From November 14th – 16th, our MOAS program sent students to participate in the Eugene Scassa MOAS (ESMOAS) competition in Waco, Texas at Baylor University. In the competition, our Texas State students exemplarily represented the nations of Mexico and Jamaica. In terms of honors and awards, our program has seen steady and marked improvement in recent years. While our students’ performance is still very strong, this year marked a rebuilding year for the program. Many of our veteran performers graduated last Spring, and this semester’s squad was comprised almost exclusively of Freshmen and Sophomores. Thus, the list of awards for this report may not be as long as in the recent past. With that said, our students are still competing at a very high level, and, as our young competitors mature, I expect great things for the future of the program. The following is a complete list of the many awards and honors our students received during last Fall’s competition:
Bradley Schmidt. Selected Chair, Executive Secretariat for Integral Development.
Joshua Keesee. Selected to Student Advisory Committee.
Nathan Salazar and James Spriestersbach. Best Committee. Secretariat for Multidimensional Security.
Cody Watson. Outstanding Resolution (1st Place in Committee), Secretariat for Administration and Finance
ESMOAS has also recently instituted a program to bring back former students to help serve as judges and advisors for the competition. Because we have been so successful in the past, several of our former students have been selected to serve in these roles, including, Rasha Abu-Zeyadeh, Meghan Ferguson, Cheyenne Krause, Megan Parrish, Javier Reyes, and Sama Sayej.
In addition to the exciting developments last Fall, our MOAS program sent students to participate in the Washington, D.C. Model Organization of American States (WMOAS) from March 25th – 29th. Representing the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the students that participated in the WMOAS are: Melissa Aylward, Rachel Carrell, Cliff Davis, Tara Dees, Monica Fezuk, Domonique Gray Berroa, Joshua Keesee, Luther Nuncio, Rafaela Presidio Neubert, Gabe Schmidt, Dalton Wade, and Cody Watson. I am sure that we will be proud of all the students that participate, as their goal is to represent Texas State in an exemplary manner.
My students and I would like to thank the Department of Political Science and the College of Liberal Arts for their on-going and generous support of the MOAS program. We would also especially like to acknowledge the Student Service Fee Advisory Committee for the one-time funding of $6,000 for FY ‘14. The support we have received has helped to significantly reduce the cost of the trip for the students. Without this type of support, we would not have been able to undertake this amazing learning experience! – Professor Ben Arnold
