Oldenborg Center

The Pomona College Model Arab League (MAL) team, representing the country of Bahrain, sent a delegation to the Western regional competition held April 13-15 at Mills College in Oakland, Calif. and won the Overall Outstanding Delegation award. This is the highest honor at the conference and the second year in a row that the team won this award. Additionally, Pomona College was named as the site for the 2008 conference.Similar to the Model U.N., the Model Arab League is a diplomatic simulation, which gives students the opportunity to engage in research, public speaking, and debate. The objective is to learn as much as possible about the region, and the assigned country, in order to later represent that country in one of five councils in a mock meeting of the League of Arab Nations. These five councils include: the Councils on Joint Defense, Political Affairs, Palestinian Affairs, Environmental Affairs, and Arab Social Affairs.Each of the 12 student delegates received an award—Pomona’s team was the only delegation to be distinguished in this way. The team included two Pitzer College students and one from Scripps College. The Oldenborg Center and the Departments of International Relations and Economics sponsored the Pomona MAL team.Two Pomona students, Jemel Derbali ’10 and Stephen Laux ’09, were nominated to be secretary general for next year’s conference. Derbali declined because he will be studying abroad, but Laux accepted his nomination and was voted in as secretary general for the 2007-08 academic year. Jessica Alampay Lozano served as the program coordinator for Pomona’s MAL team and the faculty trip member was Fernando Lozano, Pomona College professor of economics. Pomona College is one of the nation’s premier liberal arts institutions, offering a comprehensive program in the arts, humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Its hallmarks include small classes, close relationships between students and faculty, and a range of opportunities for student research. Visit Pomona College on the web at www.pomona.edu. Pomona College press release, 5/2/07

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Every member of the Pomona College delegation received an award, and was the only school to be distinguished in this way. As a result of the delegates’ individual success, our delegation, representing Bahrain, was awarded the honor of Overall Outstanding Delegation, the highest honor to be had at this conference. This is the second year in a row that the Pomona delegation was awarded this prize.

The students are divided up and represent our assigned country in five different councils. At this year’s conference we provided two former MAL delegates, to chair the Council on Joint Defense and the Council on Political Affairs. For their duties in this capacity sophomore Jemel Derbali was awarded the prize for Outstanding Chair, while junior Stephen Laux was presented with the award for Honorable Mention Outstanding Chair. As part of the Committee of Faculty Advisers present at the conference I heard first-hand the reactions of my colleagues to these two students. Based on my observation of both Steve and Jemel acting as chairs, as well as what was discussed in our Faculty Adviser meetings, it was clear that Jemel and Steve’s readiness for this task helped make the conference run more smoothly and efficiently — a fact that was appreciated not only by the faculty, but also by the students.

Jemel and Steve both received nominations to be Secretary General for next year’s conference. Jemel had to decline the nomination because he will be studying abroad next Spring. Steve accepted his nomination and was later enthusiastically voted in as Secretary General for the 2007-2008 academic year. Springsong Cooper, one of our two Pitzer students and first-participant in Model Arab League was also nominated for this post, but declined the nomination.

The complete list of awards to our delegation are as follows:

* Overall Outstanding Delegation
- Pomona College for the Representation of Bahrain

* Outstanding Chair
- Jemel Derbali (PO’10)

* Outstanding Chair Honorable Mention
- Stephen Laux (PO’09)

* Outstanding Delegation Award in the Council on Joint Defense
- Joseph Wadakethalakal(PO’10)
- Peter Kurtz (PO’10)

* Outstanding Delegation Award in the Council on Political Affairs
- Isaac Jenkins (PO’11)
- Lila Nazemian (SC’10)

* Honorable Mention Outstanding Delegation in the Council on Palestinian Affairs
- Patrick Crawley (PO’08)
- Springsong Cooper (PI’11)

* Honorable Mention Outstanding Delgation in the Council of Arab Social Affairs Ministers
- Anoush Suni (PO’10)
- Dominique Morris (PO’08)

* Honorable Mention Outstanding Delegation in the Council of Arab Environmental Affairs Ministers
- Daniel Tehrani (PO’10)
- Milan Burke, Head Delegate (PI’08)