Georgia Southern’s Mock Mediation Team is now ninth in the nation after making a vast improvement in their last mediation tournament on Nov. 6 through Nov. 8.

The team of six made their way to Brenau University in Gainesville, Ga. for one day of training and two days of competition to put their mediation skills to the test against 40 other undergraduate teams.

Hosted by the International Academy of Dispute Resolution, the tournament is designed to help students learn how to negotiate and communicate effectively. Representing the highest level of undergraduate mediation, the two teams of three both made it to the semifinals with their advocate/client team continuing to advance to the finals and take home second place.

“Overall, it was more about the feel of collaboration. It didn’t feel like a competition. It focused on allowing us to collaborate with people different that us,” Jessica Shanken, vice president of Mock Mediation’s PR, said when discussing what she liked most about the tournament,

Our Georgia Southern Mock Mediation Team stands out not only for its rapid success since its start up in the fall of 2013, but also for its independence in being entirely self-taught by student coaches. While other teams bring in coaches and have specific course classes to prepare their students for the tournament, GSU’s team remains a lighthearted extracurricular, teaching not only itself, but other mediation teams as well.

From construction management majors to international relations, having mediators from different fields helped the team to be more prepared for a variety of cases they were given.

“We bring a different dynamic to the competition because we have people from different fields,” Dylan John, president of Mock Mediation Club, said.

After advancing to the finals, three of the six mediators, Tashai Gilman, Jonathan Quintyne and Dylan John, will be traveling to Iowa next semester to participate in the International Law School Mediation Tournament while collaborating with graduate students.

“It gives you the opportunity to look at a problem from a different standpoint,” Shanken said when speaking about the benefits of mediation.

Mock Mediation club is open to the public and meets every Thursday at 7p.m. in room 2052 of Russell Union.