LEADING THE ASSEMBLY

By Morgan Kaylor

Correspondent for The Straits Times of Singapore, reporting for the MUNFW World Press

The Straits Times is a private, conservative news source with a pro-establishment editorial stance.

From delegate to Permanent General Assembly Delegate to Chair of the Security Council and now President of the Model United Nations of the Far West (MUNFW) 75th annual General Assembly (GA), Evan Josten’s journey to the Model United Nations was pre-destined for him.

Following in the footsteps of his father, who also was a member of the Model United Nations (MUN) club at Whittier College. Josten always knew that he was interested in MUN, but that interest really flourished his freshmen year after deciding to join the club under the supervision of Professor Mike McBride.

Josten who is a current senior at Whittier College double majoring in Political Science and Sociology has always had a fascination for international politics, diplomacy, and negotiating. Josten has been a part of the MUN Club of Whittier College underneath the supervision of Professor McBride for all four years of college. On campus, he has been a part of the student government and held multiple other leadership positions but the MUN Club has always been special to him.

During his freshman year at Whittier, Josten had the opportunity to participate in the planning and execution of the MUNFW because his college was the primary host of the conference. With this, Josten was able to be involved in the behind the scenes work of a collegiate level conference and he saw firsthand the impact that the chairs, Presidents, and overall leadership of the conference has on the delegates.

Josten shared, “ It made me want to get involved and be the person that was helping bring out the best in delegates”. Josten did exactly that as many of the delegates were quick to commend Josten for his work as President of the General Assembly.

Andrew Escobeda, a delegate of Trinidad & Tobago was quoted as saying, “President Evan has encouraged diplomacy between us by motivating delegates like myself to seek out unorthodox relationships in search of a common goal: international peace and security”.

Evan Josten has served as President of the General Assembly for the past four days, leading the delegates through both the highs and lows of MUN. Although this weekend will shortly have come and gone, Evans’ preparation and work leading up to this weekend was monumental in shaping the success of the weekend.

Josten and the other chairs had weekly chair training sessions that were led by none other than our Secretary-General Piper Lowinger. These training included practice mock sessions, explanation of rules and talk about crises that could come up in committee. All of this training prepared him for the weekend of the conference, April 17 to 18.

The General Assembly was in a nearly 11 hour gridlock over the passing of the special topic resolution. This resolution required a consensus vote and with over 50 different delegates in the committee, one can only imagine how hard this was. Josten handled that situation with the ease and patience required of the President of the General Assembly.

As we near the end of the 75th annual MUNFW conference, many delegates will want to send a big thank you to Evan Josten who has led them diligently, patiently, and with the heart that is needed to inspire future public service workers.

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