The best way to understand someone, so the saying goes, is to walk a mile in their shoes. Each year, the BYU Model Organization of American States (MOAS) team tests a similar proposition: that the best way to understand a country is to represent them at a diplomatic simulation.
Every year, students on the team spend winter semester researching an assigned country in preparation for the yearly MOAS conference in Washington, DC. This year, twelve students, along with team director and Latin American Studies coordinator Jeffrey Shumway and adjunct professor Jason Jensen, traveled to the conference in early April to represent Mexico. At the conference, they proposed resolutions and negotiated with other teams based on their understanding of the needs, values, and political stances of Mexico and its government.
For Shumway, the chance to study a country in depth is what makes programs like MOAS special. “The reason we started MOAS here at BYU was that I thought it encapsulated everything that the Latin American Studies program and the Kennedy Center want to do with students,” he says. He cites Jeffrey R. Holland’s 1983 inaugural address for the Kennedy Center, in which the then-president of BYU said that “there is a great need in our world for the examination and understanding of cultures and societies and languages and peoples other than one’s own […] We need in these troubled times, on a smaller and smaller globe, to understand others in their terms, as they are.”
Shumway says that at the Kennedy Center, students should “get to know other countries, get to know how they feel, get to know how they live, in order to become better citizens and in order to become more empathetic.” And on the MOAS team, students do just that as they spend a semester diving deep into understanding their assigned country.
Preparing for DC
The Organization of American States is an international organization, founded in 1948, that brings together 34 member states in the Americas to cooperate on issues facing the Western Hemisphere. In the Model Organization of American States, students from many different universities—including schools like Penn, Tulane, and Baylor—come together to simulate a meeting of the OAS: sitting on committees to propose and discuss resolutions tackling issues facing the Americas. Each team is assigned one of the OAS member states to represent.
For BYU’s 2025 MOAS team, students took a semester-long prep class where they worked to understand Mexico on a deep level. In addition to studying the history and culture of the country, students looked at current affairs to understand the Mexican government’s stance on important issues. They used this to draft resolutions they wanted to try to pass at the conference.
“For example,” says Shumway, “if a student is on the Education Committee, they’ll try to decide, ‘What are the current issues, and what could we do as a hemisphere to improve education for children?’ But in order to do that, they have to find out: what has the real Organization of American States done in the past? What has Mexico has done in the past? What is Mexico's current position? What is the hemispheric feeling about education for children right now?”
For Shumway, the kind of work required for students to be successful makes the program a great fit for the Kennedy Center and Latin American Studies, with their interdisciplinary nature. “MOAS is a perfect combination of academic work: studying the history and culture of the country you represent, plus researching and writing on a contemporary issue. You're bringing in history classes for the background, but also sociology, political science, geography, and more to understand the culture and give it that contemporary bite. It's just tailor-made for area studies and the Kennedy Center.”
In addition to the academic work, students did practical preparation as well: practicing their speeches and planning how to negotiate with other teams, field questions, and garner support for their resolutions—all while staying true to what Mexico would do in the same situation.
It was a lot of work, but it all paid off when they arrived at the conference. “I was honestly really nervous going into it,” says Elena Aguirre, a Latin American Studies major and first-time MOAS participant. “But the class prepares you so well that when you get there, you’re able to enjoy participating in it fully.”
Team member Hailey Ponczoch, who’s studying Latin American Studies with minors in Global Environmental Studies, Creative Writing, and Global and Community Impact, agrees. “I was pretty nervous starting out,” she says, “and as we prepared our draft resolution I felt extremely unqualified. However, as we got to DC and began participating in the model, my confidence grew as I realized how prepared I really was. We had spent all semester researching the Mexican government and its leadership and programs, as well as the rules of procedure of the MOAS, and it all paid off. I was able to confidently approach the conference.”
Putting Preparation into Action
The conference ran from 7 to 11 April in Washington DC; a highlight was spending one day of the conference at the OAS headquarters, a beautiful building in downtown DC. This, says Shumway, is part of the support the OAS shows for its Model OAS counterpart. “The OAS head also came and spoke at the beginning of the conference,” he says. “They understand that it’s important to educate university-aged students about the values of hemispheric and multi-lateral organizations that promote understanding, that promote dialogue, that promote communication.”
The BYU MOAS team normally consists of ten students: two students each on five committees. This year, however, there were an extra two students: both had been elected at last year’s conference to serve as chairs of their committees at the 2025 event. Elizabeth Parret chaired one of the smaller committees, and Jakob Ezell was the chair of the General Committee—the most prestigious officer position a student can hold.
And keeping up the BYU’s team impressive showing, Ponczoch was elected chair of the Third Committee for next year’s conference. “During the semester it had crossed my mind that I could run for chair of a committee,” she says, “but I didn't give that much thought to that possibility because it scared me to death. However, at the conference I realized that I had doubted myself too much and that I had the skills needed to be chair.” After the candidates delivered speeches, she won the vote. “I am incredibly excited for the MOAS next year!” she says. “I'm excited to encourage and motivate delegates who are participating in the model for the first time and help them feel comfortable and confident in such a new environment. I want to ensure that it will be a fun experience where we duly honor the hard work of each person in attendance.”
For those not acting as officers, the week involved working in committees to get resolutions passed. Here, their prep really came into play. Ponczoch recalls a moment in her committee when it felt like the other delegates were trying to derail her resolution and change the purpose of the OAS. She says, “Because of the preparation I had received prior to the conference, I was able to give an impromptu speech on the importance of sovereignty and diplomacy in the Organization of American States and remind our fellow delegates of our shared purpose in helping better the lives of those living under our stewardship. In the moment I gave that speech, I was able to recognize how much I had learned and just how I had grown throughout the process of the MOAS.”
For Aguirre, who wants to become an immigration lawyer, the experience of presenting and defending her resolution was an important experience: “I think the personal value of it for me, hoping to go into law, was the experience of advocating for something—in this case a resolution—that you’ve spent months researching, practicing approaching it from different angles, prepping for questions that could arise, and perfecting before presenting in only 2 minutes.”
Outside the Conference
The students didn’t spend all their time in DC at the conference, however. In their free time, they went sightseeing around the city. “A few of our students had never been to Washington, DC before,” says Shumway, “so this was a great experience for them.”
Additionally, the team leadership was able to arrange a meeting with Esteban Moctezuma Barragán, Ambassador of Mexico to the USA, at the Mexican embassy. “He gave us an audience of about 30 or 40 minutes where he spoke to us and then also entertained questions,” says Shumway. “It was a great opportunity for our students to just see diplomats in action, to hear them talk about the importance of their relationship with the United States and the importance of bilateral relations. They were very kind to us and generous with their time. If you talk to students, they always say one of the highlights of the conference is spending time with the ambassador.”
Noah Trepanier, a team member who graduated in History in April and will be attending Cornell Law School in the fall, says that the embassy visit was “fantastic!” He adds, “The US-Mexican bilateral relationship is always busy, so I appreciated the time the ambassador took out of his packed schedule to meet with us.”
And the visit was an educational one, he says: “One thing about diplomacy I learned from the ambassador is that the country a diplomat represents and the relationship they're trying to build with another country is always first. At one point during our meeting, a student asked the ambassador what his proudest accomplishment was. He very deliberately redirected his answer to highlight Mexican accomplishments and accomplishments within the US-Mexican bilateral relationship. The ambassador is an accomplished public servant in his own right, so I was impressed with how focused he was on putting his country and relationship first.”
A Once-in-a-lifetime Opportunity
The students involved took important lessons away from this experience. Ponczoch says, “I learned that we all have the same common goal of helping better the world for the people around us; although we often have different ideas of how to bring about that goal, we're really all on the same team, so kindness is a much more powerful driving force than contention.”
She says she also learned to have confidence in herself and the work she’d put into her preparation. “I was reminded that the moments in life that push us into unfamiliar territory tend to be the moments that break down barriers and bless us in the long run. Being brave and doing hard things pays off big time.”
Trepanier appreciates the skills he learned as he discussed, networked, and negotiated with other students; answering questions about his resolution also gave him a chance to practice his impromptu public speaking. “MOAS refines certain skills that can't be gained in a classroom,” he says. “I'm especially grateful to have refined these skills as I prepare for my career as an attorney. MOAS helped me prepare to network with other attorneys, bring in clients, answer questions on the fly in courtrooms and in depositions, and more.”
Shumway agrees that MOAS can benefit students’ future plans: “Admissions boards and employers value this kind of experience for students because they realize that the lessons that students learn and the skills they develop are valuable in shaping them as potential students and employees. We’ve had more than one student say, ‘They’re asking us about MOAS in interviews.’ MOAS give students skills and insights that help them understand the world better and makes them more competitive as they move on to jobs and graduate programs.”
Students interested in learning more about joining the program should reach out to Jeff Shumway. Space on the team is limited, and preference is given to Latin American Studies majors and minors.
“Just join!” Ponczoch says. “Even if it's out of your comfort zone or not something you see yourself being interested in, I promise you'll find a place! You will learn so many great skills, so trust yourself, trust the process, and trust your professors! You will be more prepared than you realize! It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I was so unsure at first, but now I count my blessings that I decided to join MOAS!”