Quinnipiac students have formed a Model UN organization to allow students to debate hot topics and learn about international affairs.

The group began when Colleen Driscoll, visiting assistant professor of political science, received an invitation from the Harvard University Model UN program. Since Quinnipiac has never had a Model UN program before, she thought it was a perfect opportunity to start one.

When Driscoll spread the word to students about trying to form this new group, she only thought about 10 people would be interested. However, there was a bigger turnout than she expected, with about 30 student joining.

Junior Adam Horgan said he joined Model UN because he loved politics and, “this will be an exceptional way to gain team work skills in the political arena.”

Ashley Fry, another junior member, said she joined because, “It is great way to learn about how the U.N works, as well as learn about other’s countries cultures, especially cultures that are less known.”

Since this is a student-run group, students will meet and discuss what they want to do in regards to the country they are representing. Because Model UN was new to Quinnipiac, Driscoll wanted countries that were easier to work with.

Driscoll didn’t expect to hear from Harvard until the beginning of December about which countries and committees the students at Quinnipiac would represent. However, because Harvard had many colleges interested, they released the countries immediately. They were Cote d’Ivoire and Monaco.

“They gave us two countries because of the size of our delegation based on the number of students interested in participating,” Driscoll said.

The students representing each country will be further broken down into committees of one or two students. Each country will have 16 committees.

The Harvard Model UN session will be held from Feb. 11-14. There will also be other events besides the Model UN discussions.

“Besides having the Model UN meetings at Harvard, there will also be speeches, career building and dances,” Driscoll said.

Professor Sean Duffy, who is also involved new Model UN group, said, “A lot of students get interested in international affairs and Model UN is interested in doing that.”

Duffy wants the Model UN program to continue its quick growth.

“Eventually I want to represent Model UN with student government and have a student leader for the group,” Duffy said.