Three Taiwanese students won awards for their diplomatic skills at the end of Harvard University's World Model United Nations (WorldMUN) conference in Taipei, the country's best achievement of the past five years, the organizers said Thursday. The winners are Wang Po-ya from National Taiwan Normal University, who acted as a delegate from Kenya at the event, Terence Liu from National Taiwan University (NTU) who represented Lithuania, and Joseph Liang from National Chengchi University who spoke for Dominican Republic. They were among 70 students awarded in recognition of their in- depth understanding of committee issues, their aggressiveness in speaking for the country they represented, and their ability to help forge consensus. A total of 1,800 university students from more than 200 schools in over 40 countries took part in this year's event, the 19th of its kind and taking place in Taiwan for the first time after four failed attempts to host the event over the past 10 years. The diplomacy award was one of the highlights of the five-day event, which featured 22 U.N.-affiliated committees in the daytime and a variety of cultural activities in the evenings. Meanwhile, a group of five Taiwanese students won a subsidy of US$3,000 from Harvard for a proposed project to increase the use of the metro system in the southern port city of Kaohsiung. It is the first time Taiwanese students have received the subsidy, said Hsieh Cheng-chang, one of the five winners. This year is the second year that Harvard has used such a subsidy to encourage students to put forward plans to create a real impact on their community, instead of just having discussions at WorldMUN. The university awarded four projects this year. Henry Huang, a third-year NTU student representing Guatemala on a committee on the nuclear dispute between India and Pakistan, said he was impressed by foreign students' English-language ability and that it made him realize that a language is more than just a communication tool. Ourania Vlachea, along with her fellow Greek students Dimitra Stefoudi and Konstantina Linardou, said they learned how to collaborate, how to approach people, how to solve problems and how to face reality and come up with workable solutions during the event. In addition, Vlachea went on, they learned a lot about Taiwanese culture. Jason Hou, a NTU student in charge of the event, previously told selfnews that some of the students will have clear plans for the future after taking part in the WorldMUN event. 'After they graduate, some might find that they actually dislike international politics and might decide to enter the business sector, take up voluntary work or join a non- government organization, ' he said. 'The event is designed to help students get a different experience and find out what they want to do and what they can do for the world in the future,' Hou said. 