Washburn University has recently been the host for the merit badge College program for the Boy Scouts of America, more specifically, the councils that reside in the Midwest. According to Keith Mazachek, the college has been the location for the program beneficial for the University and Scouting program alike. “The University could get more students: scouts who may want to come to college here in the future,” according to Pam Cross, a mother of Scouting.

As far as the quality of the program, Washburn seems to offer a wide verity of merit badge classes for the scouts to attend in order to broaden their perspective of life skills. Some of these merit badges include Citizenship in the community, Nation, and World, Journalism, Art, Weather, and Energy merit badges.

For the first time, the college has offered a trifecta of personal management, Personal Fitness, and Family Life merit badges, all qualitative life skills that are essential for young people to know, Michael Bascon, a faculty member of the university, states,” it’s very organized. Washburn does very well with the program.”

All in all, the program seems to benefit the scouts and the college. The scouts get an introspective on the facilities and are able to familiarize themselves to a post high-school education environment along with attaining merit badges that will not only contribute to their trail to Eagle Scout, but also to just having well-rounded life skills in general.

The university also has the potential for gaining more students in the future and it gives many faculty members the experience of learning about scouting culture and maybe if they or their children want to get involved in the program for the future.