Zion Lancaster
For generations, the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America have aimed to instill crucial skills and values among millions of young people, including numerous students at Aragon. Through a variety of activities and projects, scouts on campus nurture these values and become better prepared to tackle problems they may face in the real world.
Within the Girl Scout and Boy Scout organizations, youth are taught the importance of leadership, teamwork and unity. Senior Zoe Neil has been an active Girl Scout ever since kindergarten and credits the organization for the morals and values they continue to practice today.
“I got involved in Girl Scouts when I was in kindergarten through my church,” Neil said. “It really [helped] cement a sense of character … The ability to take initiative and make mistakes and learn from them is an incredibly useful skill.”
Neil’s troop has taken on a plethora of community service projects over the years, giving scouts the chance to step into positions of leadership. In middle school, Neil led a project that promoted an enthusiasm for reading within their school’s library program.
“As a kid, it was honestly a dream come true to leave society for two weeks and connect with nature”
“I wanted to encourage literacy,” Neil said. “I made a bunch of little book review cards that [were put] all around the library. Students could see [them] and hopefully get more engaged with that book, and there were other placards that were like, ‘If you like this book, you might also like this book.’ It [was] so cool to get people to expand their tastes … I was so proud of accomplishing that project.”
In addition to community service projects, scouts place great importance on survival skills. Through hiking and camping trips, scouts experience various outdoor tasks that teach them to survive in the wilderness.
“You learn a lot of the stuff you might see on … survival TV shows, like knots, first aid, how to start fires [and] how to use a compass,” said senior Ryan Xu, a member of Foster City’s Troop 24047.
Xu’s troop also practices outdoor cooking as part of their survival training.
“It’s a pretty important skill to have,” Xu said. “Also, you get to learn to make food that you might make at home. We’ve made fried rice, peach cobbler, pizza and all sorts of [food] on camping trips.”
Through these camping trips, scouts also receive unique opportunities to explore and enjoy nature, all while making memories.
“We have something called ‘adventure scouts,’ which is more high-adventure scouting,” said senior Nick Schick, who has been a Boy Scout since elementary school. “There’s four different places around the U.S. called high adventure bases, which are more intense, in-depth wilderness. There’s one in New Mexico, which is … 240 million acres. It is the largest camp of any type in the world [and] it’s absolutely beautiful. I climbed up to … Mount Baldy, and you can see literally no civilization for miles. It’s just this gorgeous expanse of New Mexican mountains.”
“Now it’s more accepting and more people can experience it”
Junior Sacha Perlson has also had memorable experiences in nature alongside her fellow scouts.
“I used to do Girl Scout sleepaway camps, and my favorite one was at Skylark Ranch,” Perlson said.
During the two week long camp, Perlson and her fellow scouts had to survive on their own out in the wilderness with limited resources.
“We had to make our own beds … out of twine called ‘tree beds,’” Perlson said. “We made our own breakfast, lunch and dinner [and] had an all-night bonfire … that we would roast turkey with. As a kid, it was honestly a dream come true to leave society for two weeks and connect with nature … I’ll always remember that camp.”
Although these organizations are known for their positive roles in communities, they have not been without flaws. For example, the Boy Scouts of America used to be a much more exclusive organization than it is today, only allowing boys to become scouts and excluding members of the LGBTQ+ community.
However, the organization decided to do away with these exclusions, allowing kids and teenagers of all genders, backgrounds and sexualities to join the program.
While many were apprehensive about the sudden change, Schick found the organization’s increased inclusivity to be purely positive.
“[The organization] is exactly the same, except now it’s more accepting and more people can experience it,” Schick said.
In recent years, the Girl Scouts of America have also become more inclusive and welcoming than before.
“We have three non-binary scouts in our troop, including myself,” Neil said. “Girl Scouts has an excellent reputation of supporting LGBTQ+ issues and upholding gender inclusivity. Trans and gender non-conforming scouts, regardless of their assigned gender at birth, are welcomed by Girl Scouts of Northern California. I think this beautifully represents how safe spaces for girls are not necessarily synonymous with girl-only safe spaces, calls for which so often perpetuate transphobic rhetoric.”
Through the activities and lessons the Boy and Girl Scouts of America conduct, millions of kids and teenagers have gained values that will stick with them into adulthood, and set them up for successful, impactful lifetimes as leaders and community members.
