Boy scouts aged 11 to 17 visited Rensselaer last Saturday to explore the wonders of engineering at Alpha Phi Omega’s Scout Engineering Merit Badge Day. APO, a national co-ed service fraternity, created the six-hour educational event to introduce scouts to careers in engineering and to help them earn their engineering merit badges. Although scouts are usually required to study for one and a half to two months in order to earn a merit badge in engineering, APO successfully condensed that lengthy process into short day-long program.
“It went really well. They all seemed to have fun, and everyone came out with a badge,” said Shaun Mohan, an APO pledge who coordinated the scout day.
After listening to a brief introduction, scouts were divided into small groups to discuss different engineering fields with RPI students and alumni. During the remaining part of the day, scouts had fun learning about important historical contributions of engineers to society and in taking apart telephones to study their inner workings. “The day was a success, and the scouts learned a lot. We were really impressed about the organization of the entire [event],” said Scott Cardish, scoutmaster of troop number 610.
Rensselaer’s APO chapter began planning for Scout Engineering Merit Badge Day back in December. They applied to their fra-ternity’s national office for a Youth Service Grant to cover the cost of materials and supplies, with the expectation that the chapter could probably accommodate inviting between 20 and 40 scouts. Although the national office accepted the proposal and granted the chapter $260 in funding, demand for the event was much higher than they had originally anticipated.
APO eventually invited ninety-four scouts from 10 troops and had to place another 150 applications on a waiting list. “We underestimated the demand [from] the community. The response has been overwhelming, and we hope we can do the project again next semester,” said Gregg Talewsky, vice president of service for Rensselaer’s APO chapter. “It was such a very huge success ... We’re hoping to do this every semester because of that success,” said Manit Limlanai, an APO member. APO also held a similar event for 40 girl scouts in February.
APO was founded as a national service fraternity in 1925 by Frank Reed Horton—then a student at Lafayette College—on the scouting principles of the Boy Scouts of America. A representative from the Boy Scouts sits on APO’s National Board of Directors, but the Boy Scouts do not govern, finance, or affect the policy decisions of APO.
