The Congressional Award

Good for our Students - Good for our Community: Wiley Dobbs, CAF Board of Directors member

Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter (left) with Wiley Dobbs (right).

In December of 1993, I was the principal at O’Leary Junior High School in Twin Falls, Idaho. A parent came to me and asked me if I would be interested in a program called “The Congressional Award.” I told her I would look at it and unenthusiastically threw it in my pile of programs to look at. The parent was Linda Norris, an aide to then-U.S. Representative Mike Crapo. As promised, I reviewed the information she gave me and fell in love on the spot with the Congressional Award Program!

What’s not to love? The Congressional Award is voluntary, individual, and non-competitive. Whether academically gifted or challenged; affluent or impoverished; physically fit or disabled; enthusiastic about school or bored — anyone ages 13½ to 23 can participate. The program is universal. Students do not win the award; they earn it. Most of all, I liked the idea that it accentuated the positive things that so many of the young people in our nation are already doing. I was delighted to become involved in a program that recognizes the good things young people do.

In 2009, after 16 years serving on the Board of Directors of Idaho’s Council, I was appointed to the national United States Congressional Award Foundation Board of Directors by U.S. Senate Minority Leader, Senator Mitch McConnell.

This is truly an outstanding program, and I have tried to give every student in our school district the opportunity to participate. I have served as an Advisor to hundreds of students through the years and have recruited other educators in our district to do the same. I am proud that the Twin Falls School District has the highest percentage of involvement in the nation and that Idaho is a leading state. The Congressional Award Program is good for our students - and good for our community. Thousands upon thousands of hours of community service have been contributed by young adults in our area as they have worked in the program.

In addition, the Congressional Award Program is a family affair. Both of our sons, Dylan and Austin, are in high school now. They have earned their Silver Medals and are close to achieving their Gold. My wife and I look forward to joining them in Washington DC one day soon to watch as they receive the highest award presented by the Congress of the United States.

~Wiley Dobbs, Advisor and member of CAF Board of Directors

Earning the Award is Just the Beginning: Gold Medalist Ashleigh Serrano

The Congressional Award appealed to me in my youth because of my passion for and commitment to community service. I was always looking for different ways to be involved in community service projects, and when I heard about the Congressional Award from a friend in my home town I thought of it as a natural extension to my interests and knew it was something I wanted to be involved in.

Working to attain goals I set for myself in the categories of Volunteer Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness and Expedition/Exploration was an extremely rewarding experience- one where I met amazing people, organized a successful clothing drive for a homeless shelter, started a profitable jewelry business, was an active member and captain of various varsity sports teams and organized and participated in an expedition/exploration trip – just to name a few of the incredible experiences I was part of during my journey for the Congressional Award. Keeping a journal and logging my hours for the Congressional Award taught me to stay organized and was a great way to reflect on all the hard work I put into my gold medal.

The lessons and experiences I gained from the Congressional Award are ones I have been able to carry with me throughout my life. I found myself using the organizational and time management skills I learned from my time with the Congressional Award during college and being very grateful I had that experience under my belt. Now that I am in the work world, I find myself reverting back to and talking about my experiences with the Congressional Award and how it set me up to have a positive future— the Congressional Award is for people who are willing to work hard and make a difference.

The Congressional Award’s influence on your life does not go away once you receive your award; in fact, receiving the award is just the beginning. Your time with the Congressional Award is the brick work for the foundation of your life. You learn how to challenge yourself, work hard and truly make a difference in other people’s lives and in your own. Everything that you do after is influenced by the Congressional Award, and I really believe that I am a better person because of my experience with the Congressional Award. I hope that you too see the benefits of the Congressional Award and challenge yourself to become a Congressional Award recipient. It will change your life for the better!

~Ashleigh Alexandra L. Serrano
2010 Gold Medalist

An American Spring: Adam Ruiz, CAF Board of Directors Member

Lately, whenever I read the news or watch the news on TV, inevitably the focus is on what is not working well in our country. We are inundated with stories of how leaders are failing their constituents or even stories about failed or ineffective leadership.

Although at times I am tempted to despair about the “state of the world” after hearing such stories, I invariably find myself thinking of the young people who are part of our Congressional Awards Program. Their energy, passion, idealism, creativity and resourcefulness fill me with hope for the future. Indeed, it isn’t their future work that inspires me so. It is that they are already doing good today and are making a significant difference in their part of the world.

When an 18-year-old student from Pennsylvania can raise $50,000 for cancer research for her local children’s hospital, that gives me hope. When some of our participants are already involved in more advanced leadership activities, including public speaking, facilitating meetings, attending conferences, creating visual media, mapping community resources, and training other teens, that gives me hope. When our Congressional Award youth are engaging in actions of leadership that inspires them to work for a cause greater than their own individual life, that gives me hope.

We often talk about the Arab Spring where thousands of youth demonstrated peacefully for change in their respective countries. In our country, we too are in the midst of our own American youth spring. The American youth have a passion for the possible and are not afraid of saying ‘yes’ to big challenges. They are learning how to take good care of the present moment, which means they will know how to take good care of the future.

It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step. Our youth have not only taken the first step, they have already taken a thousand steps; steps that will ensure a great future for themselves, for their communities and for our country.

When Galileo saw the stars for the first time through the telescope, he said, “I give infinite thanks to my God, who in His mercy, has made me the first observer of such marvelous things.”

I too give thanks. I give thanks for our youth. I give thanks that I can be a witness to their ever growing awareness of their giftedness and potential. I give thanks that I have been given an opportunity to help empower their dreams. I give thanks that I can be “…an observer of such marvelous things.”

I invite you to join us in this new American Spring as part of Congressional Award. Join us and see how your world will enlarge, expand and increase. Join us and realize your greatest potential come to fruition. Join us and celebrate the great things that American youth are doing. Come be a part of something great, something worthwhile, something lasting.

I look forward to meeting you in Washington DC when you receive your well-earned Gold Medal!

~Adam Ruiz
CAF Board of Directors Member

Start with Running: Gold Medalist Kevin Suyo

Start with running. In ninth grade I was no sportsman: too lanky for football, too short for basketball, too uncoordinated for soccer. I was the studious type. By default I ran cross-country, but I treated it as a chore and not a passion; another required class in high school. I dreaded the bitter sprints on grey evenings and the cold slap of grainy mud on my calves. I hated the smell of the locker room and the velvety feel of running shorts. And I tried most days to avoid the glare of the coach who in my freshman eyes stood as silent taskmaster, clipboard in hand, judging our progress from his perch in the gazebo on the hill high above the sports fields.

When I began working towards the Congressional Award, I used cross-country as my exercise in physical fitness. It seemed a logical choice, and I expected to accumulate my two hundred hours painfully, drearily. But gradually something changed. In seeing my hours tick steadily upwards, I found excitement, satisfaction, accomplishment. I stopped dreading practice. I grew to enjoy the crunch of dead leaves under rubber sneakers and the freshness of grass on misty race days and the taste of copper and tin – the taste of exertion – present in each athletic breath. I grew stronger.

The Congressional Award had given me both a goal and the opportunity for self-reflection. I had been running because I was required to: because school policy forced every student to play a sport. But those award hours gave me something to strive for. I began to wonder why I was working for them, and the answers I discovered changed the way I thought of the sport. I began to run because it was healthy. Because it taught self-discipline. And yes: because maybe, just maybe, it could even be fun.

Another part of my outlook changed as well, in a more important way. My coach became my validator, and in turning to him I began to see him not as an overseer but as a mentor. And he, seeing the newfound sense of passion I brought to the field, began to challenge me and help me grow. He guided me as I passed through high school, becoming not only my coach but my teacher, my advisor, my college recommendation writer.

The value of building relationships with advisors seems self-explanatory to me now, but I forget sometimes that this skill was learned, and that at one point in my life I was that silly thirteen year old, who needed a gentle push towards taking advice. For the Congressional Award, which gave me that push, I am grateful.

-Kevin Suyo
2007 Gold Medalist