The recently established Model U.N. club has sent its first delegate abroad to Malta to serve as a conference chair at the 2017 MaltMUN Conference.

Alyssa Morrissey ’20, director of internal relations for Dickinson’s Model United Nations (MUN), went to the Malta Model UN Society conference as the first U.S. representative to Malta’s Model UN society.

Morrissey’s role as chair placed her in a position of leadership, alongside “another chair… from France, we were in charge of 13 to 15 delegates who represented over 20 countries there, and the delegates that participated were from age 16 to 35 because it’s a society, so it’s not like a high school club or college club, it’s a country, and there are graduate students and undergrads that run it and send out emails across the country to all the databases of MUN clubs and see who wants to participate.”

Morrissey related that “the theme for our conference was “Death at the Border” and so my particular committee discussed the internalized conflict in Cyprus because it’s currently divided in half, between the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots, and determining where that border (if there should be one) [would be and] who should have control,” she explained. “A more general theme was globalization and to what extent borders should exist.”

Morrissey described the three days she spent in Malta as “such a cool experience,” not only because of she had the opportunity to meet the US ambassador to Malta, G. Kathleen Hill, but also because of the exposure to “pretty relevant and heavy-hitting topics.”

The seriousness of the conference was evident to Morrissey through both the application process as well as the necessary preparation required of her as the chair of a committee.  She says that she “went through the interview process…filled out an application, and then I had an interview at 4:30 in the morning, last March, just because it’s a six-hour time difference, so it was 10:30 for them…I brushed my hair, put on a nice shirt, sat there on Skype in front of the computer, sweatpants underneath…”

Once she learned in April that she had been accepted as a committee chair, Morrissey then had to do extensive research on her topic to create “a 10 page document on the background guide of the ongoing Cypress incident, so I did all the research and put that all together just as background information: important dates, important people, what the current political situation is. [I] then submitted those documents and they were sent out to [the] delegates because their responsibility was to then be assigned a country and take on that country’s position and assume that personality for the entire weekend and defend their beliefs and how they should solve the crisis depending on who [those personalities] are.”

This research was not the end of Morrisey’s leadership role at the conference.  “At the end of [the conference], [the delegates] had to write a…paper… stating their stance, stating their solutions and then as chairs we would say ‘Okay, this was the best delegate, they articulated themselves best, they worked in favor of trying to solve everything out, and then also whoever had the best position paper.”

“Not many people are going to get this experience,” mused Morrissey, “partly because it’s half-way around the world, and the finances [are] a little rough…Because I was a chair, the only thing I had to pay for was flights and food.  My hotel was covered, which was fantastic, thank God.”

Dickinson did not fund any of Morrissey’s travel expenses.  Meagan Dashcund ’18, founder and president of Dickinson’s Model UN club, explained that Morrissey’s trip served as a pilot trip.

“We wanted a couple of our executive members to apply as chairs,” Dashcund explained, “and possibly send a delegation.  What we realized was that buying the plane ticket to Malta would have been very crazy for the school to foot the bill for so…we decided that [Morrissey] would go for this year just to see what it was like, and then if it was a really, really fabulous experience, and she learned a lot from it, then we would think about sending a couple more people next year, a whole delegation perhaps in future years, again, depending on money and the kind of interest that we would get.”

“We are such a new club,” Dascund explained of the club, which was established just last semester, “and something like that…really shows how globally minded and rapidly progressing this club is.  I think it goes to show how dedicated people in the club are and I cannot stress enough how proud and thankful I am for having those kinds of people who actually care about the work and are willing to, for example, foot the entire bill [to go to Malta]…It’s really wonderful, and as long as that kind of mentality stays with Dickinson, that global mindset stays with these students, I’m happy.

Meanwhile, Morrissey continues to keep her “fingers crossed” that she’ll be able to return to Malta next year as well as expand the club’s reach to other opportunities across the country and the world.

Dashcund encourages everyone to get involved with MUN and “definitely email us!”  The club can be reached at [email protected].