How the Program Works
The Congressional Award is the highest honor an American youth can earn. You'll learn more about yourself than you thought possible; while the goals may be challenging, the process itself is simple. After you familiarize yourself with each of the four program areas, follow these steps....
1. Register.
Before you can begin working on your activities/goals and counting hours in each of the four program areas, you MUST complete your registration. To Register you will need the name of your advisor, their contact information and an email address for yourself. WCAC staff support is only open to Wyoming residents; however, if you move to a different state, the National Congressional Award office will continue to manage your participation in the program.
NOTE: If the $25 registration fee is a barrier, don't fear. You can contact us at 307-514-2004 and we will cover the cost.
2. Work toward your goals.
This is the fun part! Now that you're familiar with your goals, make a commitment to working on them regularly. Communicate with your advisor and validators often, and don't forget all of you can reach out to the WCAC Office with any questions or need for coaching you might have! This is a good time to plan specific steps you'll take to undertake an Expedition or Exploration of your choosing.
3. Document the hours you spend working toward your goals.
We can‘t emphasize this enough—you must document the process of working toward your goals! You might think you‘ll remember all the activities you engaged in and volunteer opportunities you showed up for, but you likely won‘t. Staying on top of the documentation process will save you loads of time and trouble later.
4. Submit your record book and receive your medal.
You can submit electronically through Submittable (no paper) your record book at any time, but in order to be included in the Wyoming State Medal Ceremony for the upcoming year, your Record Book must be submitted by December 31 to allow time for revisions, approval and to make sure you can attend the ceremony held in the spring!
Not ready by that deadline? No worries!! Submit electronically anytime and you'll be included in the next year's ceremony.
5. Repeat.
Once you've submitted your Record Book for one level, it's on to the next!
We encourage you to pull out/download the Program Book again and review with your advisor. You may adjust your goals or continue working on the same ones. Either way, you'll only report new hours spent working toward the next level.
Once registered, you have until your 24th birthday to complete the program. Don't give up!