Belmont freshmen Nick Gale and Weston Heeren were both awarded the Wyoming Congressional Award Gold medal. Both award recipients are from Sheridan, WY, and completed projects pertaining to exploration and expedition. Any student can register to compete in the program through the Congressional Award for Youth, which encourages students to pursue and achieve a personal goal.
The organization has each participant set specific goals under the categories of public service, personal development, physical fitness and expedition/exploration. Each participant completes their goals in each category and records their hours to submit to be reviewed by the board.
Gale pursued a cultural exploration in New Mexico as the capstone of his project while Heeren completed an expedition of Grand Teton for his project. Gale and Heeren were two of 478 other recipients in 41 states awarded the Gold medal for the Congressional Awards of 2020.
The Congressional Award states that “the Gold Congressional Award is the most prestigious award for youth and the only award given to students by the U.S. Congress. In order to earn the Gold Congressional Award, participants must complete at least 400 hours of volunteer service, 200 hours of personal development, 200 hours of physical fitness and execute a four-night and five-day exploration or expedition. Gold medalists also receive a $1,000 higher education scholarship.”
Although the in-person award ceremony was canceled due to COVID-19, the virtual ceremony was held on September 26 to celebrate. To see the recipients of each category, read the full article on Wyoming Congressional Award for Youth.
