After several years of lackluster performances, Stanford’s Model United Nations (MUN) team performed admirably at last weekend’s University of Chicago conference, where the squad won the award for Outstanding Large Delegation.

Nine of the team’s 16 members received recognition, and three students — Josh Dell ‘08, James Vaughan ‘09 and Marcus Williams ‘09 — were honored as the best delegates in their committees.

The team finished second overall, behind Harvard, and achieved a level of success far beyond recent years.

Vaughan, the team’s co-director, attributed the team’s recent progress to a change in attitude.

“The team began the year disunited, unskilled and idealistic, but it finishes the year a group of terrific friends convinced that debating fake French policy isn’t nerdy,” he said. “In years past the team did not make that transition and it consequently did not succeed.”

With its new leadership core, the team placed well at three conferences this year, winning honors at both the University of Pennsylvania’s fall conference and Harvard’s winter conference in addition to the recent Chicago convention.

Co-Director Boris Hanin ‘09 echoed Vaughan’s sentiments and suggested that the team’s enthusiasm this year separated it from previous squads. Hanin also attributed the success to weekly practices, during which team members simulate policy discussions and United Nations Committee meetings.

According to its leaders, the MUN team also plays a role in the Stanford community at large. Through a partnership with the Students for International Affairs at Stanford, team members tutor local high school students on foreign policy issues and host a high school Model UN conference at the University.

Vaughan said the skills learned in MUN are applicable to the professional world.

“Anyone interested in business or politics benefits from the MUN experience,” he said. “Real diplomatic skills are necessary to mobilize a forum as cold-blooded as the floor of the General Assembly behind your resolutions.”