Seton Hall Model UN Team Wins Big  

Student members of Seton Hall's collegiate-level United Nations Association (SHUNA) departed campus this Spring with their heads held high, very high. In just their first appearance at the Pennsylvania United Nations Conference VIII (PUNC), hosted at Pennsylvania State University in State College, PA last month, SHUNA claimed a record nine awards in total, including Outstanding Large Delegation. Training Coordinator, Sean Zimmerman stated, "In terms of awards and performance, this was the greatest SHUNA performance at a conference in the organization's history." 

Aside from receiving their first award for Outstanding Large Delegation in the last five years, eight SHUNA members took home individual awards including: (Best Delegate) Sean Zimmerman and Alex Storto; (Outstanding Delegate) Cynthia Sularez and Daniel Garay; (Honorable Delegate) Geoff Thomulka and (Verbal Accommodation) Cheynne Crawford, Nick Perugini and Mohit Patel. 

Despite the historic showing Sean indicates that awards are only a part of the organization's success. "The awards are great," Sean says, "and they reflect the hard work of our members, but SHUNA is really about developing character skills that can be used in future careers. We're not necessarily awards driven when preparing for conferences." 

Sean says that in his role as Training Coordinator, his goal was to prepare students for conferences by building skills that are applicable to life. "Training really goes beyond competition," he says. "The goal is help members develop skills in research and public speaking while building the confidence needed to assert their ideas."

Now an official Seton Hall alumnus, Sean feels the success at PUNC VIII is a very satisfying end to his four-year career in SHUNA. "The team dynamic at Penn State was incredible," he reflects. "Everyone really supported each other from conference preparation, right through the last committee session and awards ceremony on Sunday." He adds, "I was excited to see the other members do so well after closely working with many of them over my four years in SHUNA." 

To learn more about SHUNA or get involved, contact 2015-2016 President Geoffrey Thomulka at [email protected].