(Back, L-R) Ian Moreno, Maria Miranda, Jorge Fernandez, Jeremy Schmuck; (Front, L-R) Gabriela Avila, Ange Nyantungane, Isabella Lawrence
A team of Angelo State University political science students earned individual and team awards at the 26th annual Eugene Scassa Mock Organization of American States (ESMOAS) Collegiate Summit of the Americas Conference earlier this month at Baylor University.
ESMOAS is an academic parliamentary debate program that brings together the nation’s best and brightest college students to debate the issues facing the nations in North America, South America, Central America and the Caribbean that are members of the Organization of America States(OAS). Student teams represent delegations from those nations and must prepare, debate and approve resolutions and respond to hypothetical crises regarding the respective foreign policies.
Gabriela Avila During the ESMOAS Summit of the Americas Competition, ASU’s Gabriela Avila of Robstown won a Distinguished Resolution Award for her policy resolution titled “Enhancing Women’s Democratic Participation and Strengthening Women’s Engagement in Civic Society.” Her resolution placed second out of 22 resolutions submitted to the Secretariat for Political Affairs policy committee.
In the team section of the competition, the ASU team won a Distinguished Team Position Paper Award representing the Dominican Republic. In addition to Avila, the students on the ASU team were:
Jorge Fernandez of San Angelo
Isabella Lawrence of Brownwood
Maria Miranda of Arlington
Ian Moreno of Roby
Ange Nyantungane of Manor
Jeremy Schmuck, assistant professor of political science, is the faculty sponsor for ASU’s ESMOAS team and accompanied the students to the conference.
Jeremy Schmuck “I have enjoyed the special opportunity to work closely with the students to develop their professional skills that Angelo State provides through its support for participation in ESMOAS,” Schmuck said, “and I am immensely proud of the students’ hard work preparing for and participating in the ESMOAS. Our students worked tirelessly before and during the event, but also found opportunities to network and develop friendships with colleagues from other universities in Texas and Mexico. Their efforts illustrate what it means to Go as a Ram.”
The OAS was established in 1948 to achieve an order of peace and justice among its member states, promote their solidarity, strengthen their collaboration, and defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence. Its membership consists of all 35 independent states of the Americas. More details are available at oas.org.
