NSU’s College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (CAHSS) houses the Nova International Relations Association (NIRA) Model United Nations Team. The team participated in the 2017 Southern Regional Model United Nations Conference (SRMUN) held in Charlotte, NC. The team represented Angola in five separate committees, including the Security Council. For the second straight year the NSU team won an “Outstanding Position Papers” award for the research and writing the team did on Angola in relation to their committee assignments. This is the highest award given for research and writing of position papers. NIRA has now won at least one award in four straight SRMUN appearances. The faculty advisor for NIRA is G. Nelson Bass, III, J.D., Ph.D., faculty in the Department of History and Political Science.
Seven students from NSU participated including: NIRA President Leigh Mumford (senior, Political Science); Leydi Arboleda 
(sophomore, Political Science); Afrin Naz (sophomore, Biology); Celina Mahabir (sophomore, Communications and International Studies); Samir Nacer (sophomore, Biology); Joshua Hallinger (sophomore, Political Science); and Michael Andrews (sophomore, Political Science).
In addition to the team honors, Desiree Kennedy, NSU Class of 2014 and a founding members of NIRA was selected to be the Director General of SRMUN next year. Kennedy received a master’s degree in Political Management from the College of Professional Studies at The George Washington University. She is the Coordinator, Health Policy and Government Affairs Corporate at Elekta, Inc.