This article was originally produced and published by the Log Cabin Democrat. The original article can be found here.
The University of Central Arkansas will host the 49th Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) Conference on Friday and Saturday.
About 425 delegates and faculty advisers from 24 high schools throughout Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma and Tennessee will participate in the opening session of the AMUN Conference in Ida Waldran Auditorium at 1 p.m. Friday.
UCA President Tom Courtway will welcome the delegates to UCA during the opening session. Committee sessions, involving simulations of the Security Council, Economic & Social Council, Human Rights Council and League of Arab States, will be held on Friday afternoon and Saturday.
The Plenary Session of the General Assembly, including three committees of the General Assembly, will convene in Ida Waldran at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.
The closing session, including the awards ceremony, will take place in the auditorium at 4 p.m. Saturday.
This year’s keynote speaker during the opening session will be Jose Guzzardi, a 2007 graduate of UCA with a B.A. degree in international studies.
Guzzardi, who served as Secretary-General of the AMUN in 2006, is currently employed as a sourcing manager for Walmart e-commerce in São Paulo, Brazil. Previously, he worked as manager of institutional relations for Walmart in Brazil from January 2011 to August 2014. In 2009, Guzzardi earned a master’s degree in public service at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock.
The AMUN program was established by professor Simms McClintock, who taught political science at Arkansas State Teachers College (ASTC), in fall 1966. The first AMUN conference was held at renamed State College of Arkansas (SCA) in Conway in January 1967. Mark Mullenbach, an associate professor of political science at UCA, has served as coordinator of the AMUN since August 2001.
Next year, UCA will host the 50th AMUN conference on Nov. 20-21, 2015. A reception and planning session for the 50th anniversary will be held Friday from 6:30-7:30 p.m. in UCA Student Center room 205A. Former AMUN secretaries-general and others who were involved in AMUN are invited to attend the reception and planning session.
For more information about AMUN, please contact Mullenbach at markm@uca.edu or (501) 804-0618.