@VickiSoCal Being an Eagle Scout means a long term commitment (you stuck it out), and more importantly, there is a great deal of community service involved. For it us, it was a bonus when we discovered that some colleges give a “bump” for being an Eagle Scout. That said, I think scouting was an endeavor worth doing even without a bump. In addition, to the aforementioned, scouting also teach, leadership and organizational skills.
Team captain & class president indicate strong leadership & communications skills plus sports team captain adds athletic ability; first chair in an orchestra demonstrates talent & hard work. All very valued & sought after attributes
To me, simply being an Eagle Scout has no meaning, but preconceived notions do arise just as when one asserts that he or she is an active Republican or a Democrat…
Some responses came in while I was typing.
What is a “Gold Award” ?
Also, “sticking it out” & “not being a quitter” may be, Devil’s Advocate point of view which is not uncommon, indications that the kid had nothing else to do or lagged behind in social development.
Besides curiosity, I ask because I have many other nephews will follow along their eldest brothers path & stay until they become Eagle Scouts. I want to know how that designation could be presented in a positive light on one’s college applications. Thank you in advance.
hi @Publisher and others. Gold Award is the nickname of the Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest award in Girl Scouting. It’s different from Eagle (different organization) but the commonalities are leadership in a large project in the community and continued involvement in scouting into the high school years. It’s also similar to Eagle in that it is the highest award for Girl Scouts (correct me if I am wrong, BSAers). I know a lot about it because I am a volunteer reviewer of Gold projects in our council.
Thank you for the article, but it did not help. No big deal. Plus, the physical fitness aspect is geared to the individual & of little to no significance.
Again, I am not trying to be impolite. It is important to be able to communicate effectively & meaningfully the significance of achieving this designation.
I honestly never saw that the team captains on my kids’ school teams ever did anything other than the coach liked them and they were a senior. I can’t believe that is equivalent to hundreds of hours of community service and leadership to organize a Gold Award Project. My kids looked at GA and said no way do I have enough time to do that.
A Gold award is the highest award of the Girl Scouts of America. Like the Eagle scout award, it is only earned after many years of work, earning badges and other awards (Bronze and Silver) and doing a large project at the end.
@VickiSoCal , I was answering @Publisher why a school should give an admissions boost to an Eagle scout. Schools can choose to give boosts to team captains or students officers or eagle scouts. It’s up to the individual college what and how much of a boost to give to any EC. A music college admission might care more about being first chair than being an eagle scout, but that’s up to them. As I said above, it’s worth $10 grand at my daughter’s school as an automatic, stackable scholarship. They don’t even have an orchestra so no extra scholarships for that.
The schools Publisher’s nephew applied to obviously didn’t give a big boost to being an eagle scout. I really doubt it is a negative at any school, nor would JrROTC, Civil Air Patrol or other military groups. Or a republican.
Okay, so here is the reason that Eagle Scout designation may create a less than impressive impression.
He stuck it out. He is not a quitter. He did community service because he had to in order to qualify for an award & a designation of Eagle Scout. He or she organized something to get an award & increased status. He had to do a capstone project to get the award and/or designation.
Essentially, Eagle Scout diminishes one’s community efforts to that of a jailbird required to do so by the courts.
It is not from the heart, nor is it self-motivation inspired.
Everything was done for recognition.
@twoinanddone it’s always great to hear about Gold Award recipients getting scholarships, especially the stackable ones. We are working to build a list for our girl scouts. Many of the leadership scholarships are specifically looking for Eagle or Gold Scouts to apply, if you ask at the college, although they don’t have scouting in their online scholarship description. For all of those kids, it’s important to learn to talk about the project and the leadership…maybe @Publisher s nephew didn’t get the message through to his college for some reason.
@thingamajig: Your post above encapsulates the issue succinctly. What message ?
Again, I am trying to help Eagle Scouts & Gold Award recipients who may apply to vast majority of colleges & universities which do not give automatic recognition to these designations based on perceptions that simply confirm the pre-conceived notions of what these designations mean. Why ? Because for many, that meaning is nothing or negative.
Why wouldn’t it be better to just list the community service hours & the community service project than to encapsulate it all in the designation of Eagle Scout or Gold Award ?
Just to clarify, my daughter is not a Gold Award recipient, but her boyfriend is an Eagle scout and did get the money from the school. They’ve just changed the way they award merit. There were 3 levels of merit awards and it used to be that the eagle/gold award automatically qualified the student for the lowest level. Now there are merit awards and the eagle/gold (or robotics team) applicants can also get an extra $2500/yr.
Disagree with Publisher that eagle scouts are just doing it to get the award. Most are in scouting for other reasons and decide to get the eagle because they really enjoy scouting. Does it give a few kids the push to stay to the end? Sure, but so does getting to go to nationals cause some debaters to stay an extra year, or the athlete who is losing interest to play through the end of the season to be in the championship.
My brother was a life scout and didn’t stay to the end. His friend did and I think my brother does have a little regret now.
@Publisher. first of all, love that sentence! “encapsulate”! Now back to the issue. For example, I know Girl Scouts that have built entire educational programs for a church or a local organization. They researched, wrote curriculum, taught multiple groups of people (from preschool to older adults) about the curriculum, gathered a team of adult and peer helpers to accomplish this, logged at least 80 hours of work on the project. Sounds like a fantastic leadership and service achievement when you observe it yourself as an adult. BUT too often, the Girl Scout herself will describe this accomplishment in only the vaguest and overly humble of ways. Such as “I helped out at the church.” WHAT???!!!
It’s actually a pet issue of mine and I am currently brainstorming ways to help the kids take appropriate credit when they do a great job-- both in person in a 30 second “pitch” type speech and also in a written one-two paragraph format. They are (typically) not experienced or skilled at talking or writing about themselves…too many 5 paragraph essays and not enough of anything else, possibly. thanks for the opportunity to rant! BTW, I do not believe Gold or Eagle are magic bullets for college entry, but they’re not nothing either. (not a Gold recipient myself, but I was first chair in the orchestra for three years)
The Eagle Scout/Gold Award shows continuity of commitment over many years, with a capstone project. I know for the Gold Award that project has to be vetted in advance, and has to be something that is an improvement to the community that will continue to be an improvement after the Scout has left scouting. It’s not a one-and-done. And there is a bit of third-party approval (the scouting council, rather than just the individual), so the project isn’t just puffery.
@thingamajig: “encapsulate” means to condense. I guess that you are suggesting that it was redundant with “succinctly” ?
Once you respond in that fashion the rest of your message is lost.
@melvin123: I agree that the projects are not “just puffery”. The issue is that when it is conveyed on one’s college application as an Eagle Scout project or a Gold award project it may become far less significant than warranted when done for a reward such as a designation.
In its best portrayal, it might be stated that Eagle Scouts & Gold Award requirements teach one to become a “good citizen” for recognition & reward.
In my opinion, that does not help the applicant because it still suggests a lack of self-motivation.