By: Jasmine Morrow Staff Writer
On March 3, Western’s Model United Nations club hosted their annual dinner and silent auction in the Werner University Center. Using the money they raised from the auction, they payed for expenses for the club’s next trip to San Francisco.
This term, the Model United Nations club was able to afford a trip to Frankfurt, Germany, where five club members were able to learn about international studies.
To start the event, Model United Nations President Sapphire Dorfman, who was one of the students who was able to go to Germany, talked about her time in Germany. She said that she was very grateful to be able to go to Germany and to meet people from around the world, as well as be exposed to different types of culture.
One of the most significant moments for Sapphire was being told, “You’re really charming for an American.” She loved the idea of being able to change stereotypes of Americans and that she and her other club members got to put Western’s name out there.
Once members were done discussing their trip to Germany, dinner began and a guest speaker presented. The guest speaker was Dr. Govindan Parayil of Willamette University. He discussed the relevance of United Nations in the world today. Dr. Parayil discussed what is happening with the United Nations today and what has changed over the years. He believes that 2017 is a very critical year for the United Nations now that Donald Trump has become president.
Each president of the United States has had different visions for the United Nations over the last 68 years. For example, when former President Truman made his inaugural address, he stated he wanted to put others first, while in 2017 President Trump’s vision is making America the first priority.
Dr. Parayil doesn’t believe this is true. The United Nations deals with many different global challenges the world has been facing. One example of this is seen in the increasing number of refugees and trying to find safe places for them to live has been difficult. After he was done presenting, he allowed time for club members to ask questions, and he answered them gladly.
After the question and answer, the students who bid the highest for the silent auction received their items to wrap up the evening.
Contact the author at jmorrow16@mail.wou.edu
