TROY, Ala. (TROJANVISION) — Middle school students from across Southeast Alabama were recently on TROY’s campus for the Southeast Alabama Model United Nations (SAMUN) assembly.

The annual event is a content area, project-based, writing competition for students in middle school. During the two-day event, March 2-3, each school group chose a country to represent and wrote a resolution to be presented before the committee. Every resolution was in the form of actual United Nations resolutions.

“They know who their allies are,” explained SAMUN Committee Member Dr. Robin Bynum. “They know issues that are important to those countries, resources that those countries have, then their able to vote to see if those resolutions will go into effect.”

After each resolution was presented, the committee decided which one could be the most effective.

“We have been voting on the other resolutions from the other ones, and we have been deciding which ones were best, and listening to the other ones very carefully,” explained student Kylie Long.

Students started preparing their resolutions back in October and had to turn them in in December. The resolutions were then put into a book so other groups could prepare for the assembly.

“They start studying about those other resolutions so that while they’re here at the general assembly, they can compete for the awards that are being given,” Bynum said.

Awards included Outstanding Native Dress, Outstanding Flag Presentation, and Outstanding Resolution. According to Bynum, SAMUN is a great way for students to get experience outside of a classroom.

“A lot of times, our students don’t have the opportunity to actually implement what they are learning in the classroom, and this is one of those projects in which they get to do that.”

Participants ranged from sixth to eighth grade. To learn more about SAMUN, visit its TROY website page.