Author: Isabel Wilcox | Major: Finance | Semester: Fall 2025
Visiting Lake Louise
I would not trade my week in Banff, Canada at Model UN for the world! I first heard of the program in Dr. Robert Stapp’s macroeconomic class my sophomore year and although it didn’t initially pique my interest, I am so thankful I applied for the program a year later.
National Model United Nations is a global organization where high school and collegiate students have the opportunity to represent different countries at a mock United Nations Conference. This year, the University of Arkansas represented Japan, Australia, and Samoa on all four committees, namely the Human Rights Council, the United Nations Environmental Assembly, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, and my committee, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP). After interviewing for the class, each student is assigned a country and committee to represent alongside their partner. When Nathan Jung and I were assigned Japan UNDP in April, we were eager to get to work. The class began with each student writing a two-page single-spaced position paper on our topics and then combining papers with our partners on the first day of class. Throughout the year, we presented daily speeches on our topics, worked on our position papers, drafted potential resolutions, and participated in mock conference simulations with competing universities. When it was time to head to the conference, we were more than ready to hit the ground running.
While most students departed for Canada on Sunday, November 23rd, some went earlier to ski and sightsee. Originally, my flight was booked for Saturday the 22nd to do just that, but on Tuesday the 18th, I was rushed to the hospital for emergency appendicitis surgery. This was incredibly frightening as I had spent the last 8 months preparing for the conference and I couldn’t fathom the idea of all my efforts going to waste. I spent the next four days recovering and luckily was cleared by my surgeon to head to Banff.
After a long day of travel on Sunday, the trip began early Monday morning. We had a full day of activities planned to explore all that Banff had to offer, from visiting Lake Louise, to hiking Johnston’s Canyon, to gondola rides for incredible hot chocolate! The University of Arkansas participated in these activities with schools from Italy and California, which served as great icebreakers to meet students before the formal conference began. The second day included a cultural tour where students got to enjoy Indigenous Warrior Training, a Blanket Exercise, and Talking Circles focused on better understanding indigenous people. I did not feel good this day due to my surgery so I was unable to participate, however all my classmates enjoyed how these segments broadened their knowledge and empathy for indigenous people.
The conference officially began on Wednesday morning, and to say we hit the ground running would be an understatement. UNDP consisted of 16 countries and 30 students, with two students representing their countries alone. Our committee spent a total of 19 hours over 2.5 days discussing solutions and writing resolutions to complex global issues. Nathan and I gave 6 speeches each, created proposals to reduce global hunger and poverty, and learned so much about communication and leadership. Specifically, I learned that regardless of whether you are “right” or “smart”, it will be disregarded if you are disrespectful or difficult to work with. For instance, there was a student in our committee that had great proposals and ideas about how to create and draft resolutions, but they were very impatient with other committee members whom English was not their first language. In the end, our committee decided to create a more collaborative resolution because we found it more beneficial to creating resolutions together rather than being told how to execute one person’s ideas.
Because it is a global conference, the most meaningful part of my experience was meeting students from across the world, especially those from the countries we were representing. When speaking with Rio and Shiho, two new friends I made from Japan, we got to discuss potential solutions to global issues and our favorite music artists (Taylor Swift of course). With Ranger from the Philippines, we discussed different techniques to improve our public speaking skills and our thoughts on the new Wicked movie. With Greta, I learned how German’s view efficiency and the best time of year to visit Frankfurt. I am so thankful for the ability to share and listen to their stories.
While leaving Banff on Saturday, I reflected on everything I had learned that week. I was ecstatic that my work had paid off by being awarded Outstanding Position Paper and Outstanding Delegate with my partner Nathan, as well as Outstanding Delegation for the whole team from the University of Arkansas. As I mentioned earlier, I would not trade my experience in Banff for the world, and I am indebted to the University of Arkansas for this opportunity.