OLLU sophomore Heather Hinds won the Stegall/Frederick Award for Outstanding Diplomacy at the Summit of the Americas competition held Nov. 8-10 in Waco. The diplomacy award is one of the top awards presented at the competition and is granted to the top student who uses collaboration, critical thinking, and writing skills to form consensus, write amendments, and move forward during moments fraught with difficult obstacles.

The competition, organized by the Eugene Scassa Mock Organization of American States (ESMOAS), is an academically centered program with over 25 years of history bringing the nation's best and brightest college students together to debate the issues facing the Western Hemisphere (North, Central, and South America with the Caribbean).

The OLLU delegation represented Argentina and developed position papers and resolutions on behalf of the country based on a wide array of economic, political, diplomatic, and foreign policy positions. Students collaborated as a group and also individually developed original resolutions based on the perspective of Argentina and debated them with student peers from various universities from Texas and México.

OLLU was represented by Political Science majors Myra Hall, Head Delegate representing Argentine President Javier Milei; Monica Rodriguez, serving as a delegate for Argentina on the Security and Integral Development Committee to debate Constructing Sustainable Nations through Natural Resource Management; delegate Arely Palomo representing Argentina in the Multidimensional Security Committee, debating her resolution on Reinforcing Territorial Sovereignty to Alleviate Migration Challenges; and delegates Heather Hinds and Valentina Baffoni, representing  Argentina on the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs to Combat Corruption to Ensure Free and Fair Elections.

The judges commended the work of OLLU students, giving special acknowledgement to them for their performance, as well as their role in hosting the Parliamentary Procedure Workshop in September.