The Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award
Partnered by The Outward Bound Trust
The Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award is an exciting way to make new friends, be challenged on an outdoor residential and help your local area by planning and delivering a community project.
Our 9-month Award programme is exclusively for S6 students from the central belt of Scotland. It's great fun, a super personal development opportunity and a well recognised addition to your CV and personal statement. Successfully complete it and your individual and team achievements will be celebrated at an award ceremony in Glasgow.
Here are just some of the benefits of taking part in the Mark Scott Award:
Outdoor residential
The Mark Scott Award starts with a five-day residential at Outward Bound Loch Eil. You’ll be in a group with 14 S6 pupils from up to six schools near to where you live.
The residential is a mix of learning and adventure. Your outdoor activities could include rock climbing and abseiling, canoeing and wild camping. There will be some challenges, but you’ll leave with confidence, teamwork and project management skills. You’ll also have made new friends and have had a lot of fun.
Community project
After your residential you’ll start to work in a smaller group on a project that will help your local community. You’ll need to decide what you want to do, identify a community partner to help, fundraise any money needed and then deliver it.
You’ll meet your group regularly over the next few months to plan your project and you’ll have three days to deliver it. This is a real life project where you’ll be able to develop your leadership and business skills whilst helping others.
The Award is inspired by the life of Mark Scott, a 16-year old schoolboy who was murdered in 1995 in an unprovoked sectarian attack. In response to this tragic event, Mark’s parents, Niall and Judith Scott, established The Mark Scott Foundation in 1996 to help young people to develop their talents.
After a few years, the Trustees of The Mark Scott Foundation decided to develop and focus exclusively on The Mark Scott Leadership for Life Award. Through the Award the Foundation helped to bring together young people often separated by different backgrounds, sectarianism, racism or territorialism. Since 1998, more than 2,300 young people have taken part in and benefited from the Award.
The Outward Bound Trust partnered and supported The Mark Scott Foundation from the very beginning of the Award. Entirely dependent on donations and sponsorship to deliver the Award each year, The Mark Scott Foundation and The Trust relied on the generosity of a wide range of funders and the voluntary efforts of the Foundation’s Trustees and other individuals who provided additional administrative, advisory and programme support.
In 2012, Niall and Judith and the Trustees of The Mark Scott Foundation decided that The Trust should take over full responsibility for developing and growing the Award. The Outward Bound Trust is greatly honoured by the trust Niall and Judith Scott are placing in it by allowing the continued use of Mark’s name in connection with the Award.
In 2012, The Trust was awarded a significant grant by the Scottish Government which enabled us to increase the number of participants in the Award during the period from 2012 to 2015. This recognition of the value of the Award and the tremendous achievements of The Mark Scott Foundation and The Trust, provides a firm basis to realise its ambitious plans for the Award to continue to reach hundreds of Scottish young people over the coming years.
