2024

Asher Collens

Asher’s Eagle Project worked with Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center to improve a section of the Lake Trail that had to be rerouted due to erosion. He led 46 volunteers in over 230 hours of work to complete the project. The trail is used by thousands of people each year and is an important part of his memories as a Shaver’s Creek Camper and Leader-in-Training. Asher learned that, with effective planning, he could lead and teach large crews.

In the State High Outing Club, Asher has been getting his fellow classmates together for outdoor adventures for over two years. State High’s experienced backpackers and day-hikers rally around his leadership. Rookies look to him for guidance, help and encouragement. He is instrumental in helping to prepare new members for their first outing and always reminds everyone that they need to pack rain gear, unless they want rain.

Scouts taught me how to tie a bowline, don’t bring a hammock on a winter camping trip, and what a spondonicle is, along with many outdoor and life skills. Most importantly, it let me fail in a safe space and then pass lessons from those failures down to my fellow Scouts and the broader outdoor community at State College Area High School as President of the Outing Club. I plan to never stop sharing my love for the outdoors and the lessons it teaches.

Asher Collens

Henry Smith

Henry Smith is a nature lover, outdoor enthusiast, and confident camper. As an Eagle Scout from Troop 31 in State College, Henry learned and led, serving as the bugler, webmaster, patrol leader, troop guide, assistant senior patrol leader, and senior patrol leader. This past summer, he attended the National Boy Scout Jamboree at the Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia, serving as Senior Patrol Leader for the Juniata Valley Council contingent. During his 10 years in Scouting, he spent over 45 nights camping.  For his Eagle Scout project, he constructed five raised hexagonal beds at Millbrook Marsh Nature Center for planting native Pennsylvania grasses. He also rebuilt a split rail fence enclosing a shade garden and included a gate. When summer comes around, he volunteers as a camp leader at Shaver’s Creek and in his free time, enjoys hunting, fishing, and hiking in the outdoors with his friends and family. 

Overall, my involvement in Scouting has been a challenging yet exciting journey that has equipped me with the skills, values and mindset needed to navigate the “real world” with confidence. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunities Scouting has offered me and will continue to offer me, as “once an Eagle, always an Eagle”.

Henry Smith

2023

Alice Gipe

Alice Gipe served as secretary of the State High Outing Club in her junior year and then as president in her senior year. As a club officer, she has collaborated with other club officers to plan trips and outings. She also helped organize a gear drive to make club trips more accessible to inexperienced members. In her role as president, she has increased the club outings and worked to grow the club membership to 81 members.

Alice has also worked as a ski instructor as our local ski mountain where she worked with kids and adults of all skill and ability levels and a Leader in Training at an outdoor summer camp.

As a Girl Scout in Troop 40214, Alice has undertaken a very challenging project increasing accessibility to the forests for the local community. For her Gold Award, she chose to make trail improvements to a very popular trail just a few miles from the Penn State Campus (Shingletown Gap). This trail is also the site of unmarked ruins from the early iron industry. Alice’s project highlights this history by building an informational kiosk.

I value the meaningful connections that I am able to make with the young campers, and I am able to teach them about the wonders of nature while also building on my own knowledge on the same topic. All in all, these experiences in the outdoors have also led me to settle on Environmental Science as a path of future study in college because I have developed such a passion for the environment.

Alice Gipe