Duke of Edinburgh

A Brief Background

Since I enrolled in the Duke of Edinburgh award program at the beginning of my sophomore year, it has become a major part of my life and has largely guided my extracurricular decisions. Duke of Edinburgh (henceforth referred to as DofE or DOE) fundamentally aims to develop the participant through coursework comprised of four main areas: developing new skills, becoming fitter, helping their community/environment, and completing an
“adventurous journey” which is essentially a multi-day expedition. When the participant logs a certain number of hours on the online record book, they receive the bronze award. After this, one can move on to begin working towards the silver and gold awards to which the bronze acts as a prerequisite. I recently completed all of the requirements for my bronze award and am currently progressing towards silver.

2019 Introduction to Orienteering

My group and I pore over a map (Photo Credits: Muneera Dawoodbhoy)

One of the most critical parts of preparing for the adventurous journey is gaining a proficiency in orienteering, which is done through a multi-hour course featuring map reading, pace counting, and route-card constructing. All of these skills will prove vital in both the adventurous journey and the practice adventurous journey (taking place in late November). Last year, the session took upwards of seven hours to complete, but this year the total elapsed time came out to about 4 and a half hours as all of the material was covered in the previous lesson. Ultimately, the session was a valuable resource to review much important information, and I feel much better prepared for the adventurous journey than I did previously. With the 2019 Duke of Edinburgh orienteering lesson completed, I am one step closer to achieving the rank of a silver award recipient; a title representative of holistic personal development and overall commitment to gaining new skills and having new experiences.