On January 5, 2019, Dominic Gagliardi was awarded not only his Eagle Award but also the Dr. Bernard Harris Super Nova Award.
When Dominic started High School in the fall of 2014, he joined the Botball team of Explorer Post 1010 in addition to being a member of Boy Scout Troop 944 and Venture Crew 27, to start his path to the award. During this high school years he earned three Nova awards with each requiring earning a merit badge, at least 3 hours of study, and an experiment and a field trip.
Then, to earn the Super Nova, Dominic had to fulfill several more requirements, including earning 5 more STEM merit badges, researching a STEM career, shadowing a scientist or engineer, participating in STEM competition, researching a STEM debate, and sharing his knowledge. He shared what he learned by helping Cub Scout Pack 1975 earn a part of a nova award. Among other things, he showed them how a soda can demonstrated two different levers. As a member of Post 1010, Dominic participated in Botball competitions for each of his four years of high school. To prepare for theses competition,s he spent a minimum of 3 hours each week building, rebuilding , and coding an autonomous robot made from a rumba.
Only 20 others Boy Scouts have earned the Dr. Bernard Harris Super Nova award in our Council since its inception in 2012.
