Hornaday Award

[scouter01]

I noticed that it is a really rare award. Does anyone know why it is?

[PaulSWolf]

I assume you mean the WILLIAM T. HORNADAY awards. The main reason they are so rare is that the requirements are quite high. For example, the Silver medal requires 6 specific and three other environmental merit badges, and FOUR significant projects in natural resource conservation or environmental improvement, each of a level comparable to the Eagle Project (which can be one of the four). The successful attainment of the youth awards will normally take at least 18 months to accomplish.

For more information, see: http://usscouts.org/advance/boyscout/Hornaday.html

[scouter01]

Oh ok i didn't relaize that they were huge projects. Ithought they were minor projects but know i see otherwise.

[jr56]

My son earned his Bronze Hornaday award. Each of the conservation projects is equivalent to an Eagle project, and he did 4 .

[scoutaholic]

My son earned his Bronze Hornaday award. Each of the conservation projects is equivalent to an Eagle project, and he did 4 .

If he did 4 projects, then he should have qualified for the Silver award, unless he didn't have enough MBs for the silver. It seems that he did a lot of work to get the bronze when he was so close to getting silver.

[jr56]

Hi,
My son actually did all the merit badges and service projects, and applied for the Silver. But, the way the Hornaday award works, is a national committee reviews the write ups and determines if they are 'worthy" of the award. In my sons case, the committee decided he did not measure up to the standards for the Silver award, and decided to award him the Bronze. He did his best, and I am proud that the committee decided his accomplishments were worthy of recognition. Since only about 20 Hornaday medals are awarded per year, it's quite an accomplishment.

[Billiken]

This past weekend at C-13-08 (Wood Badge) one of the five other patrols gave an excellent presentation on the Hornaday Awards.

My son has expressed interest in working on his Ad Altare Dei after making Eagle (maybe late 2009).
I think I'm also going to show him and the older Scouts in the troop information on the Hornaday program.

[AquilaNegra2]

JR, is he eligible to do another project, then resubmit for his Silver?

[Billiken]

wagionvigil:

Could you possibly correct this thread's title?

[wagionvigil]

Got it I think!

[scouter01]

blast from the past lol. I currnetly plan on doing an eagle project and using it to get the hornday badge ( not the medal)

[AquilaNegra2]

Hi,
My son actually did all the merit badges and service projects, and applied for the Silver. But, the way the Hornaday award works, is a national committee reviews the write ups and determines if they are 'worthy" of the award. In my sons case, the committee decided he did not measure up to the standards for the Silver award, and decided to award him the Bronze. He did his best, and I am proud that the committee decided his accomplishments were worthy of recognition. Since only about 20 Hornaday medals are awarded per year, it's quite an accomplishment.

JR, can you share what his projects were and which one did not meet the standard? My eldest is working on his Eagle right now, but plans to earn the Hornaday Silver in the 18 months after that. He has an inter-related project planned covering two categories, but with much of the work overlapping. It's HazMat battery recovery and education, combined with computer parts recovery (resource recovery). Both are "recommended" projects, but now I'm wondering whether they will be found worthy. Did they give you a reason that it was turned down? And advice from your son for him?

Thanks in advance.

[scoutaholic]

Hi,
My son actually did all the merit badges and service projects, and applied for the Silver. But, the way the Hornaday award works, is a national committee reviews the write ups and determines if they are 'worthy" of the award. In my sons case, the committee decided he did not measure up to the standards for the Silver award, and decided to award him the Bronze. He did his best, and I am proud that the committee decided his accomplishments were worthy of recognition. Since only about 20 Hornaday medals are awarded per year, it's quite an accomplishment.

JR, can you share what his projects were and which one did not meet the standard? My eldest is working on his Eagle right now, but plans to earn the Hornaday Silver in the 18 months after that. He has an inter-related project planned covering two categories, but with much of the work overlapping. It's HazMat battery recovery and education, combined with computer parts recovery (resource recovery). Both are "recommended" projects, but now I'm wondering whether they will be found worthy. Did they give you a reason that it was turned down? And advice from your son for him?

Thanks in advance.

You may be interrested to check out this scout: http://www.bsa-ciec.org/openrosters/vie ... kkey=21154

The article is about his earning all the merit badges, but it also mentions some information about his earning both Bronze and Silver Hornaday awards.

He earned the Bronze (turned down for silver) and was given some guidelines to improve on another project. After doing that, he was awarded the silver. I've never heard of anyone else earning both Bronze and Silver.

[AquilaNegra2]

Nationwide, 500 to 600 scouts apply annually for this award � while on average approximately three are awarded the Silver Medal and five to six are awarded the Bronze Medal per year.

Can this be correct? 8 out of 500? That represents almost 2000 projects that were TURNED DOWN? How incredibly discouraging for all those Scouts.

[Quailman]

I think the 500 to 600 figure is for the Award (awarded on a council level) plus the medals. That's not the only misleading statement. To earn the Silver Medal, the scout must earn the 6 core merit badges plus 3 others, for a total of 9 - not "up to another 20 merit badges" as the article said.

What amazed me the most was when you combine everything he's accomplished in scouting with the GPA he maintained and the 8 varsity letters, he only got wait-listed at Stanford.

[AquilaNegra2]

Phew. Thanks, Quailman. That makes a lot of sense. And is a big relief to #1.

As far as being waitlisted, he went to a small private school. And he's Caucasian. Maybe his SATs weren't high enough in Math. Or his interview tanked. Or Stanford considered him too conservative. You never know. (I was awarded a partial scholarship there back in the day -- had more to do with who I knew than anything else.)

[jr56]

The hornaday award committee doesn't specify. They review the project book and make their decision. My son and I are honored that he was considered worthy of the Bronze award.

[AquilaNegra2]

As you (pl.) should be, JR. Does this mean that he turned them all in at the same time? They aren't turned in as they're done?

[jr56]

No, after all the projects are done, they are compiled into a big notebook, or notebooks, and then the application is filled out, listing all the merit badges that have been earned, along with unit leader signatures, and the signature of the conservation officer in charge of all the projects. The whole thing is packaged up and sent to Texas. In my sons case, this was done in mid- October and the Hornaday committe had just met the previous month. Since the committee only meets twice a year, he had to wait until the following April before he heard back from national. The paperwork was filled out and application was made for the Silver award, but the committee decided to award the Bronze instead. They are quite tough when awarding this.

[smtroop168]

It appears that our site gouge on the Badge requirements is incorrect. It does not list ESci as one of the 3 required badges to pick from the list of 6. The Medals pull it out as a separate requirement but the Badge allows the scout to use it as one of the 3.

Craig...can you correct it?

Thanks.