Hundreds of students from Georgia, Texas, Ohio and Tennessee will flock to Brenau University this weekend for a competition of wits, logic and collaboration.

The 13th annual Invitational Mock Mediation Tournament will be Friday and Saturday and will include teams from Brenau, Clayton State University, Georgia Southern University, Middle Georgia State University, Bowling Green State University, Middle Tennessee State and the University of Texas at Dallas, according to a release from Brenau.

Mock mediation sessions, with students playing roles of co-mediators, advocates and clients, will be monitored by judges. Judges may be professionally-trained mediators, local attorneys and state court judges, and teams will be awarded points based on collaboration and conflict resolution.

The students will follow real-world cases, such as debates over pet ownership and disputes about wrongful death.

Ken Frank, the director of Brenau’s Conflict Resolution and Legal Studies program, said the competition not only prepares students for future careers, but instills important life skills, as well.

“One of our hopes is that if we can train the next generation of students to resolve conflicts in a better way than my generation has, the world will be a much better place,” he said.

The competition will take part in rounds Friday and Saturday, with a final awards luncheon at noon Saturday at Thurmond McRae Lecture Hall. All student competitions are free and open to the public.