Between 3 and 7 August, Yana Androsova, a student from the Department of International Regional Studies, took part in a scientific role-playing game, a model UN conference. A large-scale online event was organised by people involved in the model UN conferences from leading Russian universities.
The topic of this year debate was the pressing diplomatic issue “Legal status of Taiwan”. During the discussion, the VSU student represented the Albanian delegation to the Security Council. According to Yana, she was interested in exploring the position of this country, which was the least obvious one for the conference.
“We had to work hard because the schedule was really tough: the conference could start at 10 a.m. and last till 10 p.m. Our model conference coincided with the visit of Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the United States House of Representatives, to Taiwan, as a reaction to which China began military drills around Taiwan. New information was coming every half hour and to be up to date I had to adjust my agenda now and then. The materials of the Albanian media helped me a lot. I used the opinions of the chief executives of the country to shape the position of the state,” said Yana Androsova, who had participated in the model UN for the first time. Yana learned about the scientific game in specialised groups dedicated to such conferences. To participate, the student had to submit her application and abstracts and have an interview. During the interview, she had to answer questions related to the UN structure and the information agenda on the situation in Taiwan.
“I think that everyone can participate in the model UN. You only need to be familiar with the conference format and want to be there. For students majoring in regional studies, the participation in the model UN will help them understand whether they want to be engaged in big politics in the future,” said the student.
Text: Angelina Tatarintseva
