Whiz Kid: Keegan Amal Boyle, Eagle Scout

On Saturday, Keegan Amal Boyle, 18, received the highest rank and honor in scouting, the Eagle Scout Award. 

Involved in the scouting program since first grade, Keegan is a member of Boy Scout Troop 306, of .

Keegan, a 2011 graduate of , describes his experience as a Life Scout with two words -- responsibility and leadership.

“Through boy scouting I got my first real job as a life guard at the Trexler Scout Camp,” Keegan said. “I learned a lot of responsibility ... to step up to the plate and grow from a boy to a man.”

As a Lake instructor at Camp Trexler in 2009, he became a certified waterfront life guard which led to a job as a Life guard at Dutch Springs. He also gained leadership experience by actively participating as both a scribe and a patrol leader in his Troop.

For his Eagle Scout Leadership Project, Keegan interviewed and documented the stories of fifteen World War II Veterans from the Lehigh Valley. He donated self-published copies to the and the Vets who participated.

He wrote: “They represent the foundation of America and the values that our country protects. I hope that by telling their stories I can add some dignity to their wartime experiences. My main objective in publishing these stories is to capture the essence of a time when American loyalty meant more than saying the pledge of allegiance.”

One of the key lessons Keegan learned from the process was that people hold quite different perspectives and opinions about the same situation and that everything is not always what it seems to be on the surface.

Keegan seems to seek inspiration and wisdom from history so it is no surprise that he traveled to India this summer to seek out his own roots, visiting relatives in Calcutta, New Delhi and Agra, where he saw the Taj Mahal.

“He came back and it was like he found part of himself.” said his mother, Shupriya Boyle. “It was neat for him to tell me these stories. I never would have thought he would have been so interested in his heritage.”

Upon return from India, a piece of his cultural identity emerged, “I learned what makes me ME has a lot to do with the culture I come from whether I realized it or not.”  

Keegan believes many Americans, especially teens, discard their culture for the sake of conformity to American standards. Now he is much more proud of that part of his identity that is Indian.

His personal philosophy resonates with the adage “If you don’t know where you are from then how do you know where you are going?”  

Where is Keegan going? For now, he is going to McDaniel College in Westminster, Maryland in the fall, intending to major in law because he wants his opinions heard and he wants those opinions to make a difference.

“There is something deeper in us that transcends labels,” Keegan said. “If we just ignore all the labels we used to judge each other and embrace each other’s differences, then we could move forward with the real problems of the environment, poverty and actual problems instead of filtering out the differences.”

In all his modesty, Keegan is a very impressive and articulate young man. His key to awesomeness as he said is, “being open minded to all situations ... to be as young at heart as I can and broadening my horizons.” 

If by young at heart he means maintaining his youthful curiosity and sensitivity towards others, then this Whiz Kid has great potential to use the lessons he learned as an Eagle Scout -- responsibility, leadership and independence -- towards making the difference he so desires.