Since its creation in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank marks the ultimate accomplishment in the Boy Scouts of America. It was first awarded in 1912 and has represented the top achievers in Scouting since then.
It requires a Scout to serve as a leader within their troop and in their community, including completing a community service project. They must earn a number of merit badges and successfully complete a board of review to earn the rank. It can be an intense period for anyone seeking the rank.
Five current Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts students have achieved their Eagle Scout — four of them in 2020 while facing the difficulties presented by the COVID-19 pandemic as well. They include:
- Eric Chrisman, a senior from Marion and member of Troop 72 of BSA Chickasaw Council. He was awarded the rank of Eagle in May 2018 after passing his Eagle Board of Review in January 2018.
- Max Green, a senior from North Little Rock of Troop 18. He was awarded his rank of Eagle in September. He completed his Eagle Board of Review via Zoom because of restrictions of leaving campus during the pandemic.
- Reed Karman, a senior from Little Rock a member of Troop 99. He was awarded his Eagle Scout in October.
- Robert Neilson, a junior from Hot Springs and member of Troop 2 of the Quapaw Area Council. He earned his Eagle rank in November.
- Yug Shah, a senior from Marion of Troop 72 of BSA Chickasaw Council. He earned his Eagle rank in March.
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Their projects covered a wide range of interests. Neilson built a raised bed garden at the Jessieville Boys and Girls Club and developed a program teaching club members how to plant and grow vegetable as well as how to care for a garden.
Green’s project involved leading a group of Scouts and other interested people in developing a curriculum to teach experimental design to 8-year-olds through a program at the Museum of Discovery in Little Rock. He was inspired to do the project after serving as a summer camp counselor at the museum.
Green based his project on the popular Pinewood Derby race cars that Scouts race each year. After years of trying to build the fastest car but never winning a single heat, he and his father soon began focusing on design. He noticed younger Scouts often would pick the best looking cars as their favorites to win the derby, even if in the end they weren’t the fastest.
He took this experienced bias and turned it into a method of teaching younger children about how to form and test a hypothesis. Once they gathered data on that hypothesis, they were encouraged to develop another hypothesis and test it again.
“The lesson is that it is important to do the science and not just judge on appearances,” Green said. He said that lesson carried over into his science fair project he is working on with a team of fellow ASMSA students. Their original hypothesis about their experiment didn’t work as they thought it would, so they had to rethink their data and realized it was revealing an effect they didn’t expect.
Chrisman’s project benefited the Marion Animal Shelter. From July to October 2017, he led a donation drive for supplies for the animal shelter. He and other volunteers held drives at two grocery stores and another retail store. Some adult volunteers took donation boxes to their workplace. Boxes were also placed in other businesses.
The supply drive was Chrisman’s second project proposal. His first included finding volunteers to help clean the shelter and to play with the animals so they would be more socialized for adoption. It did not receive approval, but he and other volunteers from his troop still helped clean the shelter and socialize with the animals, he said.
Karman helped reorganize a local community annual workday. He said the community workday normally featured a few people doing a few hours of yard work. He recruited more than 30 people to complete around 130 man hours of work that included staining playground equipment and a bridge across a creek as well as repainting a fence around the pool at a community park.
Shah built a concrete paved patio with metal benches for his local library. He said many people come to the library every day and his project provided them a place to sit outside. The library also holds several community events a year, and the patio provided a place to host outdoor events.
Completing the requirements to achieve Eagle rank is time consuming and involve a large time commitment, not only for the community projects but also earning merit badges and time dedicated serving in a troop leadership position.
So it’s not surprising that almost each of them used one word to describe how it felt to complete the process — “relieved.” Whether it was dealing with the struggles of COVID-19 in addition to the regular stress of the process or just finding the time to finish the requirements in the short time provided, all said they were appreciative of the support they received from volunteers and their families.
Karman was afforded an opportunity most Eagle Scouts don’t get. The Scouts must include letters of recommendation to the Board of Review. Usually those letters are destroyed after the review with the Scouts never able to see what the letters said.
Karman’s Board of Review mad an exception for him. One of his letters of recommendation was from Dr. Jon Ruehle, a biology instructor at ASMSA who died on Oct. 17. The Scout executive allowed Karman to read Ruehle’s letter because of his passing.
“I got to read the letter after the board which was rather emotional for me because I was exceptionally close to him,” Karman said.
Scouting has been a part of each of their lives for a number of years. Green started in Cub Scouts in first grade and has remained a Scout every year since then. Others started in third, fifth or sixth grade.
Each said they will likely try to stay involved with Scouting as adult leaders or community projects. Chrisman participates in the Order of the Arrow, an organization that focuses on community service and allows him to “learn the final lesson of Scouting — giving back to the community.”
