So you say you want to change the world?

As kids just about everyone tells themselves that one day they will “Change the world.” As kids grow up many will lose that vision for themselves, but a lucky few will keep that vision as a burning passion inside of them for the rest of their lives.

Hi everyone! My name is Gerry Souser and I am honored to be one of the BSA Youth Representatives to the World Youth Forum and World Scout Conference. I am from Alexandria, Virginia and am a member of the National Capital Area Council. I am currently attending Northern Virginia Community College and am studying Social Studies and am planning to transfer to a Leadership Studies Major. I began my scouting career as a Tiger Cub in 2001 and went on to earn my Eagle in 2009. After earning Eagle at a relatively young age I was quickly looking for a new challenge. Venturing was right there to fill the void. I earned my Venturing Silver in 2010 in doing so found a new passion… leadership.  I got involved in starting my Councils Venturing Officers Association where local ventures could come together to share ideas and experiences as well as take part in events. I also attended the National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) and the National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience (NAYLE). After serving on two NAYLE staffs and on the National Venturing Cabinet as a Vice President I thought that my scouting career was just about over until I would have kids of my own in the program.  I am happy to say that I was wrong.

While on NAYLE staff in the summer of 2013 I got to learn a lot about international scouting from the Course Director Armando Agurrie. To this point my only international scouting experience had been visiting the World Jamboree in London in 2007. Mr. Armando told me about the Messengers of Peace program. Messengers of Peace (MOP) was founded in 2011 by WOSM to encourage scouts around the world to work together to bring peace through working together on projects. These projects could be anything under the sun. They can be anything from community development, to working for human rights issues, to service, to training. Upon completion of a project, scouts can log their efforts into scout.org where they can share their accomplishments with other scouts from around the world. To date over 582 million service hours have been logged by Messengers of Peace.

A few weeks after a mountaintop experience at NAYLE I received a phone call from Mr. Armando asking me to help with a new project called the Interamerican Leadership Training (ILT). I was ecstatic to say yes. Baden Powell once said that "Every Boy Deserves a Trained Leader." That quote would be at the heart of ILTs mission. The hope of this training was to bring together scouts from across the Interamerican Region (IAR) for a week of training, networking, and sharing of best practices. A project like this had never been attempted before. With 34 countries in the IAR this would prove to be a daunting challenge. ILT had been in the works for almost three years after a recommendation to Messengers of Peace from Guatemala indicated the growing need for such an event if the Region was going to successfully carry out Baden Powell’s vision. Funding was secured through Messengers of Peace (a 10 year grant for ILT), the United States Fund for International Scouting, and the William “Bill” Hillcourt Foundation.  A staff was put together with some of BSA’s top youth trainers and with consultants from several other IAR NSO’s. Now all that was needed was participants….

When I first heard about ILT the thought was that if there were 20-30 participants from 10-15 different countries the first course would be a great success. In December of 2013 at the first Interamerican Leadership Training there were 67 participants from 33 of the 34 countries in the Interamerican Region! The week was a much bigger success then was ever imagined. It was a week full of learning, sharing, networking, planning, fun, and inspiration! I feel that is safe to say that every single person who left camp on January 1^st was changed. But they were more than changed. They were motivated to share that change with the world through scouting and through their NSOs.

But the story of the Pilot ILT is far from over. As scouts went home, amazing things started to happen. Schools were being built, national trainings were being written and run for the first time, and communities were being changed. But even more than that came out of ILT. An international dialogue had been established. During the course participants were formed into teams for the week. Little did I know how close these teams would become over such a short time and how strong the relationships would stay once everyone had returned home. Far beyond any pre-course expectations a few teams decided to work across borders, languages, and cultures to spread the message of peace. From the Orange Team came Trees for the World, a project for one scout to plant one tree worldwide on April 27^th. On that day it was reported that over 8,000 scouts from 13 countries in 5 Scout Regions planted over 36,000 trees! To date over 13,000 scouts from 18 countries have planted over 50,000 trees and they’re not done yet! The project will happen again on September 27^th of this year. The White Team is currently carrying out their Books for All project with the goal of developing a book donation program as well as strategies for promoting good reading habits worldwide.  They are well on their way.

Scouting gives us all the opportunity to learn, grow, and share. Through all of this I believe that we are changed so that we may change the world. So you say you want to change the world? Scouting is doing just that! I cannot wait to land in Ljubljana in just three days as I continue to learn, to grow, to share, and to see what the world has in store in its future.