In the autumn of 2024, the first-ever in-person Model World Health Organization conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland. Six months later, Rob McFarland, faculty coordinator of the Kennedy Center's European Studies program, heard about the conference while visiting the WHO campus and immediately knew it would be a great fit for the BYU and the Kennedy Center.
Back on campus, he and other collaborators reached out to students to solicit applications for a BYU team. While BYU already has a handful of diplomatic simulation teams, the Model WHO program is different in its focus: the intersection of health and diplomacy. Understandably, while applicants were sought across campus, the biggest response came from students studying public health.
Out of an impressive pool of applicants, four students were chosen for BYU's first Model WHO team: Maggie Bailey, Maren Ball, Ann Edgington, and Gracious Ncube. They traveled to Geneva, Switzerland to attend the conference from 28 to 31 October at the World Health Organization headquarters. The event provides "an authentic student-led simulation of the World Health Assembly (WHA) to high school and university students from all over the world and from different academic disciplines," says the WHO website. Students strengthen their skills in negotiation, public speaking, diplomacy, and more as they work on a resolution on a health topic from the WHA agenda.
BYU's inaugural team had a successful first year, with Ncube, a Public Health major from Zambia, earning an Exceptional Delegate Award for her work at the conference. McFarland looks forward to the program continuing next year, when it will be administrated by the Global Women's Studies program.
"We are interested in recruiting students from nursing and public health," he says, "but also potentially from nutrition, international development, European Studies, and anyone interested in diplomacy and international policy." Any students interested in getting more information should reach out to McFarland.