Mission’s Brynn Pule receives TATL award

Brynn Pule, a senior at St. Ignatius High School, is the latest recipient of the Today’s Achievers, Tomorrow’s Leaders award (TATL) sponsored by Kalispell Regional Healthcare and the Lake County Leader.

Brynne is a high achieving academic who also values serving and being a part of her community. She said it “got kind of lonely” during her junior year when the school closed and people quarantined to stave off the pandemic.

An active member of her school’s student government for three years, Brynn is serving as both senior class president and school vice president this year. She enjoyed mentoring a group of freshmen through the LINK Crew leadership program, and serving on the Students Serving the Community, which does everything from putting on the school’s Halloween trick-or-treat event to cleaning up highway litter. She also served on Gov. and First Lady Bullock’s Council to End Childhood Hunger.

Brynn plans to attend the prestigious Eller College of Management at University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz., and was accepted into its “ELITE” Leadership program, a yearlong intensive program for pre-business, first-year UA students. She will study business and visual arts with a goal of starting her own interior design business. One of her favorite hobbies is redecorating her own bedroom a couple of times a month, and she is seeking internships with interior design firms this summer. She enjoys painting and “creating stuff” and has enjoyed several art classes with her “awesome” art teacher, Caitlin Shalman, including ceramics and photography.

Brynn is managing the track team this spring, but otherwise took the year off from athletics. In the past she has played basketball for two years, and volleyball and softball for three. Though she lost her right eye to retinoblastoma, an eye cancer, as a baby, this did not hold her back. In volleyball and basketball, she never had any difficulty. She said her softball coach had her change from right-handed batting to left-handed, and she was surprised how it helped her depth perception.

Brynn has received several awards, ranging from her school’s “Top DAWGS” and “Lunchpail” awards to a 2020 Montana Mathematics Student of the Year award and being selected to attend NCCEP Gear Up Youth Leadership Summit 2018 and the Gear Up National Conference. Perhaps she could be labelled the “Scholarship Queen,” as she has been offered a combined total of over $544,000 in college scholarships from various schools.

“Brynn doesn't go out of her way to bring attention to herself, or to make sure the adults in our school know she's doing well,” wrote Principal Shawn Hendrickson in his nomination of her for the TATL award. “Modesty would be a word that would describe her. She works hard, and leads by example with her grades and personal actions. She is willing to get involved in anything available to the students of St. Ignatius High School, without hesitation.”

Kalispell Regional Health provides a $250 donation to TATL recipients to go toward the school activity or cause of their choice. Brynn has chosen to donate her award to the school’s art club, which provides extra time for art students to create and learn.