Eagle Scout: Strengthening Leadership Skills

Abstract

As part of my scouting experiences, I had the opportunity to lead a group of volunteers for my Eagle Scout project, which required good communication skills and visual and verbal explanations to make the project come together. This experience helped me strengthen my leadership skills and reinforced the importance of communication in successfully getting a project done. These skills are valuable as I pursue my future plans, which involve attending a two-year community college to complete my basic core classes before transferring. In this essay, I would like to share my Eagle Scout experience as an example of how scouting can provide opportunities for personal growth and the development of important life skills. 

Introduction

Starting early in my childhood, I was interested in what my dad did. He is an I.T. manager, so he works with computers and sometimes he brings some home. I remember the first time that I saw a computer I was amazed. He was able to reformat them and make the computers work just like new ones. The first time that he opened up a computer, it was so cool, there were all these parts and wires and it seemed like opening a spaceship. It took a little while, but my dad was able to teach me what each of the parts was and how to put the computer back together. Fast forward to middle school where I entered the computer tech class and the robotics club. Through this, I began learning the software aspect of computers along with the physical aspect that I already knew a little bit about. From this, I found out that I liked the physical aspect of computers rather than the software aspect, which I learned a lot about in the robotics club. Being apart of it helped me look at the physical aspect of computers and engineering that I really enjoyed. Ever since then I’ve been really interested in technology and design.

I have grown in my problem-solving abilities as a student. From freshman year until now I have been doing problem-solving if were for projects, homework, or presentations. Throughout my high school career, I have seen the challenges that I have had to face and I would try different methods that I have learned to solve the challenges that I had come across.

One of the first things that show my problem-solving skills is the granny flat project of freshman year. We were given a project, but we only had a certain time frame to do it. I was still trying to figure out how to do things with the AutoCAD program that we were using, but once I was able to get past that problem I was able to finish the project and have enough time to review it to make sure it was correct. Another example of this was in a junior year where we were assigned an EPICS project, and the idea behind it was to find a company or group and to find something that they needed. Then, we would design that product for them, and make sure that it was what they wanted, then we would build it for them. The reason this is a good example of my strength is that we were given a base prompt for the project and then we had to go from there. We had to find a beneficiary, design a project, and then put that plan into action. Even though there was a little bit of a struggle to get it done, I believe that it was one of my strengths.

Eagle Scout 

Communication is one thing that I continue to work to grow. I have gotten better at communicating through my years of school and I continue to try and improve my ability to do that. My ability to communicate has gotten better so that I have been able to help get points across to work on a project that required me to only communicate to the workers.

In my Eagle Scout project, I was required to communicate, which helped me build up my ability to do it better than I have been able to before. I used good communication as well as visual and verbal explanations of what they needed to do to make the project come together. I think that no matter what I am trying to get done communication is a key point to successfully get a point across or getting a project done.

I have really good leadership skills, mostly because of my scouting experiences. Thanks to Boy Scouts I was able to attend leadership training and strengthen my leadership skills into what they are today I was able to use those, to communicate in group projects or during building things I am able to take control of the situation and delegate jobs to others.

A good example of this was my Eagle Scout project. For my project, I came up with the idea for the project and the design, but I was not able to do any physical work. I had to lead a group of people that were volunteering to help me. I used good communication as well as visual and verbal explanations of what they needed to do to make the project come together. Successfully we were able to finish the project and I think that a big part of that was due to the good leadership that I have because without that no one would have known what to do or what was going on.

No matter what it is I am constantly growing my skills. One major one that I have seen a lot of growth with is my ability to build and execute things. Starting from my sophomore year it was hard to put things together because I was just getting used to the process of building and creating things. As I went through school, I have been able to try and perfect my ability to do this and turn it into one of my strengths.

In sophomore year I made an oven pulled out of wood as one of my projects. When I started this I wasn’t very confident because I was going to be using tools I had never seen or used before. I was kind of scared to use the machines which showed in the product of my work. As I used the machines and got used to them, I was able to put out better projects and products. In junior year, we had a project to make a toolbox. I was much more comfortable with the tools and using them without hesitation. I used the saw, nail gun, and laser engraver and with the information that I had learned throughout the last year, I was able to use and make the outcome of the project so much better.

After high school, I plan on going to a two-year community college to get my basic core classes out of the way. After I finish community college, I plan on transferring to a four-year college to work toward my master's in computer engineering (Transfer). While I attend college I will be applying for internships and jobs to learn a little more about the job that I want to go into (Google).

I decided to go to community college first because I have found out that students going straight into a four year were not able to get the core classes that they needed, so they were going to the community college (Boyington). Also, by going to community college first I will be able to transfer to a four-year college that will best suit the career path that I want to go into.

Conclusion

Overall I have found out that I have great leadership and problem-solving skills, and that my communication and building/execution skills need some more work. My future plans are to go to college, while attending an internship, working towards my major in aerospace engineering and a minor in business. After graduating, I plan to obtain a job with an engineering company that I can show my strengths and build upon my skills of engineering.