Three poli sci students – Avery Tafelski, Samantha Cortez and Alex Harder – participated at the 68th annual Student Conference on National Affairs (SCONA) at Texas A&M University earlier this month. The theme of the conference was “Hanging in the Balance: American Leadership in Global Crises.” Our students participated in various policy writing workshops with national security experts, listened to former high level government officials explore topics of national importance, and networked with foreign policy professionals from around the country. The students also developed and presented policy proposals to judges, who are practitioners in the international relations field.
Speakers at the event included General Tod D. Wolters, USAF (Ret) former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, and Major General Michelle McGuinness, the Deputy Director for Commonwealth Integration at the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, spoke at the conference as well.
Avery Tafelski worked on a team focused on coming up with a policy on NATO. Her group proposed a policy on why NATO should get more involved in Africa (specifically in the horn of East Africa) to counteract Chinese influence in the region. Samantha Cortes’ team focused on “Manipulating the Message: Curtailing Disinformation in Social Media, while Alex Harder’s group’s topic was “What’s for Dinner? Forming Resilient Supply Chains and Infrastructure.” His team focused on strengthening America’s supply chain through the creation of AFTAA, Agricultural Free Trade Agreement of the Americas. Their proposal dealt with diversifying America’s imports and exports while proposing tariff incentives to avoid trade wars.
Tafelski was particularly struck by the teamwork aspect of the conference. “Getting to work with my fellow peers on this policy,” she noted, “really opened my eyes on what writing an actual policy would look like in my near future. SCONA was an awesome experience, and I would 100% recommend SCONA.” Similarly, Samantha Cortez described SCONA as “one of the most significant opportunities of my academic career. Listening to and taking advice from experts at SCONA has changed my perspectives and goals that I plan to pursue throughout my career after listening to and taking advice from experts
