Students Review of Univsersity of Iowa Alpha Phi Omega

A tour guide the Iota Phi Chapter of Alpha Phi Omega leads Scouts on a bout of the University of California at Davis. (Pre-pandemic photo courtesy of the Iota Phi Chapter)

With more than clubs, student organizations and intramural sports than there are hours in the week, college offers more than enough opportunities for young people to stay involved.

Merely college-bound Scouting alumni who wish to go on serving others in meaningful, rewarding ways volition want to save room on their Google calendars for Alpha Phi Omega, the national service fraternity found at hundreds of colleges nationwide.

Alpha Phi Omega, or APO, was founded by Scouts for Scouts — transporting the Scouting delivery to service into college, where service projects are a great way to give back, make friends and strengthen résumés.

Membership in Scouting was dropped as an APO requirement in 1967, and women were invited to bring together in 1970. While APO is no longer officially associated with the BSA, the ii are still considered "partners in service."

In fact, y'all'll yet find APO in the Scouts BSA Handbook. Page 438 (of both editions, boys and girls) tells readers that APO "encourages its members to continue their Scouting involvement through college connections."

APO is a service fraternity (rather than social, bookish or professional), meaning young people can be APO members while nevertheless joining other Greek life organizations.

Founded past Scouters

Blastoff Phi Omega is the only national college service fraternity with its roots firmly planted in Scouting.

It was founded in 1925 by Scouters and Scouting alumni at Lafayette College in Easton, Pa. Its founder, Frank Reed Horton, wanted to get together a group of college students that would strive "to help other people at all times."

Sound familiar? Horton wasn't a Picket, just while at Lafayette, he met a local Scout executive at an American Legion banquet. Intrigued and inspired, Horton signed up to be a commissioner, a Scoutmaster and later on a summer army camp associate managing director.

"Through these experiences, I found that the Scout Oath and Sentry Constabulary were what I had been seeking," he says, adding that the BSA'southward timeless values are "a code of ethics created and accepted by some of the greatest leaders the world has always known."

The Alpha Phi Omega booth at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree (Courtesy of APO)

Helpful, friendly and kind

Since 1925, APO has helped more than 500,000 members on more than than 375 campuses requite back to their local communities by organizing campus claret drives, helping at showtime-yr orientation, promoting beginning aid training and much more.

Many chapters connect with local BSA councils and districts to requite dorsum to Scouting directly. They accept helped at:

• Klondike Derbies, with check-in, food prep, judging stations, setting upwards and taking downwards
• Pinewood Derbies, every bit judges, check-in officials and food servers
• Local council camps, assisting with running weekend or weeklong camps or opening or closing camp for the season
• Merit Badge University, every bit merit badge counselors or all-purpose volunteers ready to help wherever needed

"We have a large presence with some college campuses that host these Merit Badge University events," says Kevin Baldwin, chair of the National Scouting & Youth Services Committee for Blastoff Phi Omega and the liaison betwixt APO and the BSA. "It'south swell to encounter immature people committed to continuing their leadership and service in higher."

Other examples of APO service include:

• In March 2019, the Alpha Zeta Xi Affiliate at Lake Superior State University hosted a lock-in for the Scout troops in the expanse where the chapter provided food, activities and games throughout the night.
• In Apr 2019, the Eleven Chapter at Iowa State University hosted a Merit Bluecoat University for approximately 200 Scouts from all over Iowa.
• In April 2019, the Alpha Zeta Kappa Affiliate at Eastern Kentucky University repaired and rebuilt the benches at the amphitheater at the BSA'south Camp McKee in training for a council issue.

Alpha Phi Omega members at APO's 2018 National Convention (Courtesy of Chris Gordon)

Leadership, Friendship, Service

APO'due south three principles are leadership, friendship and service.

Opportunities for leadership and service are a core office of APO'south ethos. So where does friendship come up in?

Equally any Lookout knows, when you're engaged in a service project, like planning a kickball tournament for kids with special needs or fifty-fifty cleaning up a littered lawn after a big issue on campus, y'all're bound to make new friends.

Certain plenty, Scouts who join APO class lasting friendships with swain members. They bail with others who hold that this is the best way to spend some of their costless fourth dimension in higher.

"While transitioning from loftier school to college, I was glad to have found an arrangement that had the same ethics as the lifelong friends from my BSA camp staffing days for so many years," Baldwin says. "It was like I didn't miss a beat from graduating high school by standing to have service projects to work on and making new friends — that I still continue in touch with today."

How to get involved

You'll find APO chapters all over the The states (and even in Canada and the Philippines). In that location's a chapter at the Academy of Alaska Anchorage, the University of Miami and pretty much everywhere in between.

To come across if in that location's an APO chapter at your alma mater or a school your Scout is because, utilize the chapter locator tool. Call back of it as APO's version of BeAScout.org.

"Alpha Phi Omega's partnership with the BSA — and other youth-serving organizations — makes our fraternity a unique bridge by joining forces to serve nearby campuses and communities," Baldwin says. "When APO brothers are members of both the BSA and APO, the opportunities and connections for APO chapters to help nearby BSA councils, and vice versa, grows and grows."

APO members who have gone to a higher place and beyond the call to strengthen the relationship between APO and Scouting and/or another youth-serving organization, tin can exist awarded the Herbert K. Horton Service to Youth Honour. More details hither.

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Source: https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2021/05/07/all-about-alpha-phi-omega-a-great-way-for-college-age-bsa-alumni-to-stay-connected/

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