CSUSB Model Arab League team thrives on program’s history of success

SAN BERNARDINO,Calif.-- 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.

Yet the knowledge gained by participating in Model Arab League is not limited to academic settings. The Model Arab League website says: “In addition, they (students) develop and practice useful analytical, organizational, writing, editing, and public speaking skills. In so doing they strengthen their ability to engage in the art of reasoned argument and spirited debate.”

While developing and refining those skills has helped CSUSB student delegates earn Outstanding Delegation honors through the years, those skills also translate well in and out of the classroom.

Tarbaux said he once had an “extreme fear” of public speaking. But because part of being a delegate includes having to speak in small committees or before large numbers of delegates during joint sessions, the repeated practice he’s done when the team meets has helped him overcome that, he said.

El-Khatib finds himself able to manage situations better, in a more thoughtful way, than prior to his time with the Model Arab League and its related program, the Model United Nations. “Now, when something happens, it’s not ‘What went wrong?’ It’s ‘How can I fix this?’”

And Erwin said he finds himself being the mediator among family and friends when conflicts arise – a skill practiced by real-life diplomats that he and other student delegates have come to learn through Model Arab League and Model UN.

“It’s getting people who are polar opposite to come to an agreement,” he said. “It’s not about winning. It’s about getting along with people.”

And in the real world of international diplomacy, finding ways to get along with other people despite their differences is the goal, not winning the argument at the expense of another person or country.

“That’s what we want here,” Tarbaux said. “We want everybody to walk away from the table with something. … We don’t want to steamroll people. We want to learn how to incorporate other people’s ideas within the debate.”

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.

For more information on CSUSB’s Model Arab League and Model United Nations programs, housed in the university’s department of geography and environmental studies, contact faculty adviser Kevin Grisham at (909) 537-7569 or e-mail him at kgrisham@csusb.edu, and visit the National Model United Nations website and the Model Arab League website.  More information on the Model United Nations and Model Arab League programs at CSUSB can be found at modelunal.csusb.edu.

For more information on Cal State San Bernardino, contact CSUSB’s Office of Public Affairs at (909) 537-5007 and visit news.csusb.edu.