The following is a re-post from a January 19, 2019 post on www.exploring.org by Anissa R. Hicks.
2019 marks the 70th anniversary of the Exploring program and celebrates decades of opportunities for young adults to become prepared for life.
Here’s a little history about Exploring:
- 1935 – Senior Scouts were called Explorers
- 1949 – All young men in posts, Sea Scout ships, Air Scout squadrons, and Boy Scouts over 14 officially recognized as Explorers
- 1959 – Program shifts major focus to career opportunities
- 1971 – Young women became eligible for full membership in Exploring
- 1981 – Specific career fields in Exploring developed, including the current 12 plus outdoors, Sea Exploring, and sports
- 1994 – First National Exploring Leadership Conference held
- 1998 – Exploring became solely focused on career opportunities and was moved under Learning for Life
- 2013 – Exploring clubs (for middle school ages) launched nationally
- 2019 – Exploring celebrates 70 years of youth development!
Exploring has touched many hundreds of thousands of young people over the past 70 years and is proud to have welcomed young women in the program for nearly 50 years! To learn more about the history of Exploring, visit www.exploring.org/about-us.
We celebrate this milestone with a renewed focus on growth, program development, and the new National Exploring Leadership Conference being held in July.
More details about the conference can be found here: https://www.exploring.org/blog/2019-national-exploring-leadership-conference/.