In high school there are rites of passages a student goes through before graduating: doing a senior project, writing the Big Academic Research Paper (BARP), taking personal finance and more. Rites of passage are not limited to big assignments, though. Some students, like senior Spencer Polk, have passed through the rite of earning the rank of Eagle Scout.

“I knew when I was little [I wanted to become an Eagle Scout],” Polk said. “My dad had gotten it and I saw it as an honor to get something like [an Eagle Scout].”

Becoming an Eagle Scout is not easy. The final leap to become an Eagle Scout is the Eagle Project. Senior JJ Toy is currently a Life Scout, the step before Eagle Scout, and is working on his project to become an Eagle Scout.

“The hardest part of becoming an Eagle Scout is the Eagle project,” Toy said. “This is because you have to give leadership to complete a project that benefits the community in some way.”

Though the projects are demanding, they can seem less cumbersome to accomplish because each scout picks what they want to do. Polk built a flower bed for a retirement home and Toy built a trophy case for the band room. For these projects, the scout must organize every aspect of the project.

“[It was hard] to grow up and be a leader of the whole thing,” Polk said.

Becoming an Eagle Scout put Polk and Toy into an intense leadership position. For Polk, his project took about three months of planning and two days of execution. During the construction of the flower bed, Polk had about ten people helping him. These ten people required Polk as a leader to give specific instructions. Toy faced a similar situation as he executed his project.

“The project includes a lot of hard work, and as the one in charge, you need to be able to know exactly what is going on in every part of it to give leadership to the others who help you with it,” Toy said.

The projects are not executed and planned perfectly. Polk had trouble at first ordering the correct parts to the flower bed.

“I learned that when I messed something up or when I do something bad, I should take responsibility for it,” Polk said.

Toy also found the small parts of the project to be important.

“If you look at the trophy case, all you see is the main pieces of wood, the glass, and the shelves,” Toy said. “But there is so much more to the case in terms of wood that can’t be seen; the specific type that was needed, and the countless screws, nails and staples we used throughout it.”

Through this hard work and mistakes came the development of character.

“Before I was shy talking to adults and as a result would come across as sneaky,” Polk said. “From making a lot of phone calls, I learned to speak up and became a lot better leader from [the process].”

After becoming an Eagle Scout, Polk continues to be involved with the process with his troop. His senior project is creating a scholarship for Westside Eagle Scouts as they graduate high school.