SF State students were given a chance to step into the shoes of United Nations delegates, traveling around the world, attending conferences with thousands of other students and discussing global issues.

On April 9, students from International Relations 432 returned from their trip around the world, which culminated at the Sheraton hotel in New York City. Fourteen SF State representatives walked away with two awards from the National Model United Nations conference after competing against more than 4,000 other students.

The students, who represented the country of Nicaragua, received an honorable mention for their work as a team and an award for best delegation.

Back in the Bay Area, 13 other students from I.R. 432 were at the Model United Nations Far West conference in Burlingame, representing Brazil, Liberia and Romania. Out of about 400 other students at the conference, the three delegations each received a certificate of merit.

JoAnn Aviel, professor of the international relations course, has been attending the conferences with her students since 1970. Every spring, Aviel selects groups from her class to be sent to the two conferences.

"At the conference, committees are delegated; then each committee is given three agendas and at the end, and competing resolutions are put to a vote," Aviel said.

After sending in a list of four desired countries to the National Model United Nations organization, she received a response that Nicaragua would be the country they must represent in New York.

Laura Ochoa, president of the Model United Nations organization on campus, said everyone at the conference was working from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m., discussing the agendas and each committee's resolution to different world issues.

"It's so tedious and such a slow process to agree with people on solving problems," said Ochoa. "Now I've seen how hard it is and understand why people get frustrated with the U.N. never solving anything," she said.

Ochoa says she would be honored to accept a job in the U.N., but also said she is discouraged by the whole method of making decisions.

"I liked hearing the different perspectives on how to solve world issues, but it was such a slow process," she said.

Before leaving for the conferences, each student studies the beliefs and opinions of their respective country. With 25 countries being represented, there is often close to 25 different sets of ideas for a single resolution.

Ken Fuhrmann, a 23-year-old international relations student, attended the conference in Burlingame and represented Romania.

"There were hundreds of people from different countries, but they couldn't come up with any solutions because everyone had a different plan," Fuhrmann said.

Some students, Fuhrmann said, took the interpretations of their country to the level of dramatic performance.

"The girl representing Iran got really upset because a guy from Congo had a tactic of destroying her resolution, so she stormed out of the U.N.," Fuhrmann said.

Another student, representing North Korea, was acting very aggressive to prove his points and also left the meeting over a heated discussion, according to Furhmann.

"If I had the chance, I would go for being in United Nations -- it's interesting to see how people negotiate," Fuhrmann said.