Halfmoon Bay native Johnny Brynelsen was awarded a Book Prize for his skill and contribution in the Security Council at McGill University's Secondary Schools' United Nations Symposium (SSUNS) last weekend.
The SSUNS conference is one of Canada's most prestigious Model United Nations conferences, hosting approximately 1,300 high school students from across North America.
Representing Shawnigan Lake School, Brynelsen was a member of the United Nations Security Council as a delegate for Columbia.
The primary focus for his delegation was to strategize plans for stabilizing Egypt post-revolution. An additional area of debate was the biological and chemical weaponry in the People's Republic of Korea.
SSUNS is first and foremost a friendly and stimulating environment in which delegates can freely exchange ideas by debating, discussing and reaching agreement on all manner of international issues. It is not a debating tournament or any kind of competition, but a collective learning experience. As such, awards at SSUNS are bestowed upon delegates whose behaviour at the conference enriches the learning of their peers to an exceptional degree.
Brynelsen was awarded a Book Prize by his committee directors (McGill undergraduates), who wished to recognize his enthusiastic and dynamic participation in the Security Council.
The Grade 12 student said he was overwhelmed by the official recognition he received at SUNSS.
"To go up and accept an award in a room of 1,300 people was pretty awesome," he said. "The best part, however, was more that I was winning an award for Shawnigan. It was awesome to bring home something that we as a school and as a delegation can be proud of. And I wouldn't have received the award if it wasn't for the support and drive of our teachers Mr. Klassen or Mrs. Coy making sure I was well prepared. This award is definitely the cherry on top of my Grade 12 year."
Brynelsen joined the Shawnigan debate program in Grade 8 and has grown with its evolution into a Model UN focused program.
"I didn't really want to do anything different than debate but our faculty advisor Mr. Klassen made the Model UN a continually more significant focus. Although I was originally critical of that move, I am now the polar opposite and really addicted to Model UN aspect," he said.
His passion for the program has reaped its reward in Brynelsen's continued personal advancement through the Model UN ranks. Starting as a committee staff member at the 2010 Vancouver Model UN, the largest student-run conference in Western Canada, to his current position as the Under-Secretary General of Marketing for the 2012 conference taking place in January, his career has certainly evolved.
Participating in bigger conferences has also helped enhance Brynelsen's pragmatic application of his debating and negotiating skills.
"The biggest challenge at the SSUNS was the interactive aspect. Unlike any other conference I have attended, every action we carried out had a reaction. It wasn't as straightforward to arrive at a 'happy ending' because the crisis staff from McGill University insured that it was a very realistic exercise," he said.
"For example, rather than countries being able to utilize financial aid, those funds would go missing through corruption. It made our work more challenging and certainly more interesting."
After graduation, Bry-nelsen will put his Model UN talent to good use when pursuing a degree in nautical sciences at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Nova Scotia.
"The skills I have obtained such as public speaking, diplomacy, fast resolution writing and operating with sleep deprivation will be useful in my program and indirectly for other aspects of my life. I can certainly say that the Model UN work has given me the confidence to address a crowd of people and has offered me a gateway into the world of problem solving," he added.
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