Matthew E. Gerstein is part of the team recently recognized as being among New England’s top teams by BestDelegate.com.
Matthew E. Gerstein, of Mt. Laurel, a first-year student at Clark University, is a member of Clark’s Model United Nations team (MUN), which was recently recognized as being among New England’s top teams by BestDelegate.com, a website dedicated to the Model U.N. experience.
The Model UN team enables students to simulate the inner-workings of the United Nations as representatives of UN member states to work to solve current global issues. Students who participate on Clark’s travel team compete with student “delegates” from other academic institutions at eight conferences each academic year.
Gerstein received a verbal commendation for his performance at a conference at Boston University last October where he posed as the director of the Psychological Warfare Division in a committee simulating the decision-making processes of the Office of Strategic Services set in 1944.
Clark students involved in Clark’s Model UN program also staff two Model UN conferences annually — one for high school students and one for middle school students (the latter is in cooperation with the United Nations Association of Greater Boston); the conferences draw hundreds of students from around the Northeast to the Clark campus. Gerstein served as under-secretary-general for the high school conference (ClarkMUN VII) in November.
Gerstein said the Model UN program was “one of the primary reasons” he came to Clark University.
“Model UN has been one of my best decisions and has created some of my fondest memories in my first semester at Clark,” Gerstein said. “I finally was able to be a part of the process both as a delegate and as a staffer, really letting me see the process as a whole. The experience that I have gained from just the practice sessions alone has been invaluable to me, so much so that over winter break I plan on giving a talk about MUN at my high school to help the MUN club there improve itself.”
Gerstein is a political science major with a minor in history. He is also a member of the Ballroom Dance Team at Clark.
Gerstein is a 2016 graduate of Lenape High School.
