Becoming an Eagle Scout is something that many aim for and few take the shot. The Heart of America Council states “only 4% of Scouts have earned this rank.”

The journey is vigorous, taking years to complete for those who are truly driven. This process was no different for Woodland senior Arthur Schultz who started as young as possible, he was always aiming for an honor of which most can only dream. 

“I started my Scouting career in first grade as a Tiger rank Cub Scout, and I’ve been a Scout ever since that point,” Schultz said. “I recently aged out in October.”

He wasn’t entirely sure he was actually going to get Eagle at one point. 

“When I was around 13 or 14 I took a very large break where I didn’t do anything towards advancements or merit badges for a solid two years.”

 At this point in his life he was still showing up to Scouts every week and helping the younger Scouts learn new skills and advance themselves.

He also had a lot on his own plate. 

His grandmother wasn’t doing great, and this fact weighed heavily on his shoulders as he was very close with her, he wanted to see her at any chance he got and often skipped other activities to be with her. 

In May 2016 his grandmother passed away at age 64. 

“I wanted to become the first Eagle Scout in my family because when I was in my slump of not doing requirements, my grandma passed away and she said, ‘Get Eagle for me’, so I did exactly that.”

Now being driven by his newfound motivation to reach Eagle, he was moving faster than ever towards completing his paperwork and project. Once getting his Eagle Scout, he could finally rest easy knowing he completed what most people won’t be able to. Through his journey there were many people who helped him in one way or another, whether it was his father and Scoutmaster guiding him through his paperwork or his friends cheering him on and keeping the vibes good during the meetings. 

“I would say my best friends-my dad a lot-my scout master, and one of my friends from the Cheshire troop are the people who helped me most along my journey,” Schultz said.

Being a Scout is something that many people take in high regard when they look back on their childhood since you can only be a Scout until you are 18 years of age. That doesn’t necessarily mark the end of your Scouting career; there are still many ways that you can play an active role in Scouting even after turning 18 or, as Scouts refer to it, “aging out”.

Schultz plans to stay active in his hometown troop, Troop 258 from Prospect, and is currently filling out paperwork to become an adult leader now that he is 18.

He plans to use skills he learned in Scouts in his future to help others like he has done in the past through his Scouting career. “In the future, I plan to use some of the skills I’ve learned in Scouts, such as first aid, since I still go on hikes and people still get hurt; someone needs to know how to fix them up,” said Schultz. “I’m also planning to use my skills to teach younger scouts.”

In Scouts there are 139 merit badges a Scout can earn; of that number Schultz achieved 55 of them.

Each one represents a different skill that he had learned and showed that he actually understood it, out of all of those merit badges, two in particular stood out to him. “I earned a lot of merit badges when I was a scout but the most useful one for me was swimming since I wasn’t a good swimmer before I got the badge but it helped me learn how to swim,” Schultz said. “And I’ve also learned a lot about engineering which will help me in my future career a lot.”

The future is looking bright for Schultz as he plans to use his background from his Engineering merit badge to help him with his college plans of becoming a biomedical engineer.  

Schultz also gives credit to Scouts for shaping who he is today, “Scouts has really affected who I am today because I’ve grown up knowing and living by the Scout Law and Scout Oath ever since I can remember, so being raised to follow that from such a young age has really helped me grow as a person.” 

The Scout Oath and the Scout Law are the two things that every scout pledges to uphold every day and live their life by. Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouts, had written both of those pledges himself and believed that if the entire world lived by the Scout Oath and Scout Law then we would have a perfect society.

With all of the knowledge Schultz has gained from scouts he has become wiser than he was before, thinking back to the advice that older scouts gave him when he was just starting out he wanted to share some of his own.

As the first Eagle Scout in his family, Schultz was driven by his grandmother’s desire for him to strive. “If someone was just starting out on their journey towards Eagle Scout I would tell them that it looks like a lot and it is, but if you break it down it becomes a lot more manageable.”

For Arthur Schultz, reaching the rank of Eagle Scout was more than just completing a checklist of merit badges and paperwork; it was the fulfillment of a promise made to his beloved grandmother, a testament to years of dedication, and a foundation for his future. While he may have “aged out” of the traditional program, his commitment to the principles of the Scout Law and Scout Oath remains. As he steps into his new role as an adult leader, using his learned skills, Schultz will ensure that the wisdom he inherited as a young Scout will continue to guide, shape, and inspire the next generation of Troop 258.

LINKS-

https://www.hoac-bsa.org/blue-elk/eagle-scout

https://www.scouting.org