Duke of Edinburgh Award

What is the Award?

The Award is a program of activities. Each student who takes part in the program learns a skill, improves their physical fitness, volunteers in their community, and experiences a team adventure in a new environment. Success in the program is measured by regular participation over a fixed period of time while showing commitment and progress in each activity. Throughout the program, all participants receive support from adult mentors, Award Leaders, Assessors, and Coordinators.

Stories 2022 / Resilience and Hope from Award USA on Vimeo.

The Award Framework

The Award is divided into three levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold, which correlate with varying time commitments growing progressively longer from Bronze to Gold.

Key Elements of the Program

Age: Open to all between the ages of 14 and 24.
Three Levels: Bronze (14 and older), Silver (15 and older), and Gold (16 and older), each progressively more challenging.
Four Sections: Skills, Physical Recreation, Voluntary Service, Adventurous Journey, plus Residential Project (Gold Level only).
Impact: Achieving an Award recognizes individual goal-setting and self-improvement through persistence and achievement.

Discover Infinite Potential

The core of The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is to raise young people's aspirations, to help them build confidence, resilience, communication, and team working skills, and to give them experiences that will help them navigate the challenges in life.

The program is designed to have students contribute to society and build character through four key elements: physical activity, learning new skills, volunteering service, and developing navigational and survival skills.

OYA participants from grades 9 – 12 will follow a personalized path to progress through the sections of physical recreation, skill building, and voluntary service. For their adventurous journey, the participants are taken out of their comfort zone but kept in a safe and secure setting, with suitable training and supervision. The aim of the final challenge is to provide the adventurers with the opportunity to learn more about the wider environment, as well as to develop their self-confidence, teamwork, and optimize their health

Four Sections of Activities

SKILLS: Participants can choose to improve on an existing skill or try something completely new, as they develop personal interests and enhance their practical and social skills.
PHYSICAL RECREATION: Physical Recreation encourages healthy behavior and impacts the self-esteem, team skills, and confidence of participants.
VOLUNTARY SERVICE: The Award encourages young people to spend time volunteering in their community, which both benefits others and contributes to their own growth and well-being.
ADVENTUROUS JOURNEY: The Adventurous Journey sparks exploration and drives a sense of adventure, as small teams plan, train and undertake a journey through an unfamiliar environment.

Ocean Youth Academy is proud to deliver The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award USA…Challenging young people to find their purpose, passion, and place in the world.
For more information about this program, reach out to [email protected]