Boy Scouts Accomplishments

“Leadership in Service” are the watchwords of the Vigil Honor, the highest level of membership in the Order of the Arrow, Scouting’s national honor society. Following nomination, a candidate for the Vigil Honor must undergo a solemn and secretive ceremony at a Scout camp in the pine woods of Bastrop, Texas. I, too, have kept the Vigil, and I will never forget it.

There is one thing that President Gerald R. Ford; the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong; filmmaker Steven Spielberg and I all have in common. We are all Eagle Scouts. Since 1911, there have been more than one million Boy Scouts that have earned the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest rank advancement in Scouting. However, only about two and a half percent of ALL Boy Scouts have achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. It is a very long path, but one that is well worth the journey.

I am a member of Boy Scout Troop 66 and I was librarian for two years and I am currently the troop guide. As the troop guide my responsibility is to help the new and younger scouts get used to the troop because it is different from Cub Scouts. I help teach them new skills and basic boy scout skills such as First Aid, knots, lashings, and more. I also assist in planning and running the activities that take place at the weekly troop meetings. I have helped teach the scouts about sprain and strains and how to treat them. I also helped teach the scouts what is supposed to be in the patrol bins that we take on every camping trip. My goal as the troop guide is to help the newer scouts learn and gain more knowledge and I will do

I recently completed my Eagle Scout rank, achieving the highest honor in Boy Scouts, and I am also a brotherhood member of scouting's honor society, the Order of the Arrow. I served a six month term as Senior Patrol Leader, the most senior scout leader within my troop, as well as serving as Assistant Senior Patrol Leader for one term. Before that, I did three six month terms as Troop Guide, a position in which I acclimated first year scouts to the troop, teaching them the ways of scouting. My experience in Boy Scouts has presented an abundance of opportunities for me to develop my leadership skills, giving me a competitive advantage over other candidates.

Most Boy Scouts get to the second to last rank of scouting, Life. Once this point is reached, there is one last big requirement before the Eagle Scout rank is reached, the service project. This is not an ordinary pick up the trash on the side of the road type of service. This project is meant for only the most dedicated. It involves making something for the community, using the skills learned in the previous ranks, and above all, showing leadership. Due to the incredible amount of work involved, most scouts do not proceed to Eagle, instead they “Life-out.” I would have been a part of that group,

As Baden Powell once said, "A Scout is never taken by surprise; he knows exactly what to do when anything unexpected happens." Scouting has been very important to me over the past 7 years. The structure of Boy Scouts being primarily boy led, allows each scout to take initiative and lead their peers through different scenarios and work together to make tough decisions. Each individual is responsible for their own advancement; nobody spoon feeds the information to you. Over the past 7 years, I have progressed to the rank of Life Scout and have begun the last step to achieving the highest rank in Boy Scouts; the rank of Eagle Scout. These seven years have left a tremendous impact on my life. I have learned many valuable life lessons regarding dedication, leadership, and commitment throughout my scouting career. These qualities did not come easy. I faced several challenges and setbacks along the way and

Academic rigor and a high level of scholarship has a prominent role in my remaining two years of high school, especially staying on track to attain Lamp of Knowledge at graduation. The second pillar, leadership, in my opinion is the most important pillar of the National Honors Society. Leadership establishes one critical role of a high-level student, worthy of the National Honors Society, since today’s students will grow to become the leaders of tomorrow. On a daily basis, I use skills of leadership in band, pertaining to being section leader and organizing forty people, committing extra hours to better our section. As a section leader, I strive to contribute and aid section members with fairness, organization, and accuracy. Skills of leadership will directly impact future experiences relating to my future professional life, college, as well as current high-school endeavors. Service, the third pillar, is another fundamental part of the National Honors Society, and future undertakings. At my former elementary school, as well as my local baseball league, I have dedicated many hours with

The Scout Executive of Southern Missouri presented me with a medal and a badge. The award recognized the accomplishments and requirements that an Eagle Scout fulfills. I accepted the award and took my seat. Once the applaud of my fellow scouts and friends died down, I thanked everybody for coming to recognize my accomplishment of becoming an Eagle Scout. I continued to express my gratitude to all the leaders and parents that made my time as a Boy Scout some of the best times I spent in the outdoors. I reflected over the many campouts I took when I was younger and did not yet possess the skills or the equipment that I have since gained. I concluded my speech by thanking the business that sponsored my final service project.

I told myself that I was already an Eagle in all the ways that mattered, so I didn’t need some meaningless patch to justify my worth to other people. I moved on with my life, but my parents and Eagle mentor, as well as many other Scouting parents, while supporting me, disagreed with my decision. After almost a year, I was convinced to rejoin the Troop and finish up the last 5% of work I had to do to officially obtain Eagle Scout. Despite being repeatedly asked by adults, what brought me back was the realization that Eagle was not about finishing the requirements and moving on, it was about changing your own character for the better. At what kind of character would I have if I ran to the finish line and then sat down a foot from

Eventually, after four long, hard-working years, I achieved my Eagle Scout rank. In just one mid-summer evening, I went from one of 2.4 million Scouts, to just one of 146,400 Eagle Scouts, a little over 6% of all chartered Scouts of 2014. I reached my lifetime goal of become my family's first Eagle Scout. At the ceremony, for the first time, I had a crowd of 150 cheering for me, and not one person in the room didn't cry tears of joy for

It’s five in the morning as I rise, throw on some layers and mentally prepare myself to stand out in the freezing cold till eleven handing out water and gatorade to runners. Growing up, I always had the values of service and leadership hardwired into my brain from my parents and the Boy Scouts because of getting involved with them so early in my life. Now that I am older, I am beyond grateful for this upbringing because they are two very important values that are often overlooked or misinterpreted by many people. My biggest display of these virtues was my Eagle Scout Project and the fundraising for it that I performed in my sophomore year.

The Boy Scouts of America and the Girls Scouts of the USA are both nonprofit organizations that can be the most wonderful experiences in one’s life. Being a Boy Scout or Girl Scout can help the youth develop maturity and character, as they grow with age and enter adulthood. Through the process of volunteering and showing leadership skills, Boy Scouts of America and Girls Scouts of the USA are both life-changing organizations. One involved in any of the two organizations will create unity throughout their community and uphold a legacy. While the youth involved in one of the two organizations earn achievements and countless awards, scouting can be utilized to create an exceptional college admission resume. Although the Girls Scouts of the

I am most proud of achieving my Eagle Scout rank at age 16. My journey to Eagle has been one of hard work and dedication. Besides serving the community with over 300 hours of building and refurbishing projects , I have assumed positions of leadership early on, often recommended by adult leaders, as I was described to be mature for my age and very responsible. Over the course of 6 years I was the assistant Den Chief leading younger Scouts, Assistant Patrol Leader and Patrol Leader leading my peers, Quartermaster responsible for the management of all troop equipment, Chaplain Aid, Instructor teaching the Aviation Merit Badge and ultimately I was recommended by my troop adult leaders and asked by my Scoutmaster to assume the position of Senior Patrol Leader leading the entire troop of over 100 boys during my Junior Year in High School.

I grew up in a home where my parents taught us to serve our country, community and those around us. They taught me through example, my father was a scout leader when I was a child. He often took me camping and to merit badge Pow Wow’s. As a boy I began to dream about becoming a boy scout. When I became old enough I joined the cub scouts. While in Cub scouts I learned about being part of the pack, about working together to accomplish large projects, to work together to accomplish a larger goal. Then when I was older I was able to join the boy scouts they taught me about being a citizen in the community, about being a good neighbor. They taught me about doing a good turn daily, and being prepared. When I was 13, I became a life scout. Being a life scout is not anything special, other than I was able to start working on my eagle project.

When I was young, my older brother was in scouts and like most younger brothers, I liked to do what he did so, when I got old enough I immediately asked my parents to put me into scouts. Unlike my brother I was very strong-willed to get my project done and become an Eagle Scout, at the beginning. I knew that doing the project was very helpful for my future, it looked great on a resume for future jobs. But over time I just got tired of doing the work that is required for scouting. I wouldn’t go