Model Arab League Team Thrives on Program's History of Success

When Cal State San Bernardino’s Model Arab League delegation travels to the Rocky Mountain Regional Conference this weekend, it takes with it 21 Outstanding Delegation honors. That’s 21 consecutive times – one for every year the university has sent a team – that CSUSB students have earned the highest team award given at Model Arab League conferences, where teams from various universities represent the member nations of the Arab League, tackling the same issues that their real-life diplomatic counterparts encounter. For some, that might appear to be the kind of pressure to avoid. But for this team of 10 students, it’s something they embrace, knowing that they are following in the footsteps of alumni who helped establish the record against teams from Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley and Brigham Young University. “We understand that we have big shoes to fill,” said student delegate Mikael Erwin. “At the end of the day, it means something that we’re a part of a great program.” The CSUSB Model Arab League team will represent Libya at the conference that will take place March 7-9 at Metropolitan State University of Denver. The Rocky Mountain Conference and others around the U.S. are programs of the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, which aims to teach students about the politics and history of the Arab world, and the arts of diplomacy and public speech. To meet the high standards of Model Arab League teams of the past, the current team does exactly what their predecessors have done: research, prepare and practice. For the past quarter, they have been meeting in a classroom in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences building every Thursday afternoon for about 4 hours to do just that. Additional research takes place outside of meeting times as well. And to represent a country such as Libya, which in 2011 overthrew Muammar Gaddafi after 42 years of rule and is still trying to find political stability, that can be a daunting task. Erwin said that Libyan websites where news and policy positions of its emerging government would be posted are either not online consistently or are in Arabic. And when there is material available, “you have to be constantly researching, because the dynamics are changing every day,” said another delegate, Robert Tarbaux. The Libyans “are still finding their way.” “So as they’re learning about themselves, we’re learning about them, too,” said fellow delegate Stephen Omar El-Khatib. The CSUSB Model Arab League team representing Libya: • Robert Tarbaux – history (Track A); • Mikael Erwin – Open University student (CSUSB bachelor’s in philosophy, December 2013); • Kim Jones – sociology (social service track); • Keely Brashears – Arabic language and culture; • Stephanie Sigler – business administration (international business concentration); • Jason Bright – management (general business specialization); • Treneal Banks – communication studies (public argument and rhetoric concentration); • Dominick Dicus – English (creative writing track); • Stephen Omar El-Khatib – Open University student (dual bachelor’s in social science and Arabic language and culture, June 2013), serving as program assistant; and • Kristen Ramos – geography (global studies) and psychology, serving as program assistant.