Grand Rapids, Michigan (November 17, 2004) ?

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Four dozen Aquinas College students will travel to Chicago this weekend where they will join thousands of their peers from colleges around the globe to take part the Seventh Annual American Model United Nations. The conference will take place at the Chicago Sheraton Towers November 20-23 and will attract between 1,200-1,300 students from about 100 different colleges and universities from around the world who will participate in a simulation of this important international organization.

Forty-nine Aquinas students leave Saturday morning (Nov. 20) for Chicago, where they will represent Peru, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hungary and Cyprus during three days of the Model U.N. competition. The students have spent the past several weeks researching and developing the appropriate positions and policies for their assigned countries. The conference concludes Tuesday with an award ceremony.

"The competition is the culmination of weeks of preparation for the students," said Roger Durham, Ph.D., associate professor and chairman of the political science department at Aquinas. "It represents a tremendous opportunity for students, regardless of their majors, to learn and practice important problem solving skills in a highly professional format."

In the past, Aquinas students have represented delegates from Cuba, the People's Republic of China, El Salvador, Rwanda, the Republic of Korea, Romania, Libya, The Netherlands, Iran, Great Britain, Israel, Slovakia, Spain, Afghanistan, Vietnam, Russia, and both Congos. The students have received several awards for their representation work at previous conferences.

The Chicago conference, which is considered one of the top five Model United Nations programs in the country, simulates U.N. sessions including the Security Council, General Assembly, half a dozen issue-specific Committee Meetings and the International Court of Justice.