Georgia Southern Wins Honors at Model Arab League

March 23, 2015

[caption id="attachment_4506" align="aligncenter" width="608"] Pictured are (standing, L to R): Jessica Sheken, Matt Horne (Outstanding Delegate), Dylan John (Outstanding Delegate), Dr. Jacek Lubecki (holding the Honorable Mention award for Akiv Dawson), Ahmed Behket (Outstanding Delegate), Anhar Ibrahim (Outstanding Delegate), Jonathan Quintyne (Honorable Mention) and Youssef Salhi (Lecturer of Arabic and faculty advisor for Arabic Club), (kneeling, L to R) Asmaa Mansoura and Joshua Halaberda.[/caption]   In its first year of participation at the Southeast Regional Model Arab League (SERMAL), Georgia Southern brought home four Outstanding Delegate awards and two honorable mentions. A group of 10 students and two faculty advisors from the University traveled to Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, to participate in the SERMAL event, held March 13-15. SERMAL is a simulation event, organized by the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, which allows students to represent diplomats from the 22 countries that comprise the Arab League in an effort to deepen their knowledge and understanding of the Arab world and its people. Georgia Southern represented the country of Egypt at the event, and in the process won several delegate awards. Students Matt Horne, Dylan John, Anhar Ibrahim and Ahmed Bekhet won the Outstanding Delegate award, while Akiv Dawson and Jonathan Quintyne won honorable mention. In January 2015, students interested in the study of the Arab world and language created the Model Arab League Student Club at the University. With faculty advisors Jacek Lubecki, director of the Center for International Studies (CIS) and Youssef Salhi, lecturer with the Department of Foreign Languages, these students prepared extensively for the SERMAL event, poring through background documents, social, environmental and economic documents in an effort to play the role of delegate. The trip was sponsored by the CIS, the Arabic Club and the Student Government Association.