LC students received two of the eight awards presented at the Mid-Atlantic European Union Simulation in Washington, D.C. Nov. 14-16.
Elizabeth O’Hara ’15 won the Outstanding Commissioner Award and Courtney Elliott ’14 won the Outstanding Parliamentarian Award. For the first time, there were also four Honorable Mentions presented and two of them went to LC students Justin Hamlet ’15 and Ryan Connors ’16.
LC’s delegation represented Italy among 12 college and university teams (and some 160 students). In several days of heated deliberations and negotiations, delegates debated and amended a resolution regarding EU’s current economic woes and a whole slate of legislative proposals to address them. The group also visited the Italian Embassy for a diplomatic briefing by its chief political officer.
“Italy’s reputation for being rather profligate meant that our delegation had its work carved out for it,” said Dr. Marek Payerhin, professor of international relations and political science, who led the delegation. “They met the challenges very well and all students contributed to the substantive legislative work in their areas.”
LC Members of the European Parliament were elected chairs or vice chairs of all party groups they joined (Marvin Argueta-Sol ’14, Scott DiStefano ’14, Derrick Lagoy ’14, and Greg Schuster); while Aaron Moyer ’14 was elected chair of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee.
The Italian government was valiantly represented by David Busch ’14 as Prime Minister Letta, as well as our “ministers,” Alex Ricker ’14 and Stuart Orfuss ’14.
Other members of the delegation were Ashley Adams ’14, Paige Beer ’14, Mariah Brockelbank ’16, Taylor Durham ’14, and Stephen Parvin ’15.
