The highest honor
Congress gives
to young Americans.

What it is

Congress created the award in 1979. It's the highest honor Congress gives to young Americans. No GPA requirement, no competition to enter. You set goals, log your hours, and prove you did the work.

877 people earned the Congressional Award Gold Medal in 2026. Talking with my friends who have become Eagle Scouts, that's probably the closest comparison. They spend years building toward Eagle Scout. I was in Scouts in elementary school but when I got more serious about baseball I stopped. Thanks to becoming a member of Young Men's Service League and a family friend recommending the Congressional Award, I decided to pursue it at the beginning of my freshman year.

I do think that if more students knew about the Congressional Award, more would pursue it. One reason I created this website was to document my expedition and share about the program.

The four areas

Gold Medal requires logged hours across all four areas. Bronze, Silver, and Gold Bronze levels build up to it. Here's how the program is structured, and where I stand.

What I learned

I started on September 13, 2023. The beginning of my freshman year.

When I first heard about the Congressional Award, I had just joined Young Men's Service League and was learning the importance of service. I wasn't sure what level to go for but I just got started. One thing I did learn: because I didn't register until 9/13/23, I wasn't able to count 10 hours I did in August 2023. So the sooner you register, the better.

My advice: start by aiming for Gold. After a year you can decide if it's realistic. The hardest part, in my opinion, is the service hours. 400+ hours across at least 24 different months means averaging close to 140 hours a year. You either need to average 15-20 hours of service per month, or get 100 hours each summer, or do a little of both.

You need a system to track your activities so you can see your progress. One of the benefits of doing this is that instead of saying "I have done community service" I can say "I have done over 400 hours of community service in three years."

The harder part was balance. Year-round baseball, mostly honors and AP classes, and a job at Publix. There were times I had to leave early or skip something with my friends.

Save the expedition for near the end, ideally a summer, since the Gold Medal requires 5 days and 4 nights. I stayed focused on hitting my service hours first. Once I could see I was going to get there, I started planning the expedition at the Gold Medal level. Waiting also gave me time to plan something that actually fit my interests, which is how I ended up with a 2,020-mile road trip through 11 states that combined baseball and integration, and learning about the history of Negro Leagues Baseball.

The closer I got to finishing, the more I understood how hard the Congressional Award Gold Medal actually is. Finishing the expedition pushed me to get through the remaining hours to be able to submit my Gold Medal application.

I'll continue doing the same things that got me here. Even after submitting in July 2026, I'm still a member of YMSL and doing service, I'll keep playing baseball and training as a pitcher, and I'll keep working and finding ways to improve.