Since Mr. Ogata, an SUA alumni, became the coordinator, the club has attended MUN conferences twice a year.
The SUA club meets regularly to practice MUN procedures and terminology, homing in on the specific committees and countries they plan to represent as a conference draws nearer. The students, meanwhile, gain invaluable experience discussing and debating a wide range of social and political issues from the points of view of various countries.
SUA was founded on May 3, 2001, by Daisaku Ikeda as a nonsectarian, four-year undergraduate university grounded in the Buddhist principles of peace, human rights and the sanctity of life. The university, whose mission is “to foster a steady stream of global citizens committed to living a contributive life,” is open to top students of all nationalities and beliefs. SUA is consistently ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top liberal arts colleges in the country.
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