AUC’s CIMUN receives highest number of awards in its history

CAIRO - 20 May 2019: The Cairo International Model United Nations (CIMUN) delegation of The American University in Cairo (AUC) received a record-breaking 19 awards at the National Model United Nations conference recently held in New York.

That is the highest number of awards in the history of the program at AUC. The students also received the Outstanding Delegation Award - the highest award at the conference - for the 10th consecutive year.

As for AUC’s Cairo International Model Arab League (CIMAL), the delegation received the Overall Distinguished Award as well as awards in four out of eight councils at the U.S. National University Model Arab League conference held recently at Georgetown University. AUC continues to be the sole representative of Egyptian and Middle Eastern universities in that conference. The CIMAL team won awards in the Palestinian Affairs Council, Joint Defense Council, Economic Affairs Council and Social Affairs Council.



“The performance of our students this year by the recognition of all was amazing. I could not have asked for more,” Political Science Professor and Faculty Adviser to both CIMUN and CIMAL at AUC Walid Kazziha says. “It definitely crowned our 29 years of continuous participation in the NMUN in New York. A standard has been set, which I imagine will be difficult to follow in future years. However, our students never fail to surprise me,” Kazziha adds.

Two CIMUN teams made up of 39 AUC students from different academic disciplines represented the University and competed with more than 3,000 delegates from over 50 countries. The conference was made up of two teams: one team represented the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire, and the other represented Malta.




This year, the top delegations are honored with awards in three categories; Position Paper, Outstanding Delegate and Outstanding Delegation, the most prestigious award. Only 10 out of 130 universities taking part in the simulation exercise were awarded the outstanding ranking. AUC also won 12 Position Papers awards based on individual and group efforts, as well as five Outstanding Delegate awards given to individual students who represent their countries in UN organizations.

"It has been a long and exhausting journey, from selecting our delegates and logistical challenges to training sessions and the actual conference," 31st CIMUN Graduate Adviser Ziyad Rushdy, class of 2018, says. "We had full confidence in the abilities of our team but did not expect to come back with this many awards. We are very proud of our team and confident that this achievement will be replicated throughout the coming years and even exceeded."

"We would like to thank Dr. Kazziha, the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Office of Student Life, and hope that we can garner more support and assistance in the years to come so that we may continue to achieve great results and bring more awards in the name of AUC," Rushdy notes.

Kazziha asserts, "Our students distinguished themselves in both areas of individual and collective effort. Our focus is always on cooperation and teamwork, without stifling the individual. We have succeeded in both, and we deserve to be proud as an AUC community in the achievements of our students."