Don't Miss the Last Two Timely Lectures!
Naples United Church of Christ
5200 Crayton Road, Naples
3:45 and 7:30 pm (except as otherwise noted)
Special Model UN program at 7:15 pm on Monday, March 23
Attend the Annual Meeting and greet 21 NCWA Scholars on Tuesday, April 7
In person and livestreamed
Our Enduring Global Crises
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Upcoming:
March 23: “Advances in Military and Uncrewed Technology”. Tim Ditter, Senior Research Scientist, U.S. Center for Naval Analyses.
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April 7, TUESDAY: "A Global National Security Conversation". Ambassador Douglas Lute (USA ret.), assistant to President Bush and National Security Advisor for Iraq and Afghanistan
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SWFL Model UN Holds Another Record Competition
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A record number of more than 340 high school delegates competed March 2 and 3 on the FGCU campus for more than $60,000 in scholarships and awards. This year's event surpassed last year's competition, which previously was the biggest in its history.
SWFLMUN is an academic program of the Naples Council on World Affairs (NCWA), engaging students from Collier, Lee, Charlotte and other area counties in rigorous, student-led debate on today’s most pressing global challenges. For more information, click here.
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Above, students representing various countries prepare to debate an issue.
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Howard Cohen, left, presented the Mo Winograd Special Competition Award and a check for $2,000 to the Cypress Lake High School team that placed first in the 2026 competition. From left, after Howard, are Ava Ngo, Gus Lessinger, Mya Jenkinson, John Harris, Graham Harris, Valeska Perez, Carter Gurule and Danylo Zacharievich. The team will share their winning presentation on teen mental health with NCWA members at 7:15 pm Monday, March 23 at the evening lecture at Naples United Church of Christ. Click here to view a detailed version of their presentation. To listen to an interview on WGCU of Andrea Bedoya, FGCU graduate who was 2026 MUN keynote speaker, click here.
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Students who received summer scholarships in 2025 and 2026 and also participated in Southwest Florida Model UN competition stand with 2026 MUN keynote speaker Andrea Bedoya, center, in black suit. The SWFLMUN annual conference was held March 2-3 on the FGCU campus.
Photo by Dennis Parass
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Oakridge Middle School Wins Fast-Paced Competition
A team from Oakridge Middle School won the Middle School competition March 1. From left are Mark Schwab, NCWA president; first place winners Joseph “Nolen” Walter, John “JT” Haney, Santiago Grana, Jordan Rodriguez; Gunther Winkler, NCWA president-elect, and Michael Finkel, AWQ chair. Photo by Martha Williams
For details on the Middle School AWQ competition, please click here.
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Lecture Guests Can Sign Up Online
We've made it easier to tell others about the gem that is NCWA! Guests at our lectures can register themselves online.
Easy! All you have to do is tell your friends, family, neighbors, co-workers and others with similar interests about how our top-quality adult and youth programs help you better understand our rapidly changing world. Don't forget to tell them that we're nonpartisan, non-profit and a place where friendships are built. Then send them right here to the NCWA website's home page to register. Guests can reserve their free passes for
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one or two persons by clicking here. Or they may scan the QR code below:
Guests can reserve a seat to attend one lecture during the season for themselves and one other person. Guests are limited to only one free lecture per season, after which we hope they will consider membership.
Hurry! Season is winding down! |
Mimi Gregory Honored
By WACA Board  Mimi Gregory receives the 2025 WACA Chairman's Individual Award from Matthew Hughes, president and CEO of WACA. Click here for more information.
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NCWA Adopts Vision
And Values Statements
NCWA's Board of Directors has adopted statements of its long-term Vision and Core Values to support its existing Mission Statement. The new statements describe our intentions for our role in the Southwest Florida community and the values we bring to that role as we inform adults and help create the leaders of tomorrow.
Click here to view the complete version of our Vision, Mission and Core Values.
Did You Miss a Lecture? The lecture archive is available for members.
To access the archive, first sign in.
Then, click this link
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Model UN Special Competition Winners
to give presentation at lecture March 23, 7:15 pm
Annual Meeting and election of new
Board members, in person and online April 7, 3:00 pm
Final lecture April 7, 3:45 & 7:30 pm
Meet 21 summer scholarship winners April 7, 7:30 pm
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21 Students Awarded
Summer Scholarships
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Twenty-one high school students have been awarded NCWA scholarships for study in prestigious one- and two-week programs in the U.S. and abroad during the summer of 2026. Many of the scholarships have been made possible by generous donations by NCWA members -- THANK YOU! To see the students' backgrounds and photos, click here. Five students will attend the Oxford Academia International Relations program at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. They are: Bennett Bozman, Aubrey Rogers High School; Aarohee Dabas, Gulf Coast High School; Zoe Saladin, Fort Myers High School; Austen Summy, Fort Myers High School, and Lavya Patel, Gulf Coast High School. Two students will attend the Germany Cultural and International Relations Program: Braxton Cabrera, Gulf Coast High School, and Luke Brown, Aubrey Rogers High School. Isabella Peck of North Fort Myers High School will attend Tufts University's France International Relations Program. Micaela "Mica" Fallon of Gulf Coast High School will attend the Costa Rica Global Sustainability and Environmental Diplomacy Program. Attending the Harvard University Chan C-Change Youth Summit on Climate Science, Medicine and Health will be Erin Hanna, Gulf Coast High School, and Benaiah Schuessler, Aubrey Rogers High School. Tufts University's International Relations Program in Boston will be attended by Aaron Bozman, Aubrey Robgers High School. Georgetown University's International Relations Academy will be attended by Alexia Boby, Fort Myers High School; Zaara Rahman, Fort Myers High School; Anna Fulmer, Donahue Academy; Juliana Dalao, Gulf Coast High School; Sahana Kanda, Gulf Coast High School, and Klea Kocani, Golden Gate High School. Attending Georgetown University's program on National Security and Intelligence will be Alex Ewy, Aubrey Rogers High School. Attending Yale University's Yale Model United Nations Program will be Talia Matten, Babcock High School, and Carter Gurule, Cypress Lake High School. Many of the scholarships are funded by NCWA members who are major donors to the program. The donors will meet the students who will receive the scholarships at an ice cream social on April 7, as well as the students' parents and/or guardians and teachers. The students will be introduced to NCWA members at the evening lecture on April 7.
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Our Board Leaders and How to Vote
For Candidates at Annual Meeting
Mark Schwab will end his third year as president of NCWA on April 7 but will continue as a member at large on the Board of Directors for another year.
President-Elect Gunther Winkler, who is returning to the Board after time away when he was president of Greater Naples Leadership, will become president in April.
Three new Board members to replace retiring members are proposed by the Board and Nominating Committee for election at the Annual Meeting at Naples United Church of Christ at 3:00 pm on April 7. They are Peter Berry, Elaine Christian and Geoff Murphy. Click here to read their biographical information and to review information to prepare to vote in person or via livestream. The nominees are presented as a slate of three, not for individual votes on each of them. Here are photos of the nominees:    Peter Berry Elaine Christian Geoff Murphy Notices of the Annual Meeting emailed on March 7 to members also contained the biographical information and the livestream link. Here is a copy of the notice and agenda that was emailed on March 7. Reminders will be emailed closer to April 7. Paper proxies were not mailed this year.
To view information on other Board members, click here.
NCWA Book Club Explores Foreign Policy
April 7: For our final book of the year, we’ll read the highly acclaimed The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings  from History by Odd Arne Westad. Foreign Policy magazine called it the "most anticipated book of the year” and "from a renowned Yale historian comes a chilling look at the looming threat of the next Great Power war and the urgent interventions necessary to avoid it in the twenty-first century.” Professor Westad, who is from Norway, has held major academic posts at the London School of Economics, Harvard (S.T. Lee Professor of US–Asia Relations), and is now Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale, teaching in both the History Department and the Jackson School of Global Affairs.
The club meets via Zoom, usually from 12:00 to 1:30 pm, on first Tuesdays of the month during the season. To get on the mailing list, click here. For Zoom link, past Book Club choices and more information, contact Bill Korstad at bkorstad@mac.com or go to our Book Club page.
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