Kait Cook, a junior at Portage Northern High School, is one of the area’s first female Eagle Scouts.
Her father was an Eagle Scout. Her older brother would earn the same rank.
But it wasn’t until the Boy Scouts of America opened its ranks to girls that Kait’s journey toward the organization’s highest honor began. She started as an eighth grader, unlike the average Scout who joins as a Cub Scout in kindergarten.
But she was up for the challenge.
“I was motivated to get ranks quickly to catch up with my brother, who is a year older and started much younger than me,” she said.
As a child, Kait was interested in the outdoor skills her brother was learning at Cub Scouts.
“I joined Girl Scouts when I was little because I wanted to be like my big brother,” Kait said. “He was learning knife skills and I was learning how to sew. It wasn’t the outdoors experience I wanted.”
Once integrated with her boy peers, Kait worked hard and moved quickly up the ranks of Scouts, earning her merit badges in skills such as wilderness survival and first aid.
Today, Kait is the first female Eagle Scout in Troop 287 and only the sixth in the Pathfinder District, which covers all of Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties.
Sarah Nott, Kait’s art teacher at PNHS, said her student is accomplishing amazing things in and out of the classroom.
“Kait's bright spirit, unfaltering compassion, and boundless creativity are a gift to all around her,” Ms. Nott said.
Her time in the Scouts is even influencing her future career choice. Inspired by the skills she learned in water rescue and life-saving, Kait plans to pursue a career as an EMT and will complete the Career and Technical Education course in Emergency Medical Technology during her senior year at Portage Northern High.
Getting the opportunity to join what is now known as Scouting America was very exciting and Kait felt lucky to be welcomed in her local Troop.
“I heard stories from other troops where boys were quitting to avoid integrating with girls,” she said. “In our troop, older brothers fought to include their younger sisters.”
And, despite the debate happening nationally, the adults in her area troop fought for the integration of boys and girls and equal access to the unique lessons of scouting – and silenced the naysayers.
But traditions change slowly. Kait’s rank doesn’t stop some people outside her local troop from assuming a boy could do it better.
“I’ve heard older men say ‘let the men do that,’” Kait said. “Even if I was a bigger, older, higher ranked Scout, they would say ‘let the 11-year-old boys do it, because they’re men.’
“I had to prove myself a lot of the time,” she said.
And her work isn’t finished. Kait continues to learn new skills and is now working toward Eagle Palms, which are feathers on her Eagle badge for additional merit badges.
She's also giving back to the organization, spending time sharing her knowledge with younger scouts.
She returns to her troop weekly as a teacher and role model to her peers – boys and girls alike.