Written by Bill Hunter | January 13, 2020 | SHARE
For more than a decade, Lehigh University students have served as volunteers and official rapporteurs for the annual Committee on Teaching about the United Nations (CTAUN) conference, held at UN headquarters in New York City. Following discussions with CTAUN Chairperson Anne-Marie Carlson, the tradition will continue for at least the next several years.
During the upcoming conference to be held on February 28, Lehigh students will serve as official communications team bloggers, in addition to their standard session reporting function. The blogs will be shared wide on a number of social media outlets. Reports written by the students are included in the Conference Outcome Document. Approximately a dozen students volunteer for the conference each year, including a contingent of Fulbright Scholars from around the world.
"We really value Lehigh's support of the conference," Carlson said. "The students do a great job in their roles."
The partnership between CTAUN and Lehigh began in Paris in the early 2000s when Bill Hunter, Lehigh's UN Representative, meet Carlson at a UN Non-governmental organization conference held in the French capital. What seemed like a natural collaboration has now enabled more than 100 Lehigh students to provide direct support to the annual CTAUN conference. In 2014 Lehigh won CTAUN's award for curricular innovation for designing a graduate course focused on women's empowerment and the Commission on the Status of Women.