AJ stands for Andrew Jackson, our 7th president. His reputation for toughness earned him the nickname "Old Hickory." A hero of the War of 1812, Jackson has appeared on the $20 bill since 1928.

I'm a freshman in college, and an Eagle Scout.

Earning the Eagle Scout Award was probably the biggest achievement of my life. It was even bigger than graduating from high school! How's this possible, you ask?

Well, I watched many people slack off, not do their homework, skip class and they still graduated. I don't know any boy who slacked off and still earned his Eagle.

Hey! What about us girls!?

The highest achievement

The Eagle Scout Award is highly recognized. It's the highest achievement in Boy Scouts. I earned my Eagle Scout award in January of my senior year in high school. That means I was in scouting for 12 years.

I started in Tiger Cubs, the first level of scouting, in the first grade. Tiger Cubs is the entry level for Cub Scouts. It's when most boys join. I earned all the awards and advancements possible; so did everyone else.

Advancing through the Cub Scouts
Here I am receiving my Bear rank in Cub Scouts. Close

When a boy starts Cub Scouts he is first a Tiger Cub, then a Bobcat. After Bobcat, a boy advances to Wolf, Bear, and Webelos.

Webelos starts the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. As a boy completes the requirements found in the Webelos Handbook, he will:

• Work on activity badges;
• Attend meetings led by adults;
• Become familiar with the Boy Scout requirements.

All this leads to the highest Cub Scout award—the Arrow of Light.

After Cub Scouts comes Boy Scouts. There's a big difference between Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts!

The Boy Scout Difference

In Cub Scouts the parents/adults walk the boys through everything—that is why everyone gets all the awards.

In Boy Scouts the adults do very little. The boys run the meetings and organize camping trips. They earn their awards and badges with their own initiative.

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Here I am (in red), supervising Mike for my Eagle project. Supervising My Eagle Project

Here are my friends and family working on my Eagle project. I'm supervising as Mike (right) plants a bush and Alesha (bottom) plants flowers.

By the way, that's my sister Christina standing on the left.

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Compared to the number of boys that join Cub Scouts, few boys go on to become Boy Scouts. A fifth-grader can start in Boy Scouts, and advance through the ranks until he either quits, gets his Eagle, or turns eighteen.

Earning your wings

It takes a lot to earn the Eagle award. It begins when you enter Boy Scouts.

The requirements to earn the Eagle Award (called ranks) must be completed before you turn 18.

Scouts need to meet several requirements in order to earn each rank.

As you advance through the ranks the requirements become more difficult.

Here's how they compare:

• Scout
  Mike and I (left) sit by a creek after a long day of hiking the Rocky Mountain trails at Philmont Scout Ranch, N.M.
• Tenderfoot
• Second Class
• First Class
• Star
• Life
• Eagle

The Scout through First Class ranks require skills needed to survive in the wilderness like fire starting, building things by tying sticks together called lashing and first aid.

The Star through Eagle ranks require leadership roles, hours in service projects and merit badges.

Merit Badges

Merit badges are awards for completing specific requirements. For example, the First Aid merit badge requires the boy to demonstrate his knowledge in first-aid and his ability to perform the appropriate first aid for the situation.

The Star rank requires six merit badges and the Life rank requires five. The Eagle rank requires 21 merit badges!

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The biggest and most demanding requirement is a service project that the scout plans, organizes and leads others in doing. The time spent on the project should total over 60 hours of planning and labor.

When the scout completes all the requirements, he still has one more step..

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