Senior Jordan Murtiff can be found around campus not wearing his Eagle scout badge and medal, which he earned last March after achieving the highest possible rank in the program.

“I always feel bad wearing [the medal], because I feel people only know you’re an Eagle Scout when you put on the medal, and then everyone’s like ‘you’re just some Scout, some person. You’re someone special.’ I don’t think it should mean that,” he said. “It’s a nice achievement because it’s a culmination of my scouting career, but every time I think about wearing it, I feel like I’m showing off, going ‘look at this bling I’m wearing.’”

Boy Scout law requires scouts to be helpful, courteous and friendly, among numerous other characteristics. Jordan tries to embody those characteristics even outside the organization.

“I have this general tendency to help people,” he said. “I don’t really know why because I’m so busy myself, and I’m doing all this community service. I have this general tendency: [if] a person needs my help, I should just try to make their lives easier because I know what it’s like, I know how hard it can be, and I know that little push from someone else can really mean a difference.”

Jordan has spent approximately a cumulative 750 hours on community service during high school alone, but his interest was sparked as a middle school student by a service requirement for the National Junior Honor Society.

“I just started doing more stuff with my [Scout] troop and with soccer so I could meet that requirement, and then obviously I went above and beyond… That got me started,” he said. “Mostly it’s nice to get away and being with a different group of people, not like we’re all talking about school or complicated stuff, it’s like ‘nope, get away from all that, have a little fun, be away from technology and everything.’ It’s a nice break for me.”

Now, community service for Jordan involves teaching, helping with Memorial Day services, gift-wrapping during the holiday season and leading a Boy Scout weeklong summer camp. He also volunteers as a soccer referee, usually for one to two matches per week during the soccer season.

“I stopped playing soccer a couple year ago, but I would still consider it a hobby. I still definitely enjoy the sport a lot,” he said. “With refereeing, I do a couple games with mainstream players, and then, on Sundays, there’s what they call ‘VIP,’ that’s very important players [and] players with disabilities, and so I help them play soccer too.”

Jordan cites his family as an influence in his value system and desire to help, a motivator that works in tandem with his own desire to care for others.

“I also want to be really compassionate with people. That’s kind of what my family pushes me towards doing,” he said. “[Helping others] is something that my family imposes on me but I also kind of agree with it. It’s not some conditional response; I actually think it’s a good thing to do.”