White Stag Leadership Development Program
Encyclopedia
The White Stag Leadership Development Program is a non-profit organization that sponsors youth leadership development activities. Founded on the Monterey Peninsula
, California
, in 1958 by Dr. Béla H. Bánáthy
, it traces its history to the 1933 World Jamboree
in Gödöllő
, Hungary, which took as its emblem the white stag
of Hungarian mythology. Four boys who did not know each other attended the Jamboree and met in the 1950s to lead the White Stag program. Founder Béla H. Bánáthy
, a junior officer in the Hungarian Army during World War II, served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association
and became the voluntary national director for youth leadership development. At the end of the war, he narrowly escaped Soviet capture and likely execution. After considerable personal trials he arrived in June 1951 in Monterey, California
to teach at the Army Language School
.
Bánáthy became the Monterey Bay Area Council Training Chairman and developed an experimental program to train Scouts in leadership skills. He collaborated with research psychologist Paul Hood, who was leader of Task NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer), a research project by the U.S. Army that sought to identify the essential leadership skills of non-commissioned leaders
. As part of his Master's thesis, Bánáthy identified eleven specific leadership
competencies that he taught in the program's summer camp. His efforts rapidly gained the attention of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. They conducted extensive research that validated Bánáthy's leadership model and developed its own version for nationwide use. They introduced the leadership competencies during the 1970s into both the adult Wood Badge
program and youth-focused National Youth Leadership Training
. These two programs had originally focused primarily on teaching Scoutcraft
skills and the Patrol Method. The change to teaching leadership was a marked cultural shift for how both adults and youth were trained in the skills of Scouting. The White Stag leadership competencies remained a key part of both training programs from 1974 through 2003.
The leadership competencies were also taught to Scout leaders in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. Bánáthy guided their national training teams in designing leadership development by design programs. The program has evolved into two related organizations in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas of California. The teen youth staff continue to prepare and produce two week-long summer camps for other youth age 11–17 each summer using hands-on learning methods to teach the eleven leadership competencies. The program, which observed its 50th anniversary in 2008, has served over 20,000 youth since its inception.
Educators report that successful programs utilize "positive and sustained relations with a caring adult, mentoring in life skills and opportunities to use newly learned skills." Other studies have identified areas that help youth acquire the attitudes, skills, and knowledge required to be effective in society. These areas are strong relationships with adults; training in mediation, conflict resolution, team dynamics, and project management; new roles and responsibilities based on experiences and resources that provide opportunity for growth, teamwork and peer networking; and opportunities to practice communication, negotiation, and refusal skills.
The White Stag Leadership Development Program's methods address all of these areas. Based in the outdoors, it requires youth to learn and study specific skills of leadership. The youth, led and mentored by adults, work together with other youth they have never met, forming new relationships and learning to connect and cooperate. They learn basic group membership skills required in work life, like communication and planning, and plan and implement their leadership skills in their home community.
They learn and practice problem-solving and counseling skills, how groups form and grow, and planning skills. They learn and rehearse various kinds of communications skills, how to represent their group—both with and without the group's input—and how to work effectively with others.
The youth staff develop each summer camp's program during the preceding nine months in a series of leadership development training and planning events. They are ultimately responsible for the entire leadership program's content.
group, and a Boy Scout
troop that plan and produce the summer camp program in Northern California, in the past at Camp John Mensinger, and currently at Camp Marin Sierra. The youth and adult members of the Camp Mensinger program are registered in Venturing crews in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mount Diablo Silverado
, and the Greater Yosemite Councils.
In central California, the non-profit White Stag Leadership Development Academy sponsors a Learning for Life
group, a Venturing crew, and a Boy Scout troop in the Monterey Bay Area Council and the San Francisco Bay Area Council. These youth plan and put on a program each summer in Central California. For the first time in 2009 they presented two camps, one at Camp Tamarancho in Marin County in Northern California, and the second at Camp Lindblad in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Youth staff participants are registered as members of the Boy Scouts or Venturing.
Both programs adhere to the Youth Protection Standards of the Boy Scouts of America
, including background checks of all adult leaders. The White Stag Academy also conducts random drug screening of its adult program leaders. The Monterey-based program has drawn participants from overseas, including France and Taiwan.
s and very specific, measurable objectives
each year that describe leadership in behavior
al terms. When engaging learners in leadership development learning activities, the youth staff implement a four-phase approach called Manager of Learning.
The first step requires the participant to practice the skill without preparation. The simulation is made as real and practical as possible within the limitations of the training environment. Both the participant and the instructor gain through this Guided Discovery an assessment of the learner's current knowledge
, skill
s, attitude
s relevant to the learning task.
The second step is a Teach/Learn
session where the instructor begins to present information based on what the participants don't already know. This is usually prefixed with a written statement describing in behavioral terms the objectives that the participant will complete during the session. The instructor may utilize more advanced members to help less skilled members. The instructor often tries to elicit information from the participants' experience by asking questions
.
Once the Teach/Learn is complete, the third step allows participants an opportunity in an Application
to practice their newly-acquired skills. This may or may not be an experience like the Guided Discovery.
The final step is an Evaluation
discussion, during which the participants not only self-assess whether they achieved the stated learning objectives, but to give feedback to the instructor about their success in presenting the information.
Getting and Giving Information teaches participants about different types of communication and how communication helps establish the group. They learn how to get, store, and retrieve information. Individuals practice communicating to both help get the job done and keep the group together.
Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics helps individuals build group morale and unity. They learn about values, norms, needs, and characteristics.
Knowing and Understanding Group Resources helps learners to use resources to improve group togetherness, to learn about different kinds of resources , and how as a leader can use the diversity of group members' skills and abilities to help the group succeed. They learn about how resources affect getting the job done and keeping the group together.
Controlling the Group helps individuals to learn how their behavior affects others. Individuals learn the difference between external control of the group and personal control of their own behavior. They learn that controlling the group is something that everyone in the group contributes to. They learn about different techniques to influence group success. They gain skills in balancing the group's versus the individual's needs.
Counseling helps individuals to define key counseling ideas, learn simple counseling methods, and identify when simple counseling is appropriate.
Setting the Example helps participants identify what it means to set a good example, why setting an example is important, and describe ways a leader can set a good example.
Planning provides learners a chance to learn about problem-solving and its importance to a leader. They learn problem-solving and planning methods and how planning contributes to accomplishing the task and to group success.
Evaluation enables the learner to use evaluation improve group focus and get the job done. They learn to balance getting the job done and helping the group, and learn to continually assess their level of success.
Sharing Leadership helps participants learn that leadership is something that is shared by all group members depending on the situation and group member's abilities. They learn about what kinds of things affect the leader and the group, and what style of leadership is appropriate. They learn to select a style of leadership based on the job and the group situation.
Representing the Group is a way for participants to learn about how groups communicate and how to represent one group to another. They learn how to accurately represent their group to another.
Manager of Learning is a four-step technique for instructing others. Participants learn how to develop effective learning techniques. for effectively communicating information; emphasize the learner in the learning process.
One of the most important is outdoor learning. Program leaders believe that the outdoors environment provides a context for learning that is physically demanding and entirely different from that experienced everyday at home and in school. The outdoors stimulates new ways of thinking and approaching both task- and group-related problems. As participants learn they can exceed what they perceive to be their physical limits, they find their mental capacity also grows. White Stag uses the physical environment to tire the individual and open their minds to new ways of thinking. The program does nothing indoors that can be done outdoors, and encourages physical fitness through outdoor activities. Using the outdoors avoids the negative association of a standard classroom environment.
In addition, the program utilizes outdoor camping skills to provide opportunities to practice leadership skills. One of the very first challenges a leader-in-training faces is to plan how to set up of their camp and cook their meals. They learn how to analyze the task, how to plan the task and organize the group, how to use all of the groups' resources, how to implement their plan, and how to evaluate and correct.
The program teaches participants to cultivate an evaluation attitude, or a predisposition to continually seek improvement. Growth as a leader is dependent on his ability to assess his current skill level and to accept the necessity for change. The leader can only attain his goals if he continuously works to analyze his movement towards achieving his goals and objectives.
Differentiating White Stag from any other leadership program for youth is its spirit and traditions, including campfires, ceremonies, skits, yells, cheers, and emblems, all of which give it a distinctive character. The symbolism of the White Stag is described in a story telling the White Stag legend. The legend borrows from the Fourth World Jamboree
held in Hungary, which in turn was inspired by Hungarian mythology
of the white stag
. The White Stag Legend is used to inspire in the participants a desire for reflection, continuous self-improvement, and pursuit of higher aims and goals. Other traditions include woggle
s, waist ropes, staves, berets, and patrol names.
The spirit and tradition activities are used to communicate a specific vision and values that include characteristics of servant leadership, compassion, enthusiasm, kindness, and selflessness.
White Stag uses the patrol method to effectively include all members. Baden-Powell wrote "[t]he Patrol System is the one essential feature in which Scout training differs from that of all other organizations, and where the System is properly applied, it is absolutely bound to bring success. It cannot help itself! The formation of the boys into Patrols of from six to eight and training them as separate units each under its own responsible leader is the key to a good Troop."
One of the most important values is a focus on hands-on learning. The program emphasizes use of experiential learning
activities in the context of outdoor education
. These help participants retain what they learn about leadership generally and the eleven leadership competencies specifically. For example, participant teams can be challenged to build foot bridges, complete a hike, build a Tyrolean Traverse, cook a meal, or other practical challenges.
Always seeking to engage individuals both physically and mentally, the program uses the hurdle method. The hurdle method teaches individuals how to nimbly respond situation for which they have not specifically prepared themselves. The manager of learning prepared and present unexpected tasks or challenges to the leader and the group which they must organize themselves to find a solution or to complete a task. The hurdle method is closely linked to hands-on learning.
The program believes leadership can be taught using a direct approach, not by osmosis or example alone. In early leadership development programs, learning about leadership was not specifically defined with qualified objectives. Learning about leadership was a by-product of other learning activities. The White Stag Method challenges these indirect methods and focuses the participant's experience using a direct approach. The White Stag program defines leadership behaviors in specific terms as eleven leadership competencies.
Youth spend too much time learning what their teachers think is important, irrelevant from what the youth may already know. The manager of learning value allows the youth to learn and practice his skills in situations simulating real life. The Manager of Learning methodology first exposes the learner to a situation to help both the learner and the leader assess his current state of knowledge. This causes the learner to internalize a need to improve his knowledge or skills. This is followed by a period of teaching or exposure during which the participant improves from their base-line knowledge. The participant then gets a chance to apply what he has learned, and lastly, evaluates his performance improvement.
The program believes that learning never stops and embraces this as the infinity principle. According to Bánáthy, leadership behavior cannot be developed "during a few weeks, not even during several months," but must be ongoing.
It takes months for individuals to gain proficiency in leadership skills. "The White Stag continues to leap on—upward and forward—in a never-ending journey that leads the joyous followers to the promised land. For us who wear the badge of the White Stag, the White Stag journey symbolizes the idea of becoming the best we can." The program borrowed words from Baden-Powell's Jamboree farewell, "Forward, Upward, Onward," to define leadership:
Individuals are taught to believe that difficult situations are opportunities for growth that must be overcome. Thus, leadership development cannot take place during a single training course. It is a continuous sequence of sequential, structured learning and experience-building opportunities. The program subscribes to the belief that when an individual embraces the infinite challenge to change, he is engaged in the never-ending process of becoming a leader. "The infinity principle of growth in leadership is what the White Stag symbolizes in this leadership development process."
Avoiding stereotypes and labeling based on personal dress, the program uses polo shirts, t-shirts, and other articles of clothing like neckerchiefs as uniforms. Participants uniforms display the White Stag logo, which is a visible reminder of the program's founding vision articulated by Baden-Powell at the conclusion of the 1933 World Jamboree. The uniform reminds the individual wearing it of their commitment to the program's values. It instills self-esteem in the person and pride in the program. It eliminates class and socio-economic distinctions. Wearing a uniform improves member's behavior and lessens the impact on a person's personal wardrobe.
, who led their people in pursuit a mythical White Stag, following it over impassible trails to a new home. Through this story and other ceremonies, the program challenges individuals to continually strive "onward and upward" and "overcome challenges, continuously evaluate, focus on learning, and always strive to improve".
, Hungary, and the Fourth World Scout Jamboree which three of its founders attended.
, a general staff officer of the Royal Hungarian Army
; and Baden-Powell, the British hero of the Boer War
and Chief Scout of the World. The men introduced themselves to the Scout and inspected his camp. They complimented him on a job well done and rode on. Meeting the Chief Scout of Hungary and Boer War hero Robert Baden-Powell left a deep impression on Bánáthy. He decided he would become a military officer instead of a minister.
Bánáthy briefly met fellow Hungarian Boy Scout Joseph Szentkiralyi. Hungarian Sea Scouter Paul Ferenc Sujan's camp was visited by Baden-Powell, who asked to taste some of his soup. American Maury Tripp attended the Jamboree from Saratoga, California
. These four Scouts would later play instrumental roles in forming the White Stag program on the Monterey Peninsula. At the conclusion of the Jamboree, Baden-Powell gave a farewell speech in which he challenged the Scouts present to pursue the ideals represented by the White Stag.
This challenge and the myth of the White Stag it cites grew to become a source of inspiration to Bánáthy. During World War II
, Bánáthy was a junior officer in the Royal Hungarian Army
. After being seriously wounded during combat in Russia, through the connections he made at the World Jamboree, he was invited by General Farkas
to join the faculty of the Hungarian Royal Academy. While there he served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association
and became the voluntary national director for youth leadership development. Barely escaping Soviet capture and likely execution at the end of World War II, Bánáthy arrived after considerable personal trials in June 1951 at Monterey, California
to teach at the Army Language School
, where he became reacquainted with Joe Szentkiralyi, who he had met at the Fourth World Jamboree.
Joseph Szentkiralyi had also barely survived World War II. He and his family had previously come to the United States in 1939, where Szentkiralyi worked in New York City. At the start of World War II, they were deported back to Hungary. Because he spoke English, Szentkiralyi was assigned to watch over the crew members of the first American B-17 bomber to crash land in Hungary. When the crew told him sensitive information, he was ordered to reveal the information to his superiors. Citing the Geneva Convention, he refused. The authorities prepared to court-martial
him, and Szentkiralyi fled. During a time of frequent Allied aerial bombing raids, he hid where he figured no one would look for him: in the upper floors of apartment buildings. During one bombing raid a 500 pounds (226.8 kg) bomb crashed through and landed on the floor above him. Fortunately it did not explode. Szentkiralyi and his family later narrowly survived the Siege of Budapest.
After the war ended, Szentkiralyi found work for the American Embassy in Budapest
as a translator. However, this put him in a vulnerable position as the Communists hardened their grip on power. Because he had lived in the United States and spoke English, he knew he would fall under suspicion. People he knew began to disappear, including a friend who worked at the U.S. Embassy. Within a few days he found a note on his desk that read, "You are next." With American assistance, he immediately fled Hungary for Switzerland
. He and his family returned to New York City for a few months, and Szentkiralyi applied for a position as a Hungarian instructor at the Army Language School. He was hired in the summer of 1948 and founded their Hungarian Department.
Starting in 1951, almost 25 years afterward, four Scouts who had attended the 1933 Fourth World Jamboree were brought back together on the Monterey Peninsula. Joseph Szentkiralyi (which he later Anglicized as St. Clair) renewed his acquaintance with Bánáthy when he hired him. In 1956, they were joined by Hungarian Paul Ferenc Sujan. In Monterey, through their Scouting contacts, they met F. Maurice Tripp.
Bánáthy informally recruited one patrol of boys, including his own sons, and took them to summer camp in 1957 to test his idea. John Chiorini, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout
, was working on the waterfront. "Béla came through camp with a patrol of six or seven boys and commandeered me to teach a class on camp craft. He said he was trying out some new ideas with this patrol," Chiorini reported "Béla listened intently as I presented and then he came up after and gave me some tips on teaching. He was a mentor to me from that point on."
During the summer of 1958, Bánáthy recruited two patrols of boys to take part. Chiorini was recruited to serve as senior patrol leader. There wasn't much discussion of leadership competencies to start. Bánáthy seemed to have an internal sense of direction which not everyone understood. Chiorini said, "White Stag was all about creating an environment in which youth led youth. At the time, Scouting was not necessarily a boy-led program. I remember it was very clear in Béla’s mind what a boy-led Scouting program looked like. There was no question about who was in charge in White Stag. The boys were." Fran Peterson, a local Scouter who served on the National Engineering Service for the Boy Scouts of America, along with St. Clair, Sujan, and Tripp, helped Bánáthy develop the White Stag program. Some of them remained active with it into the 1970s.
Borrowing on his experience at the 1933 World Jamboree, Bánáthy based the program symbol and its spirit and traditions on the white stag symbol found in the patch for the Fourth World Scout Jamboree, which was in turn based on Hungarian mythology. On June 8, 1959, at an adult staff meeting attended by Béla Bánáthy, Jack Stone, Bill White, Paul Holbrook, Ralph Herring, Fran Petersen, and Staff Advisor Bill Lidderdale, they "officially adopted White Stag as the name for junior leaders training events." "Lord Baden-Powell was my personal idol and I long felt a commitment to give back to Scouting what I had received," Bánáthy said.
During August 1959, the first full-scale program was put on. Bánáthy served as Scoutmaster, Fran Petersen was Assistant Scoutmaster, along with eight other adult staff and 13 youth staff. The training troop consisted of 39 trainees from 24 troops. In the first two years of the program, emphasis was placed on training patrol leaders. Bánáthy said, "I saw in these principles an opportunity to develop the White Stag program for my three Boy Scout sons as well as show my gratitude to this country and Scouting."
During the same year, Bánáthy continued his research on leadership and learned that the U.S. Army's Human Resources Research Office (HumRRO) at the Presidio of Monterey
was conducting research into the leadership characteristics of non-commissioned officer
s. Bánáthy contacted research psychologist Paul Hood, Task Leader of Task NCO (Non-commissioned Officer), and began a fruitful collaboration. A HumRRO publication titled, A Guide for the Infantry Squad Leader–What the Beginning Squad Leader Should Know About Human Relations articulated a core set of leadership competencies. Bánáthy found Hood's research enumerated characteristics of leadership that strongly validated his vision and direction. With Hood's active encouragement, he decided to incorporate these leadership skills into White Stag.
In 1960, the adult staff announced that they would expand the program to offer an additional phase of leadership development for boys 14–17 years old, to train "junior trainers and impart leadership skills." This phase was christened Troop Leadership Development.
With the interest and support of the Monterey Bay Area Council executive staff and board, the program was continually tested and improved. Two men with connections on the National Council, Fran Peterson (a member of the National Council's Engineering Service) and F. Maurice Tripp (a research scientist and member of the National Boy Scout Training Committee), brought the White Stag program to the National Council's attention. In 1962, Tripp formed and chaired an advisory board of educators, psychologists, management specialists, and members of the Scout professional staff.
During 1962–63, Bánáthy focused his research and formalized it as his Master's Thesis at San Jose State University. The Monterey Bay Area Council published an abbreviated version of it titled A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting. Responding to widespread interest, Dr. Tripp gave a talk in 1963 at the Fifty-third Annual Meeting of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America on Development of Leadership in Boy Leaders of Boys. In August 1963, a patrol of Scouts from the San Mateo County Council and a few boys from the Circle Ten Council
in Dallas attended White Stag summer camp at the Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
. The program was observed and evaluated by Ken Wells (national director of Research) and John Larson (staff researcher). Wells had a long history with Wood Badge, beginning as a participant in the second United States Wood Badge
course in 1948. They were impressed by what they saw and experienced.
At the end of the August 1964 summer camp, Béla Bánáthy and Fran Peterson announced that White Stag would begin in 1965 to offer a third phase of leadership development for boys age 11–13, called "Patrol Member Development." This was a revolutionary step, for it made it possible for all boys 11–17 years old to learn leadership skills appropriate to their maturity, capabilities, and needs, and as they grew to re-cycle through the program in another phase and acquire increased skills.
titled Leadership Development: World Scouting Reference Paper No. 1. It described the results of the Boy Scouts of America's research and testing and was presented at the World Scoutings Conference in Helsinki. He advocated leadership development by design in Scouting based on the leadership competencies of White Stag. Bánáthy was appointed to the Interamerican Scout Committee and guided their national training teams at three Interamerican Train the Trainer events in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.
approved the changes.
The National Boy Scouts of America began to test the revised Wood Badge program utilizing the White Stag leadership competencies later that year. In May 1967, staff from councils who were invited to attend the initial course met at Philmont to plan the program, and on June 17, 1967, the first experimental Wood Badge course was offered at Philmont. One month later, the Circle Ten Council in Dallas presented its first new Wood Badge course. In September 1967, six councils were approved to pilot-test the new Wood Badge program in 1968: Monterey Bay Area Council, Piedmont Council, Middle Tennessee, Del-Mar-Va, and Hiawatha (formerly Onondago) and Circle Ten Council
.
Among these was an experimental Wood Badge course in Monterey in 1968. Bánáthy was Course Director, Joe St. Clair served as Scoutmaster, and Fran Petersen was senior patrol leader. John Larson, National Director of Education, was also present. In a unique application not since reproduced, all attendees were asked to bring their entire troop to a single week of summer camp, allowing the Wood Badge staff who also attended to use the summer camp as an application for Wood Badge.
, containing modified versions of the leadership competencies which were included in the final Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide, written by John W. Larson, which credited White Stag with its origins:
At the same time the Monterey Bay Area Council decided to replace the White Stag program with the nationally-mandated adaptation of White Stag, the Troop Leader Development
program. The adult volunteer leaders of White Stag founded the White Stag Association in 1982, which continued to sponsor the program. It moved the camp to Santa Cruz and rented Skylark Ranch Resident Camp from the Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County for two years. In subsequent years, the Association moved the summer program to San Mateo County Council's Camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains
, and later, at different times, to Marin Council's Camp Marin-Sierra and Yosemite Council's Camp Mensinger in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. They largely stopped attracting youth from the Monterey Bay Area as well.
In 1993, the Monterey Bay Area Council's Junior Leader Training Chairman Steve Cardinalli offered to run the Council's junior leader training program using the White Stag methods. This proposal was readily accepted by the Council Executive. White Stag adult alumni of the now San Francisco Bay Area
-based program who lived in the Monterey Peninsula
area recruited a youth staff who planned and presented the White Stag program at Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
in 1994. This Monterey-based program continued to present the council's junior leader training program until 2005, when a new Council Executive decided once again to adopt the current National Youth Leadership Training
(NYLT) program. The adult leadership of the Monterey White Stag group incorporated in 2005 as the non-profit White Stag Leadership Development Academy, Inc. to support the program. They moved their summer camp program to Camp Cutter and later to Camp Lindblad in the Santa Cruz Mountains
.
During 2004, White Stag Program Director Steve Cardinalli and former Director John Connelly founded a comparable program for the Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast. The program is based on the tenets of White Stag. It was held at Cutter Scout Reservation for two years. The Girl Scouts then assumed leadership of the program and renamed it Artemis
, after the Greek goddess who protects young girls, animals, and the natural environment. They have continued to run it as a resident camp for girls 11–17 each summer in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Both the Northern and Central California White Stag organizations continue to develop and present summer camps for youth by youth, led by a corps of volunteer adults. The program observed its 50th anniversary in 2008. Participation in the Monterey-based group has continued to increase each year, to 258 in 2010 up from 70 in 2006. They currently run two week-long summer camps. The Northern California-based group has attracted between 40-55 campers for the each of the past three years. Since its inception, the two White Stag programs have operated continuously for more than 50 years entirely on a voluntary basis, with an estimated 20,000 youth having attended its camps.
after attending a pilot test of the JLT program at Philmont. He founded in 1972 a junior leader training which was based on the White Stag principles, but which was modified and "based on the standard national Boy Scouts of America NYLT syllabus." Another White Stag program is produced by the Hoosier Trails Council
in Bloomington
, Indiana
based on the "National Youth Leadership Training Course syllabus." On the east coast, the Narragansett Council in Rhode Island also teaches the "Youth Leadership Training (NYLT), traditionally known in our Council as White Stag."
These programs are produced by the local councils. They present the standardized, nationally-mandated National Youth Leadership Training program. The non-profit White Stag Academy in Monterey, California sponsors Venture Crew 122, which develops and produces a summer camp program independent of the Boy Scout of America's nationally mandated junior leaders training program
.
Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California coast and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County including the resort and community of Pebble Beach.-Monterey:...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, in 1958 by Dr. Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States...
, it traces its history to the 1933 World Jamboree
4th World Scout Jamboree
The 4th World Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Boy Scouts from all over the world, was hosted by Hungary and held from August 2 to August 13, 1933. It was attended by 25,792 Scouts, representing 46 different nations and additional territories...
in Gödöllő
Gödöllo
Gödöllő is a town situated in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is about 31,000 according to the 2001 census. It can be easily reached from Budapest with the suburban railway . Gödöllő is home to the Szent István...
, Hungary, which took as its emblem the white stag
White stag
A white stag or white deer is a red deer with a condition known as leucism that causes its hair and skin to lose its natural colour. The white stag has played a prominent role in many cultures' mythology.-Biology:...
of Hungarian mythology. Four boys who did not know each other attended the Jamboree and met in the 1950s to lead the White Stag program. Founder Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla H. Bánáthy
Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States...
, a junior officer in the Hungarian Army during World War II, served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association
Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Magyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
and became the voluntary national director for youth leadership development. At the end of the war, he narrowly escaped Soviet capture and likely execution. After considerable personal trials he arrived in June 1951 in Monterey, California
Monterey, California
The City of Monterey in Monterey County is located on Monterey Bay along the Pacific coast in Central California. Monterey lies at an elevation of 26 feet above sea level. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 27,810. Monterey is of historical importance because it was the capital of...
to teach at the Army Language School
Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
.
Bánáthy became the Monterey Bay Area Council Training Chairman and developed an experimental program to train Scouts in leadership skills. He collaborated with research psychologist Paul Hood, who was leader of Task NCO (Non-Commissioned Officer), a research project by the U.S. Army that sought to identify the essential leadership skills of non-commissioned leaders
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
. As part of his Master's thesis, Bánáthy identified eleven specific leadership
Leadership
Leadership has been described as the “process of social influence in which one person can enlist the aid and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task". Other in-depth definitions of leadership have also emerged.-Theories:...
competencies that he taught in the program's summer camp. His efforts rapidly gained the attention of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America. They conducted extensive research that validated Bánáthy's leadership model and developed its own version for nationwide use. They introduced the leadership competencies during the 1970s into both the adult Wood Badge
Wood Badge (Boy Scouts of America)
Wood Badge is the highest level of adult Scout leader training available. It was first presented in England by the founder of Scouting, Baden Powell, and he introduced the program into the United States during a visit in 1936. The first course was held at the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation,...
program and youth-focused National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...
. These two programs had originally focused primarily on teaching Scoutcraft
Scoutcraft
Scoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and knowledge which are felt to be a core part of the...
skills and the Patrol Method. The change to teaching leadership was a marked cultural shift for how both adults and youth were trained in the skills of Scouting. The White Stag leadership competencies remained a key part of both training programs from 1974 through 2003.
The leadership competencies were also taught to Scout leaders in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela. Bánáthy guided their national training teams in designing leadership development by design programs. The program has evolved into two related organizations in the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Areas of California. The teen youth staff continue to prepare and produce two week-long summer camps for other youth age 11–17 each summer using hands-on learning methods to teach the eleven leadership competencies. The program, which observed its 50th anniversary in 2008, has served over 20,000 youth since its inception.
Youth ready to learn
In his master's thesis, Bánáthy established his reasoning for focusing on developing leadership skills in youth rather than adults. He wrote that adults in leadership development experiences often have "deeply and rigidly established patterns which are difficult to change." He felt leadership development needs to start early in life, when an opportunity exists to give individuals long-term exposure to leadership behavior. Bánáthy formulated the White Stag program to address the needs of youth from 11 to 17 years of age. He did this when defining leadership as a learnable skill was still in its infancy and before researchers had clearly identified the specific needs of youth for leadership education.Youth need leadership development
A number of researchers have identified needs of youth for specific kinds of formative experiences. In one study, Ferber, Pittman, and Marshall described five developmental priorities for youth. These were learning (developing positive basic and applied academic attitudes, skills, and behaviors), thriving (developing physically healthy attitudes, skills, and behaviors), connecting (developing positive social attitudes, skills, and behaviors), working (developing positive vocational attitudes, skills, and behaviors), and leading (developing positive civic attitudes, skills, and behaviors).Educators report that successful programs utilize "positive and sustained relations with a caring adult, mentoring in life skills and opportunities to use newly learned skills." Other studies have identified areas that help youth acquire the attitudes, skills, and knowledge required to be effective in society. These areas are strong relationships with adults; training in mediation, conflict resolution, team dynamics, and project management; new roles and responsibilities based on experiences and resources that provide opportunity for growth, teamwork and peer networking; and opportunities to practice communication, negotiation, and refusal skills.
The White Stag Leadership Development Program's methods address all of these areas. Based in the outdoors, it requires youth to learn and study specific skills of leadership. The youth, led and mentored by adults, work together with other youth they have never met, forming new relationships and learning to connect and cooperate. They learn basic group membership skills required in work life, like communication and planning, and plan and implement their leadership skills in their home community.
They learn and practice problem-solving and counseling skills, how groups form and grow, and planning skills. They learn and rehearse various kinds of communications skills, how to represent their group—both with and without the group's input—and how to work effectively with others.
Program phases and levels
Based on Béla Bánáthy's original work, the program is still organized into three phases, each consisting of a candidate, youth staff, and an adult staff level. This structure allows youth to develop their leadership skills over several years through gradually more intense and more advanced levels of instruction. Each level is tailored to the needs of youth at specific ages and maturity levels.| Phase | Phase 1 — Patrol Member Development | Phase 2 — Patrol Leader Development | Phase 3 — Troop Leader Development |
| Purpose | Teaches group membership skills. | Teaches group leadership skills | Teaches leaders to lead group leaders |
| Candidate Levels | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 |
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| Youth Staff Levels | Level 4 | Level 5 | Level 6 |
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| Adult Staff Levels | Level 7 | Level 8 | Level 9 |
| Adult Staff Recommended Pre-requisites |
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| Program Leadership | Camp Director | Program Director Administrative Committees | Operational Committees |
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| Support Staff | The Camp Director and Program Director must have served for at least five years on adult staff levels 7–9. They must meet National BSA Scout and Venturing Program requirements. Committees are composed of interested parents and adult alumni who fulfill critical support roles including registration, treasury, commissary, quartermaster, evaluation, marketing, and medical roles during the year and at summer camp. | ||
| Notes |
† The age levels are not absolute, but for guidance in placing participants in the phase most suitable to their needs. ‡ Prior attendance of earlier levels is encouraged, but not necessarily required. |
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The youth staff develop each summer camp's program during the preceding nine months in a series of leadership development training and planning events. They are ultimately responsible for the entire leadership program's content.
Program Aims
The program has four primary aims that are closely aligned with the aims of the Boy Scouts of America with the addition of leadership development. The program focuses on character development, which it defines as encouraging people to do what is right, no matter what, and to serve themselves and others. Its second aim is personal fitness, and in its programs it encourages individuals to accept physical and mental challenges, to surpass their own expectations, expand their knowledge, skills and abilities, and strive for continuous personal improvement. Their third aim is citizenship training, in which it helps individuals to develop a positive attitude, influence those around them, join in and shape their community. The paramount aim however is leadership development, in which it inspires individuals to engage life as an ongoing adventure, to challenge themselves, and to lead others to pursue excellence.Camp locations
The White Stag program is currently offered by two related non-profit groups in Northern and Central California. In northern California, the non-profit White Stag Association sponsors three Venturing crews, a Learning for LifeLearning for Life
Learning for Life is a United States school and work-site based youth program that is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. It utilizes programs designed for schools and community-based organizations that are designed to prepare youth for the complexities of contemporary society and to...
group, and a Boy Scout
Boy Scout
A Scout is a boy or a girl, usually 11 to 18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split this age group into a junior and a senior section...
troop that plan and produce the summer camp program in Northern California, in the past at Camp John Mensinger, and currently at Camp Marin Sierra. The youth and adult members of the Camp Mensinger program are registered in Venturing crews in the San Francisco Bay Area, Mount Diablo Silverado
Mount Diablo Silverado Council
Mount Diablo Silverado Council is a local council of the Boy Scouts of America and is one of six councils that serves the San Francisco Bay area in California...
, and the Greater Yosemite Councils.
In central California, the non-profit White Stag Leadership Development Academy sponsors a Learning for Life
Learning for Life
Learning for Life is a United States school and work-site based youth program that is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. It utilizes programs designed for schools and community-based organizations that are designed to prepare youth for the complexities of contemporary society and to...
group, a Venturing crew, and a Boy Scout troop in the Monterey Bay Area Council and the San Francisco Bay Area Council. These youth plan and put on a program each summer in Central California. For the first time in 2009 they presented two camps, one at Camp Tamarancho in Marin County in Northern California, and the second at Camp Lindblad in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Youth staff participants are registered as members of the Boy Scouts or Venturing.
Both programs adhere to the Youth Protection Standards of the Boy Scouts of America
Boy Scouts of America
The Boy Scouts of America is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over 4.5 million youth members in its age-related divisions...
, including background checks of all adult leaders. The White Stag Academy also conducts random drug screening of its adult program leaders. The Monterey-based program has drawn participants from overseas, including France and Taiwan.
Leadership competencies
In his research for his master's thesis, Bánáthy identified 80 characteristics of leadership. He condensed these into eleven specific leadership competencies which he then proposed be taught in a systematic process using six developmental levels tailored to the various needs of youth as they mature. The White Stag leadership competencies are organized into three groups. The competencies are taught based on the members' and the overall group's readiness and maturity.Four-stage learning approach
The group writes down both general goalGoal
A goal is an objective, or a projected computation of affairs, that a person or a system plans or intends to achieve.Goal, GOAL or G.O.A.L may also refer to:Sport...
s and very specific, measurable objectives
Educational aims and objectives
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary and others interchangeably define the noun "objective" as, Objective: noun 1 a goal or aim. While the noun forms of the three words aim, objective and goal are often used synonymously, among professionals in organised education, the words aim and objective are...
each year that describe leadership in behavior
Behavior
Behavior or behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms around as well as the physical environment...
al terms. When engaging learners in leadership development learning activities, the youth staff implement a four-phase approach called Manager of Learning.
The first step requires the participant to practice the skill without preparation. The simulation is made as real and practical as possible within the limitations of the training environment. Both the participant and the instructor gain through this Guided Discovery an assessment of the learner's current knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
, skill
Skill
A skill is the learned capacity to carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy, or both. Skills can often be divided into domain-general and domain-specific skills...
s, attitude
Attitude
-Science and engineering:* Attitude as orientation of a geometric figure, such as a line, plane or rigid body* Attitude as strike or dip of a layer of rock in geology* Attitude of a wing or aircraft relative to airflow...
s relevant to the learning task.
The second step is a Teach/Learn
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
session where the instructor begins to present information based on what the participants don't already know. This is usually prefixed with a written statement describing in behavioral terms the objectives that the participant will complete during the session. The instructor may utilize more advanced members to help less skilled members. The instructor often tries to elicit information from the participants' experience by asking questions
Socratic method
The Socratic method , named after the classical Greek philosopher Socrates, is a form of inquiry and debate between individuals with opposing viewpoints based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking and to illuminate ideas...
.
Once the Teach/Learn is complete, the third step allows participants an opportunity in an Application
Practice (learning method)
Practice is the act of rehearsing a behavior over and over, or engaging in an activity again and again, for the purpose of improving or mastering it, as in the phrase "practice makes perfect". Sports teams practice to prepare for actual games. Playing a musical instrument well takes a lot of...
to practice their newly-acquired skills. This may or may not be an experience like the Guided Discovery.
The final step is an Evaluation
Feedback
Feedback describes the situation when output from an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or occurrences of the same Feedback describes the situation when output from (or information about the result of) an event or phenomenon in the past will influence an occurrence or...
discussion, during which the participants not only self-assess whether they achieved the stated learning objectives, but to give feedback to the instructor about their success in presenting the information.
Developing group members
The first three competencies are essential to forming the group's ability to organize itself and become ready for action.Getting and Giving Information teaches participants about different types of communication and how communication helps establish the group. They learn how to get, store, and retrieve information. Individuals practice communicating to both help get the job done and keep the group together.
Understanding Group Needs and Characteristics helps individuals build group morale and unity. They learn about values, norms, needs, and characteristics.
Knowing and Understanding Group Resources helps learners to use resources to improve group togetherness, to learn about different kinds of resources , and how as a leader can use the diversity of group members' skills and abilities to help the group succeed. They learn about how resources affect getting the job done and keeping the group together.
Growing group capability
The second group of leadership competencies help the group to develop and implement a plan.Controlling the Group helps individuals to learn how their behavior affects others. Individuals learn the difference between external control of the group and personal control of their own behavior. They learn that controlling the group is something that everyone in the group contributes to. They learn about different techniques to influence group success. They gain skills in balancing the group's versus the individual's needs.
Counseling helps individuals to define key counseling ideas, learn simple counseling methods, and identify when simple counseling is appropriate.
Setting the Example helps participants identify what it means to set a good example, why setting an example is important, and describe ways a leader can set a good example.
Planning provides learners a chance to learn about problem-solving and its importance to a leader. They learn problem-solving and planning methods and how planning contributes to accomplishing the task and to group success.
Evaluation enables the learner to use evaluation improve group focus and get the job done. They learn to balance getting the job done and helping the group, and learn to continually assess their level of success.
Accomplish the task
The last group of leadership competencies helps individuals to grow the organization.Sharing Leadership helps participants learn that leadership is something that is shared by all group members depending on the situation and group member's abilities. They learn about what kinds of things affect the leader and the group, and what style of leadership is appropriate. They learn to select a style of leadership based on the job and the group situation.
Representing the Group is a way for participants to learn about how groups communicate and how to represent one group to another. They learn how to accurately represent their group to another.
Manager of Learning is a four-step technique for instructing others. Participants learn how to develop effective learning techniques. for effectively communicating information; emphasize the learner in the learning process.
Program values
The program has defined a set of values that govern how the program is implemented.One of the most important is outdoor learning. Program leaders believe that the outdoors environment provides a context for learning that is physically demanding and entirely different from that experienced everyday at home and in school. The outdoors stimulates new ways of thinking and approaching both task- and group-related problems. As participants learn they can exceed what they perceive to be their physical limits, they find their mental capacity also grows. White Stag uses the physical environment to tire the individual and open their minds to new ways of thinking. The program does nothing indoors that can be done outdoors, and encourages physical fitness through outdoor activities. Using the outdoors avoids the negative association of a standard classroom environment.
In addition, the program utilizes outdoor camping skills to provide opportunities to practice leadership skills. One of the very first challenges a leader-in-training faces is to plan how to set up of their camp and cook their meals. They learn how to analyze the task, how to plan the task and organize the group, how to use all of the groups' resources, how to implement their plan, and how to evaluate and correct.
The program teaches participants to cultivate an evaluation attitude, or a predisposition to continually seek improvement. Growth as a leader is dependent on his ability to assess his current skill level and to accept the necessity for change. The leader can only attain his goals if he continuously works to analyze his movement towards achieving his goals and objectives.
Differentiating White Stag from any other leadership program for youth is its spirit and traditions, including campfires, ceremonies, skits, yells, cheers, and emblems, all of which give it a distinctive character. The symbolism of the White Stag is described in a story telling the White Stag legend. The legend borrows from the Fourth World Jamboree
4th World Scout Jamboree
The 4th World Scout Jamboree, a gathering of Boy Scouts from all over the world, was hosted by Hungary and held from August 2 to August 13, 1933. It was attended by 25,792 Scouts, representing 46 different nations and additional territories...
held in Hungary, which in turn was inspired by Hungarian mythology
Hungarian mythology
Hungarian mythology includes the myths, legends, folk tales, fairy tales and gods of the Hungarians. Many parts of it are thought to be lost, i.e. only some texts remained which can be classified as a myth. However, a significant amount of Hungarian mythology was successfully recovered in the last...
of the white stag
White stag
A white stag or white deer is a red deer with a condition known as leucism that causes its hair and skin to lose its natural colour. The white stag has played a prominent role in many cultures' mythology.-Biology:...
. The White Stag Legend is used to inspire in the participants a desire for reflection, continuous self-improvement, and pursuit of higher aims and goals. Other traditions include woggle
Woggle
A woggle is a device to fasten the neckerchief, or scarf, worn as part of the Scout or Girl Guides uniform.-Origins of the woggle:Early Scouts tied a knot in their neckerchief to fasten it around the neck...
s, waist ropes, staves, berets, and patrol names.
The spirit and tradition activities are used to communicate a specific vision and values that include characteristics of servant leadership, compassion, enthusiasm, kindness, and selflessness.
White Stag uses the patrol method to effectively include all members. Baden-Powell wrote "[t]he Patrol System is the one essential feature in which Scout training differs from that of all other organizations, and where the System is properly applied, it is absolutely bound to bring success. It cannot help itself! The formation of the boys into Patrols of from six to eight and training them as separate units each under its own responsible leader is the key to a good Troop."
One of the most important values is a focus on hands-on learning. The program emphasizes use of experiential learning
Experiential learning
Experiential learning is the process of making meaning from direct experience. Simply put, Experiential Learning is learning from experience. The experience can be staged or left open. Aristotle once said, "For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them." David A...
activities in the context of outdoor education
Outdoor education
Outdoor education usually refers to organized learning that takes place in the outdoors. Outdoor education programs sometimes involve residential or journey-based experiences in which students participate in a variety of adventurous challenges in the form of outdoor activities such as hiking,...
. These help participants retain what they learn about leadership generally and the eleven leadership competencies specifically. For example, participant teams can be challenged to build foot bridges, complete a hike, build a Tyrolean Traverse, cook a meal, or other practical challenges.
Always seeking to engage individuals both physically and mentally, the program uses the hurdle method. The hurdle method teaches individuals how to nimbly respond situation for which they have not specifically prepared themselves. The manager of learning prepared and present unexpected tasks or challenges to the leader and the group which they must organize themselves to find a solution or to complete a task. The hurdle method is closely linked to hands-on learning.
The program believes leadership can be taught using a direct approach, not by osmosis or example alone. In early leadership development programs, learning about leadership was not specifically defined with qualified objectives. Learning about leadership was a by-product of other learning activities. The White Stag Method challenges these indirect methods and focuses the participant's experience using a direct approach. The White Stag program defines leadership behaviors in specific terms as eleven leadership competencies.
Youth spend too much time learning what their teachers think is important, irrelevant from what the youth may already know. The manager of learning value allows the youth to learn and practice his skills in situations simulating real life. The Manager of Learning methodology first exposes the learner to a situation to help both the learner and the leader assess his current state of knowledge. This causes the learner to internalize a need to improve his knowledge or skills. This is followed by a period of teaching or exposure during which the participant improves from their base-line knowledge. The participant then gets a chance to apply what he has learned, and lastly, evaluates his performance improvement.
The program believes that learning never stops and embraces this as the infinity principle. According to Bánáthy, leadership behavior cannot be developed "during a few weeks, not even during several months," but must be ongoing.
It takes months for individuals to gain proficiency in leadership skills. "The White Stag continues to leap on—upward and forward—in a never-ending journey that leads the joyous followers to the promised land. For us who wear the badge of the White Stag, the White Stag journey symbolizes the idea of becoming the best we can." The program borrowed words from Baden-Powell's Jamboree farewell, "Forward, Upward, Onward," to define leadership:
Individuals are taught to believe that difficult situations are opportunities for growth that must be overcome. Thus, leadership development cannot take place during a single training course. It is a continuous sequence of sequential, structured learning and experience-building opportunities. The program subscribes to the belief that when an individual embraces the infinite challenge to change, he is engaged in the never-ending process of becoming a leader. "The infinity principle of growth in leadership is what the White Stag symbolizes in this leadership development process."
Avoiding stereotypes and labeling based on personal dress, the program uses polo shirts, t-shirts, and other articles of clothing like neckerchiefs as uniforms. Participants uniforms display the White Stag logo, which is a visible reminder of the program's founding vision articulated by Baden-Powell at the conclusion of the 1933 World Jamboree. The uniform reminds the individual wearing it of their commitment to the program's values. It instills self-esteem in the person and pride in the program. It eliminates class and socio-economic distinctions. Wearing a uniform improves member's behavior and lessens the impact on a person's personal wardrobe.
Financial support
White Stag is a 501(c)3 non-profit and financially self-supporting. The program is administered and managed by part-time adult volunteers. All participants, including youth and adult staff, pay fees to participate. Fees for participants attending the week-long summer camp are USD$265–$295 in 2009–10. Adult and youth staff pay about USD$400 in fees over the course of a year of staff development. The program offers limited camperships.Awards and recognition
Since 1960, the program has recognized one or two youth and adults each year by presenting them with a Silver Stag award. The device, a miniature solid sterling silver stag on a chain or medallion, recognizes the individual's outstanding "contributions and qualities of leadership, spirit and service to the program." One youth staff member from each phase is selected as the outstanding youth staff member. Each graduating participant received a neckerchief unique to each phase that is to be worn only at White Stag functions. Participants may also be recognized with other awards that vary from year to year.Symbolism and mythology
The program uses symbolism and mythology to communicate an ethic of always striving for self-improvement and personal achievement. It tells a version of a legend honoring Hunor and MagyarHunor and Magor
Hunor and Magor were, according to a famous Hungarian legend, the ancestors of the Huns and the Magyars. The myth was promoted by the medieval historian Simon Kézai in his Gesta Ungarorum . Kézai's aim in providing a common ancestry for the Huns and the Magyars was to suggest historical continuum...
, who led their people in pursuit a mythical White Stag, following it over impassible trails to a new home. Through this story and other ceremonies, the program challenges individuals to continually strive "onward and upward" and "overcome challenges, continuously evaluate, focus on learning, and always strive to improve".
History
White Stag traces its direct roots to 1933 and GödöllöGödöllo
Gödöllő is a town situated in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary, about northeast from the outskirts of Budapest. Its population is about 31,000 according to the 2001 census. It can be easily reached from Budapest with the suburban railway . Gödöllő is home to the Szent István...
, Hungary, and the Fourth World Scout Jamboree which three of its founders attended.
Origins in Hungary
At the 1933 World Scout Jamboree, a 14 year old Scout named Bela Bánáthy was kneeling by his campfire when three uniformed men rode up on horseback: Count Paul Teleki, the Chief Scout of Hungary and the Chief of Staff for the jamboree; General Kisbarnaki Ferenc FarkasKisbarnaki Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak was Chief Scout of the Hungarian Boy Scouts, commanding officer of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia, the country's officer training school, and General of the Hungarian VI Army Corps during World War II...
, a general staff officer of the Royal Hungarian Army
Military of Hungary
The Hungarian Defence Force is the national military of Hungary. It currently has two branches, the Hungarian Ground Force and the Hungarian Air Force....
; and Baden-Powell, the British hero of the Boer War
Boer War
The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....
and Chief Scout of the World. The men introduced themselves to the Scout and inspected his camp. They complimented him on a job well done and rode on. Meeting the Chief Scout of Hungary and Boer War hero Robert Baden-Powell left a deep impression on Bánáthy. He decided he would become a military officer instead of a minister.
Bánáthy briefly met fellow Hungarian Boy Scout Joseph Szentkiralyi. Hungarian Sea Scouter Paul Ferenc Sujan's camp was visited by Baden-Powell, who asked to taste some of his soup. American Maury Tripp attended the Jamboree from Saratoga, California
Saratoga, California
Saratoga is a city in Santa Clara County, California, USA. It is located on the west side of the Santa Clara Valley, directly west of San Jose, in the San Francisco Bay area. The population was 29,926 at the 2010 census....
. These four Scouts would later play instrumental roles in forming the White Stag program on the Monterey Peninsula. At the conclusion of the Jamboree, Baden-Powell gave a farewell speech in which he challenged the Scouts present to pursue the ideals represented by the White Stag.
This challenge and the myth of the White Stag it cites grew to become a source of inspiration to Bánáthy. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Bánáthy was a junior officer in the Royal Hungarian Army
Military of Hungary
The Hungarian Defence Force is the national military of Hungary. It currently has two branches, the Hungarian Ground Force and the Hungarian Air Force....
. After being seriously wounded during combat in Russia, through the connections he made at the World Jamboree, he was invited by General Farkas
Kisbarnaki Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas de Kisbarnak was Chief Scout of the Hungarian Boy Scouts, commanding officer of the Royal Ludovika Akadémia, the country's officer training school, and General of the Hungarian VI Army Corps during World War II...
to join the faculty of the Hungarian Royal Academy. While there he served on the National Council of the Hungarian Scout Association
Magyar Cserkészszövetség
Magyar Cserkészszövetség , the primary national Scouting organization of Hungary, was founded in 1912, and became a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement in 1922 and again after the rebirth of Scouting in the country in 1990...
and became the voluntary national director for youth leadership development. Barely escaping Soviet capture and likely execution at the end of World War II, Bánáthy arrived after considerable personal trials in June 1951 at Monterey, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
to teach at the Army Language School
Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute is a United States Department of Defense educational and research institution, which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other Federal Agencies and numerous and varied other customers...
, where he became reacquainted with Joe Szentkiralyi, who he had met at the Fourth World Jamboree.
Joseph Szentkiralyi had also barely survived World War II. He and his family had previously come to the United States in 1939, where Szentkiralyi worked in New York City. At the start of World War II, they were deported back to Hungary. Because he spoke English, Szentkiralyi was assigned to watch over the crew members of the first American B-17 bomber to crash land in Hungary. When the crew told him sensitive information, he was ordered to reveal the information to his superiors. Citing the Geneva Convention, he refused. The authorities prepared to court-martial
Court-martial
A court-martial is a military court. A court-martial is empowered to determine the guilt of members of the armed forces subject to military law, and, if the defendant is found guilty, to decide upon punishment.Most militaries maintain a court-martial system to try cases in which a breach of...
him, and Szentkiralyi fled. During a time of frequent Allied aerial bombing raids, he hid where he figured no one would look for him: in the upper floors of apartment buildings. During one bombing raid a 500 pounds (226.8 kg) bomb crashed through and landed on the floor above him. Fortunately it did not explode. Szentkiralyi and his family later narrowly survived the Siege of Budapest.
After the war ended, Szentkiralyi found work for the American Embassy in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
as a translator. However, this put him in a vulnerable position as the Communists hardened their grip on power. Because he had lived in the United States and spoke English, he knew he would fall under suspicion. People he knew began to disappear, including a friend who worked at the U.S. Embassy. Within a few days he found a note on his desk that read, "You are next." With American assistance, he immediately fled Hungary for Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
. He and his family returned to New York City for a few months, and Szentkiralyi applied for a position as a Hungarian instructor at the Army Language School. He was hired in the summer of 1948 and founded their Hungarian Department.
Starting in 1951, almost 25 years afterward, four Scouts who had attended the 1933 Fourth World Jamboree were brought back together on the Monterey Peninsula. Joseph Szentkiralyi (which he later Anglicized as St. Clair) renewed his acquaintance with Bánáthy when he hired him. In 1956, they were joined by Hungarian Paul Ferenc Sujan. In Monterey, through their Scouting contacts, they met F. Maurice Tripp.
Growth on the Monterey Peninsula
Bánáthy had developed a passion for the idea of leadership development in boys when serving in the Hungarian Army. In Monterey, he became Chairman of the Leadership Training Committee of the Monterey Bay Area Council. He sought and received support for his concept of a leadership camp for boys with the Council Executive and Executive Board.Bánáthy informally recruited one patrol of boys, including his own sons, and took them to summer camp in 1957 to test his idea. John Chiorini, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout
Eagle Scout (Boy Scouts of America)
Eagle Scout is the highest rank attainable in the Boy Scouting program of the Boy Scouts of America . A Scout who attains this rank is called an Eagle Scout or Eagle. Since its introduction in 1911, the Eagle Scout rank has been earned by more than 2 million young men...
, was working on the waterfront. "Béla came through camp with a patrol of six or seven boys and commandeered me to teach a class on camp craft. He said he was trying out some new ideas with this patrol," Chiorini reported "Béla listened intently as I presented and then he came up after and gave me some tips on teaching. He was a mentor to me from that point on."
During the summer of 1958, Bánáthy recruited two patrols of boys to take part. Chiorini was recruited to serve as senior patrol leader. There wasn't much discussion of leadership competencies to start. Bánáthy seemed to have an internal sense of direction which not everyone understood. Chiorini said, "White Stag was all about creating an environment in which youth led youth. At the time, Scouting was not necessarily a boy-led program. I remember it was very clear in Béla’s mind what a boy-led Scouting program looked like. There was no question about who was in charge in White Stag. The boys were." Fran Peterson, a local Scouter who served on the National Engineering Service for the Boy Scouts of America, along with St. Clair, Sujan, and Tripp, helped Bánáthy develop the White Stag program. Some of them remained active with it into the 1970s.
Borrowing on his experience at the 1933 World Jamboree, Bánáthy based the program symbol and its spirit and traditions on the white stag symbol found in the patch for the Fourth World Scout Jamboree, which was in turn based on Hungarian mythology. On June 8, 1959, at an adult staff meeting attended by Béla Bánáthy, Jack Stone, Bill White, Paul Holbrook, Ralph Herring, Fran Petersen, and Staff Advisor Bill Lidderdale, they "officially adopted White Stag as the name for junior leaders training events." "Lord Baden-Powell was my personal idol and I long felt a commitment to give back to Scouting what I had received," Bánáthy said.
During August 1959, the first full-scale program was put on. Bánáthy served as Scoutmaster, Fran Petersen was Assistant Scoutmaster, along with eight other adult staff and 13 youth staff. The training troop consisted of 39 trainees from 24 troops. In the first two years of the program, emphasis was placed on training patrol leaders. Bánáthy said, "I saw in these principles an opportunity to develop the White Stag program for my three Boy Scout sons as well as show my gratitude to this country and Scouting."
During the same year, Bánáthy continued his research on leadership and learned that the U.S. Army's Human Resources Research Office (HumRRO) at the Presidio of Monterey
Presidio of Monterey, California
The Presidio of Monterey, located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center .-Spanish fort:...
was conducting research into the leadership characteristics of non-commissioned officer
Non-commissioned officer
A non-commissioned officer , called a sub-officer in some countries, is a military officer who has not been given a commission...
s. Bánáthy contacted research psychologist Paul Hood, Task Leader of Task NCO (Non-commissioned Officer), and began a fruitful collaboration. A HumRRO publication titled, A Guide for the Infantry Squad Leader–What the Beginning Squad Leader Should Know About Human Relations articulated a core set of leadership competencies. Bánáthy found Hood's research enumerated characteristics of leadership that strongly validated his vision and direction. With Hood's active encouragement, he decided to incorporate these leadership skills into White Stag.
In 1960, the adult staff announced that they would expand the program to offer an additional phase of leadership development for boys 14–17 years old, to train "junior trainers and impart leadership skills." This phase was christened Troop Leadership Development.
National Council takes notice
During 1962–63, Bánáthy focused his research and formalized it as his Master's Thesis at San Jose State University. The Monterey Bay Area Council published an abbreviated version of it titled A Design for Leadership Development in Scouting. Responding to widespread interest, Dr. Tripp gave a talk in 1963 at the Fifty-third Annual Meeting of the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America on Development of Leadership in Boy Leaders of Boys. In August 1963, a patrol of Scouts from the San Mateo County Council and a few boys from the Circle Ten Council
Circle Ten Council
Circle Ten Council is the main Boy Scouts of America chartered council in central north Texas and a portion of Oklahoma. It encompasses all or parts of: Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Henderson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro, Rains, Rockwall and Van Zandt counties in Texas as well as Bryan...
in Dallas attended White Stag summer camp at the Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
Pico Blanco Scout Reservation is a summer camp of about in Central California, operated by the Monterey Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Constructed during 1953-1954, it takes its name from the adjacent Pico Blanco . The land was donated to the Council by William R. Hearst in 1948...
. The program was observed and evaluated by Ken Wells (national director of Research) and John Larson (staff researcher). Wells had a long history with Wood Badge, beginning as a participant in the second United States Wood Badge
Wood Badge (Boy Scouts of America)
Wood Badge is the highest level of adult Scout leader training available. It was first presented in England by the founder of Scouting, Baden Powell, and he introduced the program into the United States during a visit in 1936. The first course was held at the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation,...
course in 1948. They were impressed by what they saw and experienced.
At the end of the August 1964 summer camp, Béla Bánáthy and Fran Peterson announced that White Stag would begin in 1965 to offer a third phase of leadership development for boys age 11–13, called "Patrol Member Development." This was a revolutionary step, for it made it possible for all boys 11–17 years old to learn leadership skills appropriate to their maturity, capabilities, and needs, and as they grew to re-cycle through the program in another phase and acquire increased skills.
World Scouting publishes paper
In 1969, the World Organization of the Scout Movement published a paper by Béla BánáthyBéla H. Bánáthy
Béla Heinrich Bánáthy was a Hungarian linguist, systems scientist and a professor at San Jose State University and UC Berkeley. Bánáthy was the founder of the White Stag Leadership Development Program whose leadership model was adopted across the United States...
titled Leadership Development: World Scouting Reference Paper No. 1. It described the results of the Boy Scouts of America's research and testing and was presented at the World Scoutings Conference in Helsinki. He advocated leadership development by design in Scouting based on the leadership competencies of White Stag. Bánáthy was appointed to the Interamerican Scout Committee and guided their national training teams at three Interamerican Train the Trainer events in Mexico, Costa Rica, and Venezuela.
Adapted for use in U.S. Wood Badge
In January 1967, John Larson began work with Bánáthy and Bob Perin to write a new Wood Badge staff guide focusing on leadership. Two of the project members, Ken Wells and Bob Perin, had participated in the second United States Wood Badge course in 1948. Despite their long experience in Wood Badge, they saw the benefit of adding leadership skills development to Wood Badge. William "Green Bar" Hillcourt, Scoutmaster of the first U.S. Wood Badge course in 1948, felt very strongly that the traditional teaching of Scoutcraft skills should be retained. Hillcourt had recently formally retired, but his opinion still held considerable weight. Nonetheless, Chief Scout Joseph BruntonJoseph Brunton
Joseph A. Brunton, Jr. was a career professional for the Boy Scouts of America, and served the BSA National Council as the fourth Chief Scout Executive from 1960 to 1966.-BSA career:...
approved the changes.
The National Boy Scouts of America began to test the revised Wood Badge program utilizing the White Stag leadership competencies later that year. In May 1967, staff from councils who were invited to attend the initial course met at Philmont to plan the program, and on June 17, 1967, the first experimental Wood Badge course was offered at Philmont. One month later, the Circle Ten Council in Dallas presented its first new Wood Badge course. In September 1967, six councils were approved to pilot-test the new Wood Badge program in 1968: Monterey Bay Area Council, Piedmont Council, Middle Tennessee, Del-Mar-Va, and Hiawatha (formerly Onondago) and Circle Ten Council
Circle Ten Council
Circle Ten Council is the main Boy Scouts of America chartered council in central north Texas and a portion of Oklahoma. It encompasses all or parts of: Collin, Dallas, Ellis, Fannin, Grayson, Henderson, Hunt, Kaufman, Navarro, Rains, Rockwall and Van Zandt counties in Texas as well as Bryan...
.
Among these was an experimental Wood Badge course in Monterey in 1968. Bánáthy was Course Director, Joe St. Clair served as Scoutmaster, and Fran Petersen was senior patrol leader. John Larson, National Director of Education, was also present. In a unique application not since reproduced, all attendees were asked to bring their entire troop to a single week of summer camp, allowing the Wood Badge staff who also attended to use the summer camp as an application for Wood Badge.
Modified for use in junior leader training
Pilot-testing and experimentation continued for three more years, and an experimental junior leader training program was begun in 1969. This later became Troop Leader DevelopmentNational Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...
, containing modified versions of the leadership competencies which were included in the final Troop Leadership Development Staff Guide, written by John W. Larson, which credited White Stag with its origins:
Recent history
The White Stag program continued to present the Monterey Bay Area Council's official junior leader training program through the early 1970s, and again from 1994 to 2004. In 1975, Bill Roberts, the Phase III Director, invited the first Explorer girls age 14–18 to take part in the program and adult women to serve on adult staff, becoming the first coeducational leadership development program in the Boy Scouts of America. When Bánáthy learned of girls' new role in the program, he says it was long overdue. Committed to training youth of all ages in a manner reflecting the real world, where both sexes must work together, the next year White Stag invited girls age 11–13 to participate as well. The program was evaluated by a staff member of from the Western Region of the Boy Scouts of America in 1978. He wrote:At the same time the Monterey Bay Area Council decided to replace the White Stag program with the nationally-mandated adaptation of White Stag, the Troop Leader Development
National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...
program. The adult volunteer leaders of White Stag founded the White Stag Association in 1982, which continued to sponsor the program. It moved the camp to Santa Cruz and rented Skylark Ranch Resident Camp from the Girl Scouts of Santa Clara County for two years. In subsequent years, the Association moved the summer program to San Mateo County Council's Camp Cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
, and later, at different times, to Marin Council's Camp Marin-Sierra and Yosemite Council's Camp Mensinger in the California Sierra Nevada Mountains. They largely stopped attracting youth from the Monterey Bay Area as well.
In 1993, the Monterey Bay Area Council's Junior Leader Training Chairman Steve Cardinalli offered to run the Council's junior leader training program using the White Stag methods. This proposal was readily accepted by the Council Executive. White Stag adult alumni of the now San Francisco Bay Area
San Francisco Bay Area
The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a populated region that surrounds the San Francisco and San Pablo estuaries in Northern California. The region encompasses metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose, along with smaller urban and rural areas...
-based program who lived in the Monterey Peninsula
Monterey Peninsula
The Monterey Peninsula is located on the central California coast and comprises the cities of Monterey, Carmel, and Pacific Grove, and unincorporated areas of Monterey County including the resort and community of Pebble Beach.-Monterey:...
area recruited a youth staff who planned and presented the White Stag program at Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
Pico Blanco Scout Reservation
Pico Blanco Scout Reservation is a summer camp of about in Central California, operated by the Monterey Bay Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America. Constructed during 1953-1954, it takes its name from the adjacent Pico Blanco . The land was donated to the Council by William R. Hearst in 1948...
in 1994. This Monterey-based program continued to present the council's junior leader training program until 2005, when a new Council Executive decided once again to adopt the current National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...
(NYLT) program. The adult leadership of the Monterey White Stag group incorporated in 2005 as the non-profit White Stag Leadership Development Academy, Inc. to support the program. They moved their summer camp program to Camp Cutter and later to Camp Lindblad in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Santa Cruz Mountains
The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central California, United States. They form a ridge along the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco, separating the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco Bay and the Santa Clara Valley, and continuing south,...
.
During 2004, White Stag Program Director Steve Cardinalli and former Director John Connelly founded a comparable program for the Girl Scouts of California's Central Coast. The program is based on the tenets of White Stag. It was held at Cutter Scout Reservation for two years. The Girl Scouts then assumed leadership of the program and renamed it Artemis
Artemis
Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name and indeed the goddess herself was originally pre-Greek. Homer refers to her as Artemis Agrotera, Potnia Theron: "Artemis of the wildland, Mistress of Animals"...
, after the Greek goddess who protects young girls, animals, and the natural environment. They have continued to run it as a resident camp for girls 11–17 each summer in the Santa Cruz mountains.
Both the Northern and Central California White Stag organizations continue to develop and present summer camps for youth by youth, led by a corps of volunteer adults. The program observed its 50th anniversary in 2008. Participation in the Monterey-based group has continued to increase each year, to 258 in 2010 up from 70 in 2006. They currently run two week-long summer camps. The Northern California-based group has attracted between 40-55 campers for the each of the past three years. Since its inception, the two White Stag programs have operated continuously for more than 50 years entirely on a voluntary basis, with an estimated 20,000 youth having attended its camps.
Other programs using the White Stag name
In 1967, Rex Hatch returned to the Crossroads of America CouncilScouting in Indiana
Scouting in Indiana has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.-Early history :...
after attending a pilot test of the JLT program at Philmont. He founded in 1972 a junior leader training which was based on the White Stag principles, but which was modified and "based on the standard national Boy Scouts of America NYLT syllabus." Another White Stag program is produced by the Hoosier Trails Council
Scouting in Indiana
Scouting in Indiana has a long history, from the 1910s to the present day, serving thousands of youth in programs that suit the environment in which they live.-Early history :...
in Bloomington
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
based on the "National Youth Leadership Training Course syllabus." On the east coast, the Narragansett Council in Rhode Island also teaches the "Youth Leadership Training (NYLT), traditionally known in our Council as White Stag."
These programs are produced by the local councils. They present the standardized, nationally-mandated National Youth Leadership Training program. The non-profit White Stag Academy in Monterey, California sponsors Venture Crew 122, which develops and produces a summer camp program independent of the Boy Scout of America's nationally mandated junior leaders training program
National Youth Leadership Training
National Youth Leadership Training is the current incarnation of youth leadership development training offered by the Boy Scouts of America . The program is conducted at the council level over a week or over two weekends. It is intended to provide standardized, in-depth training covering a number...
.