Jaclyn Mittman
Staff Writer

University of La Verne Model United Nations club took a trip to New York for the ATHGO forum at the United Nations from April 22-25.

ATHGO is an organization that holds a forum to bring together students to produce ideas and solutions to solve many of the problems that the United Nations has to face.

The students are divided into groups and are required to submit two proposals: a policy memorandum and a business model.

Together they are expected to present an idea that not only solves the issue at hand, but also creates a better lifestyle for those it affects.

The forum consisted of students from around the world, including China, Turkey, Russia, South Africa, Haiti and Japan. There were also students from all over the United States.

“I had a great time and met lots of wonderful people,” Geralda Vastey, junior from St. Elizabeth University in New Jersey said.

The forum lasted three days and a group of panelists spoke each day.

Many ambassadors, high ranking officials, diplomats, corporate sector leaders, representatives from international organizations and religious communities and international experts from the United Nations were present and talked about many of the issues that arise today.

The topic for the forum was titled “Global Governance- Who Leads: Technology or a Distinct Mindset?” It represented the idea of how technology impacts our lives and how the world will one day be unable to function without it.

Yet along those lines, technology still has to be led with distinct mindsets in order to handle political and economic implications through business and policies.

The purpose of the forum is to gather the opinions and thoughts of young people and collectively combine the ideas of practical strategies for the improvement and enhancement of the overall system.

Some of the speakers included Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari, permanent mission of Syrian Arab Republic to the United Nations; Ambassador Zhenmin Liu, permanent mission of The People’s Republic of China to the United Nations; and Jean-Marc Coicaud, the director of the New York Office for the United Nations University.

There was also a panel on the second day that included several important people who are involved within the religious community.

The panel spoke on how technology can help religion and how a distinct mindset can help implement these ideas.

“The religion panel was by far my favorite,” Crystal Cornejo, a senior political science major at ULV, said. “I agreed with what Dr. Vendley had to say and his ideas on technology helping religion.”

William Vendley is the secretary general for the World Conference on Religion and Peace.

Vendley spoke on topics such as the war, Martin Luther King Jr. and creating peace between religions.

The participants were given opportunities to ask members of the panel questions.

After each panel discussion each speaker would go to a different corner and the participants were given the opportunity to go to any speaker and talk with them one on one.

The proposals were developed by the participants during group sessions.
Each participant was assigned to a group which was stated on their name tag.

Many participants were separated from their peers and fellow students, but this provided the opportunity to meet new people and to open up to others.

An ATHGO intern was assigned to each group to help the proposal development process run smoothly.

Duties and jobs for the proposals were also designated to each member of the group.

A spokesperson was also assigned by either the intern or voluntarily by a group member.

The spokesman or spokeswoman was to present the proposals and ideas to the judging panel on the last day using a PowerPoint presentation to display to the judging panel and the rest of the ATHGO participants.

Every person in each group had to contribute to the proposals somehow by either actually writing them, doing research, attributing ideas or managing the group to make sure the proposals, both business and policy, fit together.

“It was great working with my group,” Austin Walters, a junior political science major at Brigham Young University, said. “I enjoyed being the mediator and helping our group stay on track.”

On the last day, each spokesman or spokeswoman from the group had to go up to the panel and give a three-minute speech explaining their proposals and idea coinciding with a PowerPoint presentation.

Three spokesmen and spokeswomen were up at the panel at a time and were asked questions from both the ATHGO interns and other participants.

They were questioned on details about their idea and had to be quick on their feet with an extensive knowledge of their topic to answer just about anything asked of them.

Two ULV students were spokespeople for their groups who had to present at the panel: Jack Cunningham and Becky Meza.

“I wasn’t originally looking forward to being a spokeswoman for my group, but it actually ended up being a great experience,” Meza said.

Sarah Keagy, another ULV student, was also an adviser for the spokeswoman of her group.

“I like the fact that we had the opportunity to put together a variety of proposals, some of which will even be brought up to the UN in the future,” Keagy said.

Keagy truly enjoyed her experience at the UN.

After every group presented, the judges deliberated and announced the winners. All three groups who won the forum had ULV students in them.

Fatima Espinoza, sophomore, and Tyler Smith, junior, were included in those groups.

The first two days of the forum went from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. with the last two hours of each day saved for group meetings where the proposals were discussed, researched and written. The second day went from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. ending with the top three groups being announced.

After the groups were announced, the ATHGO staff gave speeches thanking everyone who participated. Then the ATHGO founder and event MC sang John Lennon’s “Imagine” to the entire forum. They encouraged everyone to join in and even provided the lyrics up on the screen.

“I had to take a picture,” Cornejo said. “It was too funny not to.”
Cameras were up in the air immediately capturing this intimate and unusual moment.

“The conference was a great educational experience where we had the opportunity to converse with leaders from the UN,” Keagy said.

Jaclyn Mittman can be reached at jmittman@ulv.edu.