'The future better watch out for Sai': Palatine teen earns rare Boy Scout honor
Saipranav "Sai" Venkatakrishnan has a quick answer for what put him in line to become just the 1349th Boy Scout in 104 years to earn a prestigious nature conservation award.
"It's all a learning opportunity," said Sai, a 16-year-old Palatine native and junior at William Fremd High School. "Even apart from school, life is about learning as much as you can."
Sai has met the criteria to earn the silver William T. Hornaday award from the Boy Scouts of America, and the official recognition is expected soon, his Boy Scout counselors said. The award is the highest in conservation for a youth scout (gold is the highest for adult scouters). Sai also will be the last to earn the award, which was discontinued last month in favor of a new "distinguished conservation service" award.
"The silver Hornaday is the equivalent of the Olympic gold medal for the environment for a Boy Scout," said Wayne Schimpff, chairman of the conservation committee for the Boys Scouts' Pathway to Adventure Council, which stretches from the Northwest suburbs to northeast Indiana.
Sai had to complete four in-depth projects on conservation, each requiring a 35-page workbook and entailing extensive learning, taking action to mitigate the environment, and educating others about how they can help, Schimpff said.
His final project benefited the Burpee Museum of Natural History in Rockford. The teen led a group of volunteers in installing an outdoor mini-exhibit powered by solar energy, and did a study on switching to LED lights inside the museum, all with the goal of lowering the museum's energy consumption.
Besides being curious and well-versed at research, the friendly, outgoing teen is also well-liked, Schimpff said. "He is very comfortable with adults and with other youth."
Sai, a youth leader for Troop 209 in Palatine, also is in line to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, achieved by about 8% of scouts, or 61,000 individuals, last year. He has earned about 67 Boy Scouts badges and is looking forward to more, like the scuba diving badge, he said.
"When COVID-19 clears up, it's one on my bucket list," he said.
The best part of Boy Scouts is the camaraderie, Sai said. "It's somewhere where I just can be myself."
Don Harris, Eagle coordinator for Boy Scouts' Signal Hill district, which includes Palatine, said Sai never fails to be inquisitive and thorough.
Two years ago, Sai was among the members of Troop 209 who traveled to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida to watch one of their projects take off on a NASA flight to the International Space Station. The project was an experiment designed to determine if a substance mutates differently in zero-gravity.
"We had two or three Ph.D. scientists working with and mentoring the team, and he was asking questions that the mentors sometimes would say, 'Sai, I will get back to you next week," Harris recalled.
A member of National Honor Society, Sai has won two prominent scout awards in STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics: the Nova and the Supernova awards. His goal is to become an engineer like his parents and older sister, he said. "The fact that I was around them made my creative juices flow."
He does have time for hobbies, he said: taekwondo, in which he has a second-degree black belt, and using 3D technology to make gifts for people.
As for nature conservation, it's essential, he said.
"It should be important to the world," he said. "I know that sounds cheesy, but with climate change, we need to get our priorities straight ... The environment is something we should strive to fix."
Sai undoubtedly is headed for great things, his counselors say.
"I don't know what the future is going to hold," Schimpff said, "but the future better watch out for Sai."