San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
FIRST CLASS OF FEMALE EAGLE SCOUTS STEPS UP
18 girls in S.d.-imperial Council earn prestigious honor, once only open to male Scouts
Dyuthi Vijay is proud to be a boundary-breaker. The Rancho Bernardo 16-year-old was one of the few girls in her grade-school STEM club, she joined the science Olympiad in middle school and she has her sights set on a career in medicine or technology like her parents, who are both engineers.
Dyuthi also is one of 18 girls in the inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in Boy Scouts of America’s San Diego-imperial Council, which held its court of honor ceremony on Feb. 21. After 107 years of offering Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts programs to boys only, Boy Scouts of America opened the door to girls a few years ago. Girls ages 5 to 10 were allowed to join Cub Scouts in January 2018, and in February 2019, girls ages 10-17 could join Scouts BSA, which is the new name for the Boy Scouts troop program.
“It’s important to break that blockade to show that girls are more than just a pretty face and what we wear,” said Dyuthi, who grew up tagging along to her older brother Advaith’s Scout meetings. “There’s always been a stereotype that girls should only be able to do this or that, but being in the inaugural class says to the world: ‘OK, it’s a boys’ club, but now it’s a girls’ club, too.”
Today there are 423 girls involved in Cub Scouts and Scouts BSA troops in San Diego and Imperial counties. Nationwide, there are more than 108,000. Before girls were admitted in 2017, Boy Scouts of America had more than 2 million boys in Cub
packs and Boy Scout troops, so that number of girls is comparatively small, but it’s growing steadily.
San Diego-imperial Council President Stan Miller said girls join Boy Scouts of America for lots of reasons. Many of these girls are like Dyuthi, who grew up in families with Boy Scouts and longed to be part of the organization. Many are already participating in Boy Scouts’ two teen co-ed programs: Venturing and Explorer Scouts. And many wanted the opportunity to earn the Eagle Scout medal, which is prized by both colleges admissions boards and employers.
“The evolution of it was that it came from the bottom up,” Miller said. “Families wanted to have their daughters be part of the program, too.”
Between 2009 and 2018, an average of just 5.7 percent of Boy Scouts nationwide earned the Eagle award. The number is low, Miller said, because most teens are too busy with athletics, school and other interests to devote as much time to Scouting, and the Eagle requirements are rigorous. It can take up to two years to earn the award because it requires 21 merit badges, in addition to serving six months in a leadership position, and the creation, funding and completion of a community service project.
Miller said the older girls who came into Scouts BSA in 2019 may have a slightly higher rate of earning the Eagle award than Scouts in the past because, for many of them that was the reason they joined, so they’re highly motivated. Also, the pandemic’s arrival last year canceled most sports and activities, so Scouts had more time to work on their badge requirements online. These 18 girls represent the local Eagle Scout class of 2020, having completed all their requirements between August 2020 and February 2021.
Alyssa Delgado, 18, of Escondido, was already involved in the Scouts’ Venturing and Explorer programs, but she decided to join Scouts BSA Troop 1649 in 2019 so she could become an Eagle Scout, like her older brother. She finished her community service project just before aging out of the program in January. It was a challenge, she said, because she was juggling Scouting with her senior year at Escondido Charter School. She’ll start classes at Cal State San Marcos in the fall, where she plans to study nursing.
“When I have my mind set on something, I fight for it,” Delgado said. “Becoming an Eagle Scout took some perseverance and drive to get through all the requirements, but definitely it was worth it. It teaches you a lot about yourself and gives you life skills you can use in the future.”
Although Scouts BSA is open to boys and girls, they still have separate troops. There are now 251 girls in 21 all-female Scouts BSA troops in the San Diego-imperial Council. Lori Bende leads one of them, Troop 1667 in Rancho Peñasquitos. The all-girls troop has 26 members, of which four — including Dyuthi — are new Eagle Scouts.
Bende is the mother of 13-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, who were both involved in Cub Scouts in 2018. When there was no all-girls Scouts BSA troop for her daughter to move up to in 2019, Bende started her own. It’s partnered with her son’s all-boys Troop 667. Many of the girls troops in San Diego and Imperial counties have similar “sibling” boy troops. They hold separate meetings but team up for group activities and camping. Bende said she was happy to find that the Boy Scouts curriculum didn’t have to be changed for girls.
“We weren’t sure how they’d assimilate but it’s just Scouts being Scouts,” Bende said. “They work on their skills, they help each other and the ranks are the same. Everyone has the same agenda, whether they’re boys or girls.”
But new Eagle Scout Ashley Schlumpberger, 16, of Fallbrook, said there are some differences between her 17-girl Troop 700 and boys troops. She said the girls in her troop like to talk a lot and sing together, they enjoy mentoring younger girls and they’ve formed close friendships. So when it came time to work on their Eagle Scout projects last year, Ashley and the two other girls in her troop who also earned the Eagle award helped each other succeed.
Alienor Alexander, 17, of Clairemont, was involved in both the Venturing and Explorer Scouts programs before she joined the all-girls Troop 555 in Point Loma in 2019. She had two motivations for signing up: The Eagle Scout award and the opportunity to be in a troop with her best friend Eden Tillotson, who also earned her Eagle award.
Alienor is a senior at San Diego Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical High School and she’s captain of the varsity volleyball team at Madison High in Clairemont. Her goal upon graduating is to earn a degree in global affairs and go to law school so she can help help victims of human trafficking. She believes her Eagle Scout achievement helped her learn leadership skills that she’ll use in future years.
Like many of the other local female Eagle Scouts, Alienor is also involved in Girl Scouts, which has its own prestigious honor called the Gold Award. She’s working toward her Gold Award now and said that while the Eagle Scout award is more widely recognized, she has found that the Girl Scouts’ Gold Award is much more strenuous in its requirements. It involves creating a project that not only solves an existing problem in the community, but is also sustainable.
Carol Dedrich, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts San Diego, said she hasn’t seen much of a decline in membership as local girls have joined the local Boy Scouts council in recent years. Not only are many girls like Alienor involved in both organizations, but many families are still drawn to Girl Scouts’ gender-specific programming.
“We have over 100 years of focus on just girls and what girls need,” Dedrich said. “Girls want to be with other girls and they want the programming that we’ve been so successfully providing because it’s based on girls’ developmental needs.”
One of the local council’s youngest female Eagle Scouts is Lily Hobson, 13, from Troop 5 in Bonita. Like Alienor, Lily is also involved in Girl Scouts. She said she likes both organizations but found the Scouts BSA activities — like camping under the stars rather than in cabins — more exciting. The Bonita Vista Middle School eighth-grader said that she has heard a few snarky and sexist comments from boys in Scouts BSA over the past two years, but most have been welcoming and “pretty chill.”
Earning Scouts BSA’S top achievement at such an early age hasn’t deterred Lily from wanting to stay a part of the organization in future years. Her goal is to mentor the young girls in the lower Tenderfoot ranking to encourage them to set their sights high.
“I want to be there for their journey,” Lily said. “It’s hard. I didn’t do it by myself. There was a whole community behind it. I want to be part of the community that helps them achieve this high honor.”
The inaugural class of female Eagle Scouts in the San Diego-imperial Council are: Amanda Becerra, Lily Hobson, Gloria Ing and Maddy Swingle of Troop 5; Rasma Rotsart of Troop 319; Jessica Musson of Troop 324; Alienor Alexander, Kaya Hoffman and Eden Tillotson of Troop 555; Mimi Meacham, Ashley Schlumpberger and Becka Seefried of Troop 700; Danielle Mccarthy of Troop 984; Alyssa Delgado of Troop 1649; and Radha Carollo, Katrinalou Coleman, Sarah Thomton and Dyuthi Vijay of Troop 1667.