BY MIRANDA FERRANTE
Staff Reporter
SHRUB OAK, N.Y.—Lakeland High School senior Sean Kowatch has called Cortlandt Manor home since moving from Yonkers just before starting kindergarten. He began his scouting journey in first grade with Yorktown Heights’ Cub Scout Pack 38 and fondly recalls the Pinewood Derby races, where designing and building his own car sparked a passion for creativity, design, and building.
Kowatch became an Eagle Scout and completed his board review in April. He said he’ll be sworn in during a Court of Honor ceremony but is waiting for a friend to finish the process so they can receive the honor together.
In the first weeks of his senior year at Lakeland High School, Yorktown News caught up with Kowatch, who has earned 36 merit badges across various disciplines, to discuss how his years in the Boy Scouts have shaped his character and ambitions.
As you kickstart your senior year at Lakeland High School, what are some of your favorite memories in the district? At school, I tried to get involved with as many clubs as possible to meet new people. One club that I loved working with was the Stage Crew. I was able to work with lots of different people involved in the arts, all with their own talents and skills, to create sets and props for our school productions such as Alice in Wonderland. I also sharpened my woodworking skills, which came in very handy for my Eagle Project.
I’m very grateful for the friends and memories I’ve made in these clubs. I’m also very grateful for the teachers I’ve had at Lakeland—they have all been supportive, used fun yet effective teaching strategies and have been genuinely passionate about teaching and the subjects that they teach. In AP Physics, we launched rockets into the sky to learn about impulse and fluid dynamics, and in AP U.S. History (APUSH) we played jeopardy and made our own political cartoons to learn about our past presidents.
What are your goals for the last year of high school? I hope to make my last year at Lakeland really count. I want to continue to explore my interests both in and out of the classroom and join new clubs like the school’s newspaper. I’m also looking forward to the school’s senior events, like the senior sunrise and prom. Lakeland has helped me develop a strong sense of community and who I want to be.
What are your plans post-Lakeland? I’m planning to major in computer engineering. I’ve always loved to work with programming and electronics, and I want to help make the technology of tomorrow helpful, efficient, and accessible. I’m particularly interested in the potential of quantum computing. I also want to further my education in the humanities, especially in Italian and the arts. I’m still touring and looking into different colleges, but I’d love to go somewhere on the east coast.
Scouting is service-focused. Do you plan to continue that in college? I’ve always tried to volunteer outside of scouts whenever I could, like through the George Washington Elementary School Buddy Program to tutor students at the John C. Hart Memorial Library, at Yorktown’s Earth Day cleanups, and at the Garden of Hope. I definitely plan to continue volunteering while at college, through programs both on and off campus. Giving back to the community has always been important to me, and I’ll continue to do so even after college because it enables me to make a difference in and help my community to thrive.
You’ve earned 36 merit badges. Explain that journey. I am currently working on three more—including journalism. Becoming an Eagle Scout requires the completion of 21 different merit badges: 14 of which every Eagle Scout earns, like camping and cooking, and at least seven other merit badges from the wide array of possibilities. The reason why I and other scouts continue working on merit badges past those 21 is because of just how many different and interesting ones there are. There are nearly 200 merit badges, in topics from wilderness survival and archery to art and welding. Each one gives you an opportunity to explore a new subject matter and brush up on or develop new skills.
There’s a story and experience tied to each one too—I worked on my architecture merit badge at the World Trade Center. They also allow you to meet with a counselor who is knowledgeable in the subject, so that you can ask questions and have a conversation beyond the badge’s scope. I think working on merit badges you’re interested in is a great way to make your scouting journey personal to you, and even more beneficial toward your future. Working on the digital technology, engineering, programming, and electronics merit badges helped me realize that I wanted to be a computer engineer.
The key to earning merit badges is to multitask and plan out in advance when you’ll be able to earn certain requirements. Some merit badges only take a week or two of reading and learning, while others have requirements that can take a couple of years to complete.
What are some of the most valuable skills you’ve learned from scouting? Many people only know about scouting for its wilderness skills, but it’s also about a variety of things that prepare you for life as an adult. Throughout my scouting career, I’ve taken up various leadership positions such as Senior Patrol Leader and Troop Guide. These positions have taught me how to plan and execute meetings and events, how to use effective communication, how to speak in front of a group, how to encourage cooperation, and how to take responsibility for things outside of my own needs. Campouts emphasize responsibility, preparedness, and quick problem-solving. The scout oath and law, and the phrases “be prepared” and “do a good turn daily” aren’t just important for scouting—but for becoming a successful, charitable person and a life-long leader.
Who inspires you? In scouting, I often looked up to the older scouts in the troop. Back in Cub Scouts, we had a den chief, a scout from Troop 165 who volunteered to help us learn scout skills at our meetings. His leadership, kindness, and patience when working with the den was a big reason why I really wanted to continue to Boy Scouts, and why I ended up joining Troop 165 specifically.
While in the troop, I was really impressed by how the older scouts were such good leaders even though they were only high schoolers. Attending work sessions for their Eagle Projects, I saw each of their leadership skills in action, and how they used them to execute an ambitious project of their own design.
Each scout had a goal, a vision, and values, and wanted to help those around them in their own unique way. I realized that, if I worked hard and put my mind to it, I too could leave an impact on the community. I wanted to do something that made a difference and would be able to benefit people for years to come.
What makes scouting fun? Are there challenges? One of the best parts of scouting is the people you meet and the time you get to spend with them. Over the past 10 years, I have made some great friends through scouting. I’ve been able to learn a lot from them, and I’ve had the opportunity to share experiences with them across our different scouting adventures, whether it’s camping on the Wildwood beach, spending a week at Camp Read (Brant Lake), white water rafting in Lehigh River, zip-lining at Catamount, or touring Salem. Even the local campouts at Durland have left me with stories: working together through challenges like hail storms, playing frisbee and ping pong, or just chatting around the campfire. These experiences are not only some of my fondest memories, but they’ve helped to shape who I am today.
What do you do in your free time? Outside of scouts and school, I like to play guitar, sketch drawings, code and hang out with my friends. I’ve begun my college tour journey.
What’s something about you that people don’t usually see? Although my career goals focus on STEM; Promoting education in the humanities and social sciences is also very important to me. I’ve learned a lot from my mom throughout my life, and she always emphasized the importance of being a “well-rounded” person. who can relate to other people to better help and understand them.
I believe that students should be encouraged from a young age to be curious, explore their interests, develop lifelong skills, and learn about the world around them, including the people and problems in it. This will allow them to one day play their own part in making the world a better place and having an impact on their society.