Eagle Scouting

[alum]

Originally posted by carnation
One thing I love about the Girl Scout camp where our girls have gone through counselor-in-training and wrangler-in-training programs, and have then become counselors and wranglers: all this led to career decisions for 2 of our daughters. Because of their camp experiences, our oldest got 2 degrees in recreation management and our fifth is majoring in equine science. Our others have had good jobs working there that look great on resumes!

Yay for the GS. My daughter never was a counselor but enjoyed being a camper both overnight and day. By the time she was old enough to CIT and Program Aide, she was selected for Governor's School which used up most of the summer. When that was over she was a Congressional Aide on the Senate side, did a mini-internship for an international NGO, and finished up council hours for some awards. Somehow she squeezed in August Cross-Country Practice and babysitting. I don't know where this child came from!

Now my son LOVED BS Camp! He wants to go on one of the High Adventure Camps when he is older. The 14+ boys are doing the Northern Tier trip this summer.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by carnation
I just remembered this thread because last night, our son was inducted into the Order of the Arrow! (As a Pi Phi, I was thrilled by all the "arrow" items he was given!) Anyway, he's well on his way to Eagle rank and his younger brother is right behind him.

YEA!! Congrats (and a hearty W.W.W.) to your son! That's a real honor for him. I still think back on my Ordeal weekend -- it's not an exagerration to say that it was one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

You know, I was wondering about you and your son just a few days ago -- even wondered if I should PM you about it. Glad to know he's well along the Eagle trail. None of you will regret it. As I think I said before, the only "momento" from High School days that I have in my office is my Eagle certificate.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by AGDee
The pack events are whole family oriented and many of the advancements/awards depend on family involvement.

My daughter (5) has a "Cub Scout Lil' Buddy" tee-shirt she loves to wear, and we have an "honorary" den member -- the little brother who comes to everything. We actually gave him an honorary award at Blue and Gold last year. He'll be a Tiger next year.

We've really enjoyed the family aspect to Cub Scouts. It wasn't so much like that when I was a Cub.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by alum
Now my son LOVED BS Camp! He wants to go on one of the High Adventure Camps when he is older. The 14+ boys are doing the Northern Tier trip this summer.

I took the family to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico for a week this past summer. Absolutely awesome!

I was there for some training, but they had programs for the whole family, from the (then-) 4-year-old. Interestingly, it was Ms. MysticCat who came away the most impressed. Having had no brothers, she had little experience with BSA except through me and my family. She came away ready to get involved and really sold on the program.

We were across the road from where the crews left for treks in the back country. Ms. MysticCat wanted to make sure my son got to see all of that so he would know what he had to look forward to when he's old enough.

[alum]

Originally posted by MysticCat81
My daughter (5) has a "Cub Scout Lil' Buddy" tee-shirt she loves to wear, and we have an "honorary" den member -- the little brother who comes to everything. We actually gave him an honorary award at Blue and Gold last year. He'll be a Tiger next year.

We've really enjoyed the family aspect to Cub Scouts. It wasn't so much like that when I was a Cub.

Is your daughter a Daisy? I never liked pack meetings. Too chaotic. Den meetings were okay.

[MysticCat]

Originally posted by alum
Is your daughter a Daisy?

Not yet. Around here, girls seem to start with Girl Scouts when they start kindergarten, which will be in the Fall for her.

I never liked pack meetings. Too chaotic. Den meetings were okay.

You need to come to our pack meetings. We never have a plain old meeting, and usually the only times we meet at the sponsoring church for the pack meeting is for the Pinewood Derby (this month), Blue and Gold (February), and Graduation (May or June). Otherwise, we go do something -- go bowling or swimming as a Pack (and earn the beltloops), go on a nature hike, do a service project, go to a museum or planetarium, go on a hayride, or the like. The actual meeting part is short and usually held in the parking lot of wherever we have gone (we pull flags out in the parking lot and everything), followed by the activity. We try to keep it fun and, as one of our leaders says, "keep the 'outing' in 'Scouting.'" As a result the boys (and their families) look forward to Pack Meetings, and it's never the same thing over and over.

[alum]

Originally Posted by carnation

I just remembered this thread because last night, our son was inducted into the Order of the Arrow! (As a Pi Phi, I was thrilled by all the "arrow" items he was given!) Anyway, he's well on his way to Eagle rank and his younger brother is right behind him.

My 7th grader was elected (not inducted until Ordeal) into OA a couple of nights ago. He also earned his Life Scout rank, one of the youngest in his troop to do so. He needs to slow down so he doesn't get earn his Eagle until high school.

As a Kappa myself and as a mother of a Pi Phi, I am really noticing all the Monmouth Duo symbols in BSA.

[ΑΓΔSquirrelGirl]

Boy Scouts are awesome...it's such a good, CLEAN way to have fun. My dad thinks he is still one (he's an assistant scout master, but he gets more excited about finding new campsites or mapping trails on his GPS than my brothers do...he has an outdoors obsession) and he made my brothers stay involved. Some of their best friends were from boy scouts and both will have about all the awards you can get to put on their resume (one has never missed a campout in three years, the other has missed a very few for health reasons) and I know it'll help in college. Eagle Scouts have built some really cool things for their projects around my home town.

On the other hand, I hated Brownies because all we did was fake-sew, decorate cookies, and watch the little mermaid. I wish now, though, that I hadn't been such a stubborn tomboy, because staying in Girl Scouts might've been a really good thing for me.

[AGDee]

I can update now too. My son earned his Arrow of Light at Blue & Gold in February and crossed over to Boy Scouts last week. I didn't think he was going to cross over. He's been fighting me about going to Cub Scouts for the last several years, but then always decided to do it again for one more year. Every year, I gave him the option to quit at the end of the year, with the understanding that if he committed to another year, he had to finish out that year (finish what you start philosophy).

I really didn't think he'd cross over. So, we went to our first Boy Scout Troop meeting on Monday, which was their semi-annual Court of Honor. I thought my son would find it incredibly boring, but he was excited about going and said it was a lot better than Cub Scouts. He liked being around the older boys. He's in 5th grade now. He never wanted to camp with the Cub Scouts after a couple bad day camp experiences and has never spent a weekend away from home without a parent around, but now he can't wait to camp. Go figure. I'm going into Boy Scouts determined not to take a leadership role. I'm not going to fight with him if he doesn't want to go to stuff then. I'm quite relieved to be free of my Assistant Den Leader and Advancement Chair duties. QUITE RELIEVED. I will support him if he wants to continue with Boy Scouts, but am not going to push him. The troop he joined also produces an amazing number of Eagles.

My daughter is now in 7th grade and is working on her Girl Scout Silver Award. She has unwavering dedication to Scouts.

[UGAalum94]

This might be more a question of the type of kid drawn to both, rather than an actual direct benefit, but I've noticed that a lot of the guy students at the high school where I teach who get nominations to national service academies are also Eagle Scouts. I don't hear as much about the Gold Awards, so I don't know if this applies to the girls who go as well.

[macallan25]

Originally Posted by carnation

LOL, FuzzieAlum!

Thank you, John, and thank you all for the great responses y'all are giving us. It's a big decision for us due to time commitments--our son is such an Eagle Scout type but he's already got football and band and church and that doesn't even begin to figure in all his siblings' commitments.

I knew if I just bluntly put the question out there, it was going to sound like, "What's in it for him and to heck with the intangibles"...we just got so frustrated when maybe 1 in 6 college admissions officers even knew what the Gold Award was. Or cared. We'd love for him (and his brothers) to go back into Scouting but it would be sad if all that came from his Eagle was a handful of certificates, which is about all the girls got from the Gold. I want it to be something special for him like you guys have described--both tangibly and intangibly!

I'm not sure if we still do or not.......but Texas used to admit you on the spot if you were an Eagle Scout.

[SAEalumnus]

I agree with everything John said. My Eagle rank has opened more doors than I care to count, including helping to get me in the door of my new career. When the co-owner of the company who is interviewing you happens to have a son of his own in Scouting and sees 'Eagle Scout' listed on your resume, you're guaranteed definite consideration for the job. It'll be up to your son's own determination to complete all of the requirements, but if he can accomplish that, he'll find later projects and deadlines in college and in his professional life far easier to manage.

Originally Posted by John

Attaining the rank of Eagle is one of my most proud accomplishments. Becoming an Eagle Scout isn't just about reaching the "top" - it's about all the experiences along the way. I wouldn't trade those experiences or memories for anything.

I was very active in scouting from when I was 11 until around the time I started college. I was also quite active in school activities as well - clubs, sports, prez of the honor society, etc. In my opinion, being active in scouting and being active in extracurricular activities didn't really compare. In the long run, scouting has benefited me far more than anything else I was involved in at the time. I believe that the man I have become is in large part due to the experiences and values that I learned as a scout. Scouting has truely had a big impact on my life.

Expense-wise it isn't too bad. But I suppose that depends on a few things. Class A uniform along with several scouting related t-shirts for when only a class B uniform is needed. You'll need to buy those a few times as your son grows out of the clothes. Camping equipment - the sleeping bag & backpack will probably be most costly of all the equipment. Good hiking boots if the troop does any long hiking trips. Cost for summer camp & weekend camping trips. Depending on the size of the troop there will probably be older kids who already grew out of some uniforms, so you can get them for free. Some troops can cover the cost of dues (I believe it was $1 a week), the weekend camping trips and a good portion of summer camp expenses for the scouts with fundraisers.

Significance / recognition: I don't know much about how things are in girl scouting or the differences between girl scouting & boy scouting, but back when I was a scout a number of people had told me that being an Eagle Scout was given significant consideration by college admissions staff. My personal example of this, not related to college admissions: I accomplished quite a bit in high school - high grades, honors classes, president of the honor society, varsity scholar, a distinguished scholars award.... none of that seemed to garner much recognition from the community "higher ups" such as the mayor, etc. On the night of my Eagle Scout court of honor I received letters & certificates of recognition from all kinds of people including the mayor, state senators, local organizations (such as the VFW), local business executives and even from Bill & Hillary Clinton. I have a filing cabinet drawer full of this stuff.

Now for something more directly related to college admissions - at one point I was seriously considering an application to the Air Force Academy. I did a lot of research into it and ultimately decided that was not what I wanted to do. But while I was still considering the possibility, through scouting contacts it took only a few days to secure my congressional nomination to the Air Force Academy "just in case" I decided to apply.

Aside from all that & more about scouting in general - not all troops are the same. I feel as though I was fortunate to be in a very active & successful troop. The troop put out a good number of Eagle Scouts, we won top awards at scouting events - but more important than all of that, we had the best times. I've seen troops which were run like military units, or like schools outside of school - our troop was not like that. Along with summer camp for a week in the summers we also spent another week camping in west virginia, we went skiing in the winter, the troop spent a weekend camping on an aircraft carrier, one halloween weekend we spent in Salem, MA (what better place to spend halloween?), we met and served as honor guard at an event for Henry Kissenger. Myself and a friend from my troop went to the 1989 national scout jamboree, with our council's jamboree troop, where during one of the events Steven Spielberg told a huge audience about the "movie" he made while working on a scout merit badge - how scouting influenced his life and how when he became an Eagle Scout was one of the proudest moments in his life. We camped on an airforce base (for around $1 a day, not per person but for the entire troop!) for about a week while hiking around Washington, DC, and we can't forget about the co-ed camping trips with the girl scouts - they were always fun times... and the list goes on...

I have never once heard from anyone I know or knew that they regretted the time they spent in scouting. I have heard many times from friends who weren't in scouting that they wished they had joined.

Becoming an Eagle Scout may not be the determining factor that gets your son into college, or earns him financial-aid/scholarships. But it can be a significant help. And not only could your son list being an Eagle Scout on his college applications, future job applications, scholarship applications - there are also scholarships specifically for Eagle Scouts.

But regardless of all that and whatever other life benefits the rank of Eagle may bring -- the scouting experience in an of itself is enough to say that getting involved in scouting is a great thing to do.

[alum]

Hate to brag (who am I kidding, I am so proud) that our son successfully completed his Order of the Arrow Ordeal this weekend! He collapsed due to exhaustion all afternoon as soon as he got home, but he was very excited for the couple of minutes he was awake. The size of the Arrow on the sash will be sure to be noticed by his Pi Phi sister when she returns home for the summer!

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by alum

Hate to brag (who am I kidding, I am so proud) that our son successfully completed his Order of the Arrow Ordeal this weekend! He collapsed due to exhaustion all afternoon as soon as he got home, but he was very excited for the couple of minutes he was awake. The size of the Arrow on the sash will be sure to be noticed by his Pi Phi sister when she returns home for the summer!

That's excellent! My son went on his first camping trip with the troop this weekend and had a blast. They had a "reverse camp" where they started with closing ceremonies, had dinner for breakfast and did something called "uncooking" which he couldn't explain because he was too tired. It was his first time sleeping in a tent too and he thought that was very cool.

[alum]

My guy did Arrow of the Light as a CS several years ago and still has his Arrow hanging in his room. Now that he's been a BSA member for 2 years and met all the reqs; he was elected to OA. Arrow of Light is a great opp! Your kiddo is well on his way to a succesful, productive Scouting Career!

Scouting was wonderful for my daughter and so far, it has been great for my son. From what she tolde me, all of her college interviewers referenced her Gold Award Project and asked her to elaborate.