Virtual Citizenship in the Community Merit Badge

What: Citizenship in the Community focuses on teaching scouts the importance of being strong, positive, contributing members of their community by focusing on the importance of contributing and taking action. Throughout the course, scouts will learn what this means and actively participate in their community.

 Meet your Counselor - My name is Nicole Pavao and I am a mom of a scout in our local community. I hold a Bachelor of Science degree in Human Resources and later returned to school to obtain a dual MBA in Healthcare Informatics and Healthcare Management. During my time in my undergraduate career, I found my love for History and as a result, my love for the Citizenship Merit Badges. I have been involved in scouting for almost a decade and have been teaching Merit Badges for nearly 5 years. I truly enjoy working with scouts and hearing their perspectives during our sessions.

WHO: Open to all Scouts BSA members.

HOW:  This Merit Badge will be taught in a virtual classroom. The class has a capacity of 15 Scouts. Small classroom size provides all students with the opportunity to share and interact with the counselors and other Scouts. Scouts should be prepared to be challenged and to join the conversation! Participants who do not engage with the class may not receive credit for the badge. Scouts must be prompt for all badge sessions. Late participants may not receive credit for all requirements. Scouts must use a device with video to access this class.

Before beginning work on any merit badge, scouts are to have a discussion with their unit leader regarding the specific badge and counselor.

WHEN: This class will be held virtually over two sessions:

August 15, 2020 10:00AM-12:00PM EST.

August 29, 2020 10:00AM-12:00PM EST.

Scouts must attend both sessions to complete the offered requirements.

After registering, Scouts will receive a link and login information via email the day of scheduled class. Scouts will also receive instructor details that can be used to connect to the counselor on Scoutbook. This assures that completed requirements are easily recorded. 

PREREQUISITES:  Requirement 5 and Requirement 8.

Suggested supplies/prep-work for students:

Pen and paper or some way to take notes and jot down homework.

Complete and prepare requirement 5 ahead of the first session so that we can discuss during session 1. (PDF of suggested movies attached)

Please do not feel obligated to choose one of these films - the list is only to serve as a jump off point. 

Prepare a presentation as outlined in requirement 8. We will start these during the first session but likely will not be able to complete them. 

I strongly recommend also getting a jump start on requirement 7. This requirement asks you to choose a charitable organization in your community and complete service hours. Following appropriate social distancing guidelines, service hours can be completed and confirmation submitted via letter from a scoutmaster, assistant scoutmaster or advancement chair. If the service hour requirement is not complete, it will result in a partially earned badge. This can be signed off on at a later date.