Community College & Extracurricular Dilemma

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’ve been doing Boy Scouts for around 2 years now, and I’m planning on getting Eagle Scout next November. The issue is that I have a math class at my local community college during our PLCs (basically leadership meetings). I’ve been taking off from those meetings lately, and my troop’s scoutmaster recently informed me that during the Eagle Board of Review, they’ll ask you how many PLCs you’ve been to, and if I keep taking off, I might be denied Eagle Scout.

I’m debating whether or not to continue taking classes at my local community college. It provides the most accessible and cheapest classes for me, and my high school accepts it for Dual Enrollment. On top of that, the professor for the next class I’m taking has a lot of research opportunities, and also graduated with a PhD from MIT, and I really want to work with him to advance my mathematics career.

Some of my other options include applying to take classes at a local 4-year college, and trying to find an online program that allows high school students to take college level courses for college credit (most give high school credit).

What’s the best option for me right now? Also, for fellow Boy Scouts, do any of you know how much missing a PLC will affect your chances for Eagle Scout? Even though I’m unable to physically go, I always send input to my scoutmaster.

2

Have you talked to your Scoutmaster about this? Have you talked about how this is the only math class you could take to acheive your goals?

How do the PLCs work? Could someone video record them and you could watch later?
Is there a possibility that the PLC meetings could change dates?

3

@bopper I have talked to my Scoutmaster about this, and he’s okay with it. However, the Eagle Board of Review is conducted by the entire Boy Scout County, and he has basically no control over whether or not I get Eagle Scout, which was why he was worried about this.

Also PLCs are basically meetings where the leaders of the troop (including smaller roles, such as Historian, Quartermaster, etc) discuss activities to due during the meetings of the coming month, as well as possible scout events (camping trips, sailing trips, hikes, biking trips, etc). Despite not physically attending PLCs, I do email the Scoutmaster a good deal of input (usually more than they could discuss at the actual meeting).

And unfortunately, we can’t change the dates for PLCs since they must be at the beginning of the month (so that we could plan it out). Also, Thursday is the only day that works for most people in my troop, and it’s unlikely to be changed to another day of the week just for me.