Every achievement of the ODU Model UN is a debt to fifty years of tradition and experience, the work of its alumni laid down, starting in 1976. Alumni created the program. Their work inspires and guides our students today. For everybody engaged in the program today, it is an honor to build on their foundation.
Stay in Contact
Help us keep our alumni community up to date with news from the ODU Model UN. Get news from our alumni community and stay up to date on UN events. Complete our contact form to keep in touch.
Share
If you know other MUN alumni who might not be on our contact list, forward this invitation and let us know. We are compiling a photographic record of your Society and MUN experiences. You can help us tremendously by sharing pictures and background stories. Send those to John Danboyi at jdanb001@odu.edu.
Take Special Pride
ODU’s MUN Alumni organized a non-profit organization, the Old Dominion MUN Alumni Society, LLC. The organization is a 503(c) non-profit organization. An endowed scholarship fund was established in 2016, enriched with the support of innumerable alumni, faculty and friends of the Model UN.
The annual Old Dominion Model U.N. Society Alumni Jean-Bernard Gazarian and Gil Crippen Scholarship commemorates the two of their greatest mentors.
Gilbert Crippen
Gilbert (Gil) Crippen was an inspiring teacher and Model UN activist mentor for many ODU alumni. He taught at Denbigh, Ferguson, Menchville and Warwick High Schools in Newport News. He was an adjunct professor at Christopher Newport University and ODU. He inspired students to develop global perspectives, leading many to careers in teaching and international engagement.
Jean Bernard Gazarian
Jean Bernard Gazarian, who died in 2016, age 93, was an extraordinary inspiration for ODU Model United Nation students for over three decades. Two students, Dan Frank and Pam Raley, boldly approached him in 1982 on the floor of the UN General Assembly, where he was presiding as Director of the General Assembly. He came to our conference in 1983, starting a relationship that lasted until his death in 2016.
Videos and articles give a sense of his work, his beliefs about the UN System, the International Civil Service, and tales from his seventy-year UN career: