My leadership ability has steadily improved throughout my youth. Through stepping outside of my comfort zone, taking advantage of as many opportunities that I could, and committing to a growth mindset, I improved my leadership abilities from a nearly non-existent state in elementary school to now where leadership is one of my core personal strengths.

Senior Patrol Leader

The Senior Patrol Leader is the scout leader of the troop. They plan meetings, lead events, and help to set the direction of the troop. I was the senior patrol leader of my troop the first seven months of 2021. My time as the Senior Patrol Leader taught me valuable lessons about leadership, and helped me to mature into the person I am today. During my term, I helped to transition my troop from online meetings back to in-person meetings, and I led the effort to bring the troop back to the high-speed outdoor-focused group that the scouts wanted.

Recruiting Initiative

Toward the end of the COVID lockdowns, my troop was in trouble. We were steadily losing membership due to the lack of fun activities, and also the scouts who were in the troop were more inexperienced or rusty than usual due to the year without outdoor activities. However, in early 2021, there was hope on the horizon. The lockdowns were nearing their end, and our troop was about to enter its annual recruiting season. With an infusion of eager young scouts into our troop right as we transitioned to in-person activities, we had a great opportunity to rekindle the spirit our troop had before the lockdowns. Knowing that there was no time to waste, I acted quickly to put together a solid recruiting effort. I coordinated with adults, our senior scouts, and various other members of our troop to make sure we maximized the number of scouts we would recruit. In the end, we had the most successful recruiting season in the history of our troop with eighteen new scouts who joined our troop.

Transition from Online to In-Person

Soon after we completed our recruiting initiative, we returned to in-person meetings, where I had to deal with a completely different challenge: an explosion of energy and chaos from young scouts who had been bottling it up for an entire year online. It took my upmost skill and effort to make sure that those first meetings ran smoothly (not all of them did!). However, the chaos died down as we went on our first few camping trips after the lockdown.

Court of Honor

I finished off my leadership term by planning and organizing a ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of the troop and its scouts over the term. At this point, I had learned enough of the intricacies of planning timetables, coordinating with people, and delegating tasks, to make this final event feel more like a reflection of what I had learned and how far I had come as my troop’s Senior Patrol Leader.

Eagle Project

My Eagle project, which I led in summer and early fall 2021, was the single most complex leadership task that I ever completed. My project took me nearly three months of continuous hard work from the beginning of planning to the end of execution. Although Eagle projects vary widely in scope and scale, the one constant standard between all Eagle projects is that Eagle candidates have to display leadership with them.

Planning

When I first started planning, I initially tried to pursue an ambitious project: renovating my church’s outdoor worship space. However, after realizing the practical complications that came with such a project, I decided to instead reorganize my church’s tool shed. This project was the perfect scale and difficulty for me, as I didn’t have to deal with the stresses of satisfying a diverse church body with a revitalized outdoor space, but I still had the challenge of dealing with a shed that had not been reorganized or managed in over a decade. During the project’s planning phase, one of the the most crucial elements was to make in-depth safety plans that would take into account a broad range of hazards and responses to them. I meticulously planned every little detail about safety, including protocol about how hazardous materials would be transported and how to coordinate with emergency services.

Fundraising

After getting my project plan accepted by the church and the local scout council, I moved on to fundraising. To meet the costs of equipment and other items for the project, I needed at least a hundred dollars which I had to fundraise. I then decided to announce my project at a church service, and then set up a donation box afterwards. This strategy worked: within minutes, I had raised over 250 dollars for my project!

Execution

After fundraising was complete, it was time to execute my project. I put in a lot of effort to advertise my project to scouts in my troop, and I was fortunate to quickly receive many volunteers. I planned to execute my project over three days: the first to clear the shed of unwanted materials, the second to clean the shed itself, and the third to reorganize the remaining shed items. When we started executing the project, we made progress so quickly that we ended up only needed two days to complete the project.

Reflection

Overall, my Eagle project served as the largest test of the skills I had been developing as senior patrol leader. The project made sure that each and every every one of my leadership skills, from coordinating plans to leading volunteers during project execution, were tested in a complete real-world scenario. The project also served as an inspiration for me to continue to improve my leadership skills: with my entire leadership skill portfolio having undergone its most complete and concrete test yet, it became striking clear what I needed to improve. I still struggled to shift plans, and I had trouble making timely and sound decisions after receiving conflicting advice. I know I can improve my leadership skills, and I look forward to continue to do so!