Mr. Beck goes to Washington
Local teen takes part in Youth Leadership Forum in Washington, D.C.
BY KATHY CHANG Staff Writer

METUCHEN - Seventeen-year-old Brian Beck recently got a chance to see how it all works in the nation's capital.

The senior at St. Joseph High School was selected by his history teacher, Ryan Lechner, to attend the National Youth Leadership Forum [NYLF] on National Security in Washington, D.C., from Oct. 9 to 14.

Beck attended the forum concentrating on exploring American diplomacy, intelligence and defense.

Forums are offered in 11 cities across the U.S. in a wide variety of career fields, including national security, law and medicine.

"I've always been interested in national security," said Beck, who traveled to Washington, D.C., for the first time. "I was excited when I heard I was accepted to attend, but I had some anxiety about not knowing how the people were going to be."

However, the anxiety and fears vanished once Beck arrived at the forum.

"Everyone got to know each other," he said. "I made a lot of good friends."

The NYLF was founded in 1992. It is a tuition-based educational organization established to help prepare extraordinary young people for their professional careers. Its mission is to bring various professions to life, empowering outstanding young people with confidence to make well-informed career choices.

More than 100,000 high school and university students have attended the forum programs.

Lechner approached Beck's family in the spring informing them that he was interested in nominating him for the forum.

"I had American History with Mr. Lechner and currently have him for Advanced Placement American Totalitarian Regime," said Beck. "I enjoy American history, particularly World War II."

Beck received his official letter that he was accepted in June.

The six-day itinerary involved group simulations, making presentations, question and-answer sessions with highly respected, internationally recognized civilian policy makers and senior military, and visits to several government institutions and military installations such as the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Marine Corps Combat Development Command at Quantico, Va., the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Naval Academy, a variety of embassies and many other sites.

Simulations involved "actual world events" where the 300 high school students needed to use their critical thinking, leadership and public speaking skills to tackle the complexity of national decision making as they examined how the United States plans for peace and prepares

for crisis. The students employ a crisis decisionmaking process similar to that employed by the nation's top policy makers.

Beck's group simulation was "Defense Crisis in the Congo."

"It was pretty challenging," said Beck, who said there were 21 students in his group. "We were elected positions simulating the branches of U.S. government. I was elected vice president. We were given information right off the bat and we had to feed the information to the president. There were some arguments, but in the end we got what needed to be done and developed a policy to [handle the crisis in the Congo]."

Beck received an all-around tour of the area.

"We got to visit the Military Court of Appeals and the Drug Enforcement Agency," said Beck. "We went to all the monuments, a Smithsonian museum, The National Archives, the Supreme Court, the Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier."

Beck said he learned a lot from the program.

"It was definitely a great experience," said Beck. "The only places I didn't get to see that I did want to were the FBI and CIA buildings."

However, Beck and the other students did get a memorable visit by former American FBI operative Eric M. O'Neill who worked as an investigative specialist of the Special Surveillance Group and played a role in the arrest and life imprisonment conviction of FBI agent Robert Hanssen for spying on behalf of the Soviet Union and Russia.

O'Neill is now an associate at the law firm DLA Piper in Washington, D.C.

"Meeting [O'Neill] was fascinating, especially because the FBI is something I am very interested in," said Beck. "Most of his speech was about the Robert Hanssen case … on how he became involved and what his actions were while he was undercover. He answered many questions about the case, but some things he said were classified and he could not inform us on."

Beck said O'Neill added that the 2007 movie "Breach," in which O'Neill is portrayed by actor Ryan Phillippe, is very accurate.

The movie is based on the events that led to Robert Hanssen's arrest in 2001.

"He [O'Neill] told us that he was there during the character development and filmmaking process of the movie," said Beck. "He added that many of the climatic moments during the movie were very accurate as to what he experienced during that time."

Beck, who is being recruited by various colleges along the East Coast for baseball, looks to study history or criminal justice in college.

"There are different job opportunities with [my proposed majors]: from becoming a police officer, an FBI agent to working in the government," he said. "I just haven't made a decision yet."

For more information about the National Youth Leadership Forum visit www.nylf.com.