A Merit badge is an award earned by youth members of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), based on things within an area of study by finishing a list of updated . The purpose of the merit badge program is to allow Scouts to find subjects to figure out if they would like to further pursue them as a career or . At first, the program also exposed Scouts to the life skills of contacting an Merit Badge Counselor they had not met before, arranging a meeting and then showing the Merit Badge Counselor their skills, kind of like to a job or college interview.