FIU students represent Haiti in Washington Model OAS


By Deborah O’Neil MA ‘09

A group of FIU students is in Washington, D.C. this week representing the country of Haiti in the annual Model Organization of American States for universities. Similar to the Model UN program, the Model OAS is a simulation of the OAS General Assembly, which is made up of the 35 countries of Latin America and Caribbean.

The world’s oldest regional organization, the OAS focuses on democracy, human rights, security and development in the Americas. Tuesday, the students were welcomed to the nation’s capital by OAS Director of International Affairs Irene Klinger.

The FIU Model OAS team includes: Julissa Rivera, Natalia Rodriguez, Aaron Feit, Stephanie Sanchez, Sameer Rasheed, Melissa Michaane, Tatiana Guest, Juan Velez, Lincoln Thomas and Ulises Tavarez.

The FIU Model OAS team includes: Julissa Rivera, Natalia Rodriguez, Aaron Feit, Stephanie Sanchez, Sameer Rasheed, Melissa Michaane, advisor Jason Weidner, Tatiana Guest and Juan Velez. Missing from the photo are Lincoln Thomas and Ulises Tavarez.

The students came together this spring under the guidance of Jason Weidner, a Ph.D. candidate and adjunct in international relations. Weidner organized the team and selected Haiti as the country FIU would represent. All but one of the students is in Weidner’s International Relations Theory class this spring. The FIU Latin American and Caribbean Center and the Student Government Association helped underwrite expenses of the trip.

“The fact that there’s a big Haitian community in Miami gives a lot of significance to what they are doing,” Weidner said. “The earthquake gives them some extra motivation to try to represent Haiti well.”

The FIU team joins universities from around the Americas participating in the five-day conference. Other U.S. universities attending include the University of Maryland, Notre Dame and Tulane. The FIU team is proposing resolutions to strengthen local Haitian governance, protect Haitian asylum seekers across the Americas and boost local agricultural production.

Tuesday morning the students went to the Haitian Embassy in Washington and met with one of the country’s OAS representatives, Pierre Daniel Laviolette. He explained to the students his role and the role of Haiti in the OAS. He talked to the students about Haiti’s perspective on issues like increased foreign involvement in the country’s governance.

“The students have to imagine that they are representing the government of Haiti,” Weidner said.  “When they look at issues like development and democratization, they are so immersed and have internalized the discourse from the US and the developed world about Haiti. It is really difficult for them to look at it from the Haitian perspective.”

Weidner said the students are already finding success for their proposals. “They were up all night meeting with other students on their committees, discussing and negotiating,” he said. “What an amazing learning experience.”