Nipissing places high in Model NATO conference

Congratulations to Nipissing University’s model NATO team, who finished fourth at the recent 2013 Model NATO conference hosted by Carleton University's Centre for Security and Defence Studies. The team of five students debated their peers from other universities on current National Defence and Foreign Policy issues including cybersecurity, post 2014 NATO action in Afghanistan, small arms brokering and nuclear arms proliferation.

Politicians and military officials gave presentations to the students about current policy and defence issues affecting Canada and its NATO allied Nations. Students also got the opportunity to visit the Portuguese embassy in Ottawa; as Portugal was the country that Nipissing represented in the debate.

“This is a fantastic achievement for the Nipissing team, who were competing against institutions with much larger political science departments,” said Micheal Matchett, project manager for the Nipissing team and a Nipissing graduate, and Bachelor of Education student. “Special thanks to the Nipissing University Student Union; Dr. Robin Gendron, of the History Department; Dr. Stephen Connor of the History Department; and Dr. David Tabachnick, or the Political Science department, for their continued support of the model NATO program at Nipissing.”

The Nipissing Model NATO team included: Neil Siviter, 2nd-year Political Science; Ian Hall, 2nd-year Criminal Justice; Nathan Gravelle, Political Science; Megan Thompson, 4th-year History; and Kathryn Eygenstein, 4th-year History.