World Scout Jamboree Stories: Once in a Lifetime or Lifechanging?

Attending a World Scout Jamboree - Once in a Lifetime or Lifechanging?

Emily Hale’s reflection ahead of attending the 25th World Scout Jamboree, on her international scouting adventure over the past twelve years since she was a participant at the 22nd World Scout Jamboree.

Members of the 2011 UK Contingent ready to embark on their "Once in a Lifetime" adventure

12 years ago, I was on my way to attend the 22nd World Scout Jamboree in Sweden. As I travel to the 25th World Scout Jamboree, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on that trip and my Scouting journey since then.

One of the things I was told regularly in the lead up to the WSJ in 2011, was that I was about to have a “once in a lifetime opportunity”. And that was true, it was the only time I would be able to attend a World Scout Jamboree as a participant. But looking back now, even more than being “once in a lifetime” that jamboree was a “life changing” experience.

I attended the 2011 World Jamboree as a participant with the UK Contingent. I had attended numerous camps before, and even travelled outside of the country with Scouting but this was my first experience of a World Scouting event.

2011 WSJ Pre-Tour

2015 WSJ Car Park IST

I don’t remember all the details of that trip (I only managed to take 11 photos, much to my parents’ chagrin) but what did stick with me afterwards was how incredible it was to live in an international temporary city for two weeks. Waking up in the morning and walking to your activities with scouts from Australia, earning a patch with scouts from Denmark, and having dinner with scouts from Sweden was all a normal day. I had caught the jamboree bug, and like many participants was determined to return four years later as IST.

And return I did, I was once again a part of the UK Contingent in 2015 as a member of the International Service Team. It is from this point on that participating in a World Scout Jamboree, starts to feel less once-in-a-lifetime and even more lifechanging.

Two days after the 2015 WSJ, I was scheduled to move to the USA and start my first year of university. Having dual citizenship had always meant attending university in the US was an option, but the international scouting adventures I had experienced up to this point definitely helped give me the confidence to go. While I was at the jamboree, I searched out Scouts attending from Atlanta to see if I could make a connection with anyone who would be local to me. During my time at college, I was able to join Atlanta Area Council’s International Committee and serve as a Citizenship in the World Merit Badge Counselor.

At university one year, I was discussing summer plans with my friends. Some were taking classes, others had internships lined up, but my main activity was attending the 2017 World Scout Moot. Many questions followed;

“What is a Moot?”
“There’s Scouting outside of the US?”
“And that’s fun?”

2017 World Scout Moot

WSM Tribe Reunion at 2019 WSJ

2019 WSJ D4 Listening Ear IST

Before my final year of college, I was IST again at the 2019 World Scout Jamboree but this time as part of the US Contingent. Being engaged with international scouting helped me transition into scouting in the BSA. The Scouts I met understood that I wouldn’t have earned my Eagle Scout but could still be an ATAS Member, and helped me to learn about the structure of Scouting in the BSA.

After graduating when I was moving cities, I had a checklist of things to do:

Find an apartment
Move in
Contact the local International Representative to see if there were ways to get involved in local international scouting activities

They were not always carried out in that order.

As a Scouting volunteer, I am engaged with all sorts of tasks. I teach Merit Badges, mentor my troop’s Patrol Leaders Council, generate communications content for the International Committee, and get to represent BSA abroad. My involvement with international scouting has physically taken me around the world and also helped me to develop skills to work with people across the globe. Organizing a volunteer event, or working on a project with employees based in another country is much easier when you’ve already navigated those things whilst camping in a field for two weeks. Attending a World Scout Jamboree hasn’t just influenced my Scouting journey, but has shaped who I am as a person. That’s pretty life-changing.

The World of Opportunities available through international scouting has expanded my horizons and shown me that if you get the right group of people together, you can achieve the impossible. Who outside of Scouting would think that you could create a temporary city of 50,000 people from over 150 countries for two weeks?

I’m excited to travel to South Korea this week to attend my fourth World Scout Jamboree. While many aspects of the jamboree will be similar to in previous years, I know that I will get the chance to meet and learn from new people and have new experiences. Those are the things that have made the past 12 years of international scouting a life-changing adventure.

If you had asked me twelve years ago what I thought I would achieve and experience by 2023, almost none of of the things I’ve done would be on the list. The one thing I think I was fairly certain of though, was that I would be doing everything I could to experience another World Scout Jamboree.

2022 Interamerican Scout Conference - Paraguay

To all the participants heading to the 25th World Scout Jamboree this week, don’t take for granted that this is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity. Take it all in and make the most of it.

To the members of the US Contingent who experienced a World Scout Jamboree for the first time in 2019 and are back for more this year, welcome to the next part of the adventure. Who knows where it might take you?