Fall conference welcomed students from Dalhousie, uOttawa, high schools across NB, NS

Mount Allison welcomed many visitors and events to campus over the Fall term, including the annual MtAUN Conference held in October. The two-day, student-organized event celebrated its biggest turnout to date with students travelling from Dalhousie University, the University of Ottawa, and five high schools across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

“We were really pleased with the turnout and dialogue at the conference,” says Jonathan Ferguson, a fourth-year International Relations student and Secretary-General of MtAUN. “We were lucky to host such an engaging group; every delegate spoke during their first committee session! This is only the second year that the MtAUN Conference has invited students from outside Mount Allison – seeing such a turnout shows that students have been looking for an opportunity like this in the Maritimes.”

The conference enabled participants to represent different countries or individuals and engage in discussion on real-world topics including fast fashion and social media in the modern era, as well as play out a real-time Security Council Emergency Meeting. The conference also included a keynote address by Mount Allison political science professor Dr. Wayne Hunt, and speech by local MLA Megan Mitton.

Ferguson attended the High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development at the United Nations Headquarters this past summer while interning with Community Forests International. He says his experience in Model UN was directly beneficial to his real-world experience at the UN.

“Seeing UN meetings in action was a surreal experience that definitely influenced my perspective on global events,” says Ferguson. “I was shocked at how similar it all felt to Model UN, everything from the meetings to hallway discussions – we even drafted civil society statements, just like in Model UN. It all reminded me how much simulations like this have the potential to prepare someone for the ‘real thing.’”

MtAUN’s Travelling Team will be sending a delegation of 23 Mount Allison students to Montreal to participate in the McMUN Model UN Conference this January – its largest delegation ever.

Mount Allison has a long history of student-organized teams of this nature. The MtAUN Society celebrated its 90th anniversary this year, having originally been founded in 1929 as the Model League of Nations Society.

Photo caption: International Relations student and Secretary-General of MtAUN Jonathan Ferguson addresses the crowd at this fall’s conference.