Wyoming Congressional Award Validators keep our participants on track and on a roll.
The Validator’s Role and Responsibilities
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Review The Congressional Award requirements and guidelines listed in the participant’s program booklet.
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Discuss the specific requirements for the program area in which you’ll be working with the participant.
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Help the participant identify his or her starting level in a particular area of endeavor.
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Make certain that the participant’s goal is personally challenging, achievable, worthwhile, measurable, and fulfilling.
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Once minimum hours and months of activity have been met in your program area, review all of the appropriate documentation and sign the Record Book. Please be sure to provide comments.
develop relationships
As a Wyoming Congressional Award Validator, you'll work closely with a participant on a specific goal they've set. Chances are if they've asked you to participate, it's because you have working knowledge in whatever field or subject area they're committed to improving their skill level in. It's a great chance to develop a mentor relationship!
spark
growth
Goal-setting is a crucial life skill and as a Validator, you'll have the opportunity to ensure the participant sets goals that are personally challenging, achievable, worthwhile, measurable, and fulfilling. The sense of accomplishment you'll help create is life-changing.
process = progress
There is nothing more important than having a realistic process for setting goals. As a Validator, you'll have a major impact on helping an aspiring medalist to understand how important the process is. You can make suggestions, act as a cheerleader, and encourage a positive perspective when the inevitable bumps in the road appear.
THE SKY'S THE LIMIT
“Wyoming's youth are capable of accomplishing great things. I enjoy seeing the growth of participants—from 'shy and I don't know how to do this'—to taking on leadership roles in their schools or taking on greater responsibility in their own lives. It is amazing to see how much they can achieve and they do it largely on their own. It's a magnificent sight to behold.”
—Karmen Rossi, Cheyenne
Serving as a Validator isn't just about signing paperwork. It's about so much more.
There's a reason why Congressional Award activities must take place outside a required school setting. It's about making room for curiosity, hobbies, and the pursuit of improvement for improvement's sake.
As adolescents prepare for adulthood, perhaps nothing is more important than building the habit of devoting time to personal projects and goals. We live in a world with constant distraction from around-the-clock social media, news cycles, and screens of all types, and that can eat into our free time without anything to show for it. The antidote, of course, is to rediscover the value of hobbies and goals. Learning to knit, or juggle, or write poetry, or shave an elusive 32 seconds from our personal best 5K time—those aren't frivolous goals, but rather ways to reclaim control over how we spend our time. Learning how to measure progress when learning a new skill or improving on an existing one leads to a sense of accomplishment that simply cannot compete with mindlessly scrolling through a social media feed. As a Wyoming Congressional Award Validator, you have the opportunity to encourage that process and engage in a meaningful way with a young person who shares similar interests. It's so simple, yet so significant.