Three years ago, Middle East Studies/Arabic student M Keener was sitting in one of her classes when Sam Ames came in to recruit members for BYU’s Model Arab League team, for which he was a TA. Intrigued, Keener joined the team. “It was so wonderful,” she says. “The team was a team—we all got so close, even though I didn’t know any of them beforehand.”
Ames graduated at the end of that year, and Keener became one of the TAs that replaced him. Since then, as the team has seen new faces and returning members, Keener has striven to honor the legacy she inherited from those who came before her. “Sam institutionalized what Model Arab League means as a team: you look out for each other, you have fun, you network, you make friends, and you represent BYU well.”
Along with other TAs and faculty advisors, Keener has worked to take the team to new heights. “Every year, we’ve gotten better and better at building connections and getting awards,” she says.
Nowhere was that improvement clearer than at the regional competition that happened at the University of Wyoming in February, where the BYU team won every possible award. JJ Cogdill, also a Middle East Studies/Arabic major and the team’s other TA, explains, “Awards are based on other peoples’ votes according to each other's use of parliamentary procedure, ability to work with others well, knowledge on the topic and of the country you are representing.”
This means that receiving so many awards required that the students not only did well in their presentations and debates, but also built good relationships with the other students in their councils. This can be tricky while you’re debating, says Keener: “To make people like you while you’re saying things that might make them mad is difficult to teach and difficult to execute.” That makes the BYU team’s clean sweep at regionals all the more impressive. “It was crazy,” says Keener. “BYU had never hit any kind of leaderboard before.”
Competing Nationally
The regional competition was just a warmup, however; the major event of the semester was the national competition held 26–29 March in Washington, DC.
For this, a team of fifteen students prepared for several months. Though the team is associated with the Middle East Studies/Arabic (MESA) program at the Kennedy Center, only a third of the team members were in that program, says Kevin Blankinship, this year’s faculty advisor for the team: “Other majors include Political Science, International Relations, Economics, Cybersecurity, French, American Studies, Communication Disorders, and a Master's degree in Public Administration.” This spread of majors and backgrounds, he says, fits in perfectly with the MESA program, which encourages a broad and interdisciplinary study of the Middle East.
Preparation involved a winter semester class in which students dived deep into their assigned country—for nationals this year, BYU represented Egypt—and also learned parliamentary procedure, which is the rules of etiquette regarding how meetings are conducted and who speaks when. “We also goof around a fair bit,” says Blankinship. “Memes play a big role.”
Then, in March, the team traveled to Washington, DC for the competition. The main difference between that and the regional competition, says Cogdill, is the size: “There are a lot more schools, and especially a lot of East Coast schools. The competition is usually more lively here because there are so many people in each council. At regionals, in my council I had 7 people; at nationals, my council had 26. And the organization is just getting bigger! This year was the most students Model Arab League has ever had at Nationals.”
The competition, says Blankinship, is structured around councils devoted to individual topics, such as economics, politics, and so on. Each council is made up of delegates who represent different countries; they debate various pre-assigned topics, with each delegation representing the interests and stances of their assigned country. “For example, the security council, called ‘Joint Defense,’ worked on exploring the use of AI in Arab defense measures,” he says. “The political council worked on navigating the possibility of a political alliance with Iran and Turkey within the Arab Region, the economic council worked on developing vocational and technical education programs in primary and secondary schools, etc.”
Within each of these councils, there’s a mix of structured and informal discussion. “The work of these councils involves building relationships and seeking compromise,” says Blankinship. “Debate is involved but ideally with the goal of finding solutions that everyone can live with.”
Keener adds, “Per hour, there's 25 minutes of unmoderated caucus, which is when you can walk around and talk to people. In session, you can pass notes or text people in the moderated style, in the formal setting, to try to pull people to your side. But most of the time, you’re making your case to the full group.”
The exception to this is the Arab Court of Justice, which functions as a “moot court” where sides present their cases and other students serve as judges. “Very deep and often technical written research must be submitted by the petitioner ahead of the trial, to give the respondent a chance to answer their claims,” explains Blankinship. “All of this is very much like trial proceedings in an actual court of law, so it's great practice for students thinking about applying to law school.”
For Cogdill, the preparation leading up to the conference really helped: “I co-delegated with another student and I feel like we knew our material well,” she says. “We knew quite a bit about Egypt’s stance on a lot of things, the efforts they are already taking, and efforts they would like to take in the future.”
The team was helped in this endeavor by a visit to the Egyptian Embassy while they were in Washington, DC. “They let us ask any questions we had about Egypt, about our councils, etc.,” says Cogdill. “They were all very kind and gave us useful answers that we could use in debate.”
Blankinship agrees: “Several students remarked that just an hour talking with real diplomats was equal to a semester's worth of reading, in terms of what they learned.”
Other activities outside the competition included visits to the National Mall and the International Spy Museum, along with team dinners. They were also able to see the famous cherry blossoms, which was of particular interest to Cogdill, who admits that when she first joined the team three years ago, she was largely motivated by having the opportunity to travel to Washington, DC during cherry blossom season.
In the end, it was a successful outing for the team, who were able to make friends, put their research and debate skills to good use, and make new friends. “My co-delegate, Mikayla Bishop, and I had a good time making friends and meeting all of the people in our council,” says Cogdill. “There are so many different personalities at Model Arab League, and it is so fun getting to know them all. We also learned how to work together when it came to editing draft resolutions, separating our speeches, figuring out what to say to individuals and groups, etc. I am really proud that our team stayed true to what they were representing and were able to bring fun and knowledge to each of their councils.”
Several of the students won awards, says Blankinship, including first place on the joint defense council, second place for Palestinian affairs, and third place for environmental affairs. “Also, our delegation for Arab Court of Justice won their case, which was about the 2023 Pylos migrant boat disaster off the coast of Greece.”
But more than the formal awards they received, he says, what stood out to him was how well-prepared the students are. “For years, BYU has had one of the top Middle East Studies programs in the country,” he says. “This is manifest at Model Arab League. Our students are well-read but also have deep ties to the Arab world in the form of study abroad. They know Arabic to a high level. Also, as one of the students put it to me, BYU has a ‘frank’ Middle East Studies/Arabic program, by which she meant we teach about the region as it is, not as we wish it were. This is important to Model Arab League because students are representing the governments of Arab countries, which often think and act in ways opposed to how westerners think and act. Putting yourself in the place of someone who sees the world differently is one of the most important things students learn to do at Model Arab League.”
A Blessing of an Opportunity
So beyond a trip to Washington, DC, what do students get out of Model Arab League? For Cogdill, it’s “a hands-on way to explore diplomacy, international relations, and the political, economic, and social issues facing the Arab world. The course not only deepens understanding of regional perspectives but also emphasizes the importance of cultural awareness and respectful dialogue.”
Blankinship agrees that it “teaches students leadership skills including teamwork, compromise, and deep research about the country they're representing. They put themselves in the shoes of real-life Arab diplomats, which is invaluable for anyone hoping to work in diplomacy or other fields that require some imagination about what the person across the table is thinking.”
Beyond these soft skills, though, Model Arab League also offers a chance to make important connections. “It is also a great chance to connect with people and organizations,” says Blankinship, “especially in Washington, DC, which is the hub of Middle East Studies and related fields like foreign affairs, political science, and more.”
Keener explains that Model Arab League is run and sponsored by the National Council for U.S.-Arab Relations, which is an important connection for students interested in the Middle East to make: “They have exclusive internships, study abroad programs, and connections that Model Arab League alumni have access to that no other college student does, because you're tied to their organization because you participated in the conference.” Sometimes, Foreign Service Officers and representatives from other government agencies come to recruit at Model Arab League competitions, she says, “because it’s niche; not everyone does Model Arab League, so it’s a small pool of students that these organizations are interested in. It’s just a different group.”
And the skills you learn, she says, “are so good for your résumé; it makes you stand out a lot.”
To anyone considering getting involved, Cogdill says, “Go for it—you don’t need to be an expert to start, and so much learning comes during class and participating in the conferences. The class is a great way to build confidence in speaking, learn how to think on your feet, and better understand global issues from new perspectives. You’ll gain skills in research, debate, and teamwork that are useful far beyond the classroom. It’s also a really supportive environment where people are there to help you improve, so even if it feels intimidating at first, you’ll grow quickly and have a lot of fun along the way! And you can come see the peak bloom of the cherry blossoms in DC.”
Keener is quick to confirm that you don’t need to be an expert to get involved: “You don’t have to be good at any of this,” she says. “We will teach you how to do all of it.” She adds that a common misconception is that Arabic skills are required, but they aren’t: “Everything is in English; almost no one knows any Arabic.”
For Keener, who wants to work with the Middle East, her experiences in the Model Arab League have been important and illuminating, but there’s more to the team than that; to those who are interested in getting involved, she says, “You’re with a group of people that are going to be awesome. You don't know that they're awesome yet, but they are. There are friendships and experiences that happen here that you can put on a resume or in a dating profile; you can do so much with this experience, and it just makes you better. It helps you grow as a person.”
Keener graduated from BYU in April 2026; as she looks back on her time at BYU and in Model Arab League, she says, “This team is my baby. I love this team. JJ and I and the faculty in MESA have worked really, really hard to build it up into what it is today, and I just want other people to be able to experience it for the opportunity that it is. And hopefully someone else is interested enough after we’re gone to keep this going for other people, because it really is such a wonderful blessing of an opportunity.”
Interested in learning more? Contact Professor Joshua Gubler of the Middle East Studies/Arabic program. You can also visit the Model Arab League website.