The Latest
March 28, 2024

Where Every Family Matters

MTSU photo by Cat Curtis Murphy.

MTSU and Middle TN Boy Scouts Renew Partnership

Middle Tennessee State University and the Middle Tennessee Council of the Boy Scouts of America renewed their partnership that will allow the university to remain a resource for Scouting programs through 2025.

The renewal was praised as a win-win by officials from both organizations. It allows prospective students from the council, which serves 37 Middle Tennessee counties and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, to attend events on campus and seek faculty mentors for activities and merit badges.

MTSU Provost Mark Byrnes, former Council President J.B. Baker, Council Scout Executive and CEO Larry Brown signed the renewal document at the recent 32nd annual MTSU Merit Badge University. The event attracted more than 120 Scouts, who attended merit badge classes taught by faculty and staff.

About 20,000 youths and their families participate in programs conducted by the Nashville-based council, which is consistently among the nation’s fastest-growing councils.

“During the first four years of this partnership, we have welcomed hundreds of Scouts to our campus,” Byrnes said, adding that the partnership “allows these good works to continue – and expand into the future.”

Brown noted in 2018, during the signing of the first agreement, that “hundreds of thousands of Scouts in the Middle Tennessee Council have benefited from a strong partnership with MTSU,” dating for decades before the formal relationship.

He thanked MTSU for assisting with several recent key council events, including this year’s banquet for its Order of the Arrow honor society, the council’s University of Scouting premier adult training event and, three years ago, helping found Troop 2019, one of the nation’s first all-girl units in Scouts BSA.

Natalie Hoskins, an assistant professor of communications studies in the College of Liberal Arts and a founding adult leader of Troop 2019, was cited by Byrnes as an example of the faculty engagement that has come about through the partnership.

Reflecting on her work with Troop 2019, Hoskins said, “I have watched these girls grow into young women, several of whom have chosen to make our campus their home for their college experience by enrolling as students at MTSU.

“This is what we should aim for when we work with BSA youth — faculty, staff, or any member of the MTSU community — in honor of this partnership, so they can continue to learn and explore with us.”

 

MORE GREAT STORIES!

Tech-Savvy Teens Turn MTSU Into Robot World

MTSU Students Compete in ‘Paper Wings’ Qualifier