The Springbank Community Association is preparing to celebrate four high-achieving youth participating in the Duke of Edinburgh Award program at a ceremony on July 23 at the Equestrian Centre in Springbank.
The international award operates in more than 140 countries and encourages self-development for young people ages 14 to 24 years old. Participants are encouraged to set and achieve goals in four categories including physical fitness, skills, community service, and an adventure journey.
The program operates at three award levels including bronze, silver, and gold, with each level presenting an increasing demand – students learn to set and achieve goals and develop a network of mentors, support, and lifelong relationships.
Judi Hunter, an RVS trustee and award program coordinator, said the upcoming ceremony is a celebration of four students' graduation from the silver level of the program.
“It’s really humbling when you see what these kids are doing and their willingness to explore life,” Hunter said of the recipients. “It’s an excellent program in that it develops networking concepts for kids, which is so important in life.”
According to Hunter, the skillset participants garner from the program is invaluable to them, along with mentorship received from program administrators to help students assess whether they have met their respective goals.
“The adventure journey is quite neat too, because a lot of the kids have never done wilderness stuff – it is really powerful for kids,” she said.
As part of the Silver level of the program, each participant is required to dedicate 26 weeks of work in each of the four categories, and then they complete an adventure journey comprised of one day and one night as a practice, and then two nights and three days as qualifying.
“That’s where you are in some unfamiliar area and it tests your ability to manage in unfamiliar surroundings,” she said. “You have to do some training for that, but these kids went on a river trip for their adventure journey. They went down the river, so that was quite an exciting thing for them.”
Hunter added community service is a big component of the program. Altogether, the students must do 26 weeks of work with at least one hour a week in each of the categories.
“They can do more, but they only get to count one hour,” she said. “And then one of those categories, they have to double that, so 52 weeks of contributions [in total].”
She added there are large number of students who are enrolled in the bronze level of the program, which is an increase from when they started the program with only four kids (who have now graduated to the silver level).
“We’re 22 kids now, so we’ve grown quite a bit over this past year, “she said. “It is a treat to work with these kids because these kids are motivated – they're our next generation of leaders.
“I feel privileged to be able to work with them.”
She added all four award recipients are completing their final year of high school and are heading off to university in the fall, and each of them has “quite a career path ahead of them.”
Additionally, two of the four participants are continuing on to the gold level of the program.
“You have a lot of tracking and recording [to do], but it really does build a network of support for the kids in terms of each of their activities,” Hunter said of the time commitment to the program. “They have to align with a mentor to help to [them] as [they] move along this journey.
“Over your lifetime, those contacts are pretty important to you for career paths or for support at university or whatever they choose to do for their contribution in the community.”
Of the participants, Zach Murray, Cole Inverarity, Simon Beler, and Kaelen Hunter have all been accepted into post-secondary institutions to pursue their dreams in engineering, finance, and business.
“Kaelen has been accepted into Stern School of Business at NYU. That is quite an achievement because not many people get in there,” Hunter said.
"These kids are amazing. They’re certainly going to be our leaders in the future no matter where they go in their life, and I see that with our young people coming up in bronze level.”
Hunter added it is a “delight” to work alongside the young achievers and commended them for their commitment and focus to achieve great things.
“You’ve just got to love that energy and that focus because you think, ‘Well, the world is in good hands when we know we have kids like that,’” she said.
