Model Arab League walked away from their National competition in Washington, D.C. and Bethesda, Md. on March 26-29 with five delegates winning awards after competing against over 20 other colleges and universities from around the country.
All 13 delegates, led by Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs Tyler Parker and Chair of the Political Science Department Chris Grant, represented Qatar during the competition.
“Most of our work here at Mercer, between regionals and nationals, was getting the students more confident in representing Qatar, really embodying Qatar, helping them improve their action verbs and their confidence and their statement,” Parker said.
When the students initially arrived, the group was able to see the opening ceremonies at the embassy of the state of Qatar and meet with diplomats to see how their work is similar to the simulations, according to Parker.
He said on the days of competition, students split off into their respective committee rooms “making sure that they were well caffeinated and that they had all of their notes, their laptops, their post-it notes, kind of in a good command center in front of them for the days ahead.”
Parker added the team was proactive and spoke actively and frequently during the competition.
“Something that we want to move forward with the club team is to really emphasize to Model Arab Leaguers that frequently speaking confidently and being a part of those draft resolution writing processes are all those good, strong ways to build a good reputation in the committee room,” Parker said.
He said Mercer will represent the country of Mauritania next year, a West African state south of Morocco.
“We'll make sure that the new members, and the returning members of the club team, feel very confident in embodying Mauritania, feel very confident in the written and spoken aspects of parliamentary procedure and that they understand and embrace the fact that speaking frequently, speaking confidently and building a good reputation in one's committee room” leads to success, Parker said.
Jacob Solomon '28 said he is eager to embrace the position of head delegate and is excited about next year’s competition.
“I have started to fully familiarize myself with both procedural rules and our country for the next conference season in efforts to assure that I can lead our delegation to be the best that we can be,” Solomon said in an email. “We can't wait to represent Mauritania at next year's March and April conferences.”
