The Congressional Award is the United States Congress’ award for young Americans. It is non-partisan, voluntary, and non-competitive. The program is open to all 14- to 23-year-olds; young people may register when they turn 13 1/2 years old and must complete their activities before their 24th birthday. Participants earn Bronze, Silver and Gold Congressional Award Certificates and Bronze, Silver and Gold Congressional Award Medals. Each level involves setting goals in four program areas; Volunteer Public Service, Personal Development, Physical Fitness, and Expedition/Exploration. Earning the Award is a fun and interesting way to get more involved in something you already enjoy or something you’d like to try for the first time. You move at your own pace – on your own or with your friends. This is not an award for past accomplishments. Instead, you are honored for achieving your own challenging goals after registering for the program.

Regardless of your situation, you can earn the Congressional Award. The Congressional Award has no minimum grade point average requirements. It accommodates young people with special needs or disabilities who are willing to take the challenge.

Program Requirements

The Congressional Award Program is about challenge. The Award offers young people the opportunity to set a personal goal and achieve it. Along the way, you will learn about yourself and about qualities like responsibility, trust and the ability to plan and organize. There are six levels of Award — Bronze, Silver, and Gold Certificates and Bronze, Silver, and Gold Medals. Each level is cumulative — this means time spent on one award is carried with you to the next level. The minimum age to register is 13 1/2 and you must accomplish your goals by your 24th birthday.Start today!

CertificateLevels

Medal Levels

Months of Activity

Along with the hour requirement, the higher levels of the Award require that your activities be spread out over a minimum amount of months.
Please note the following:

  1. The minimum month requirements apply to Voluntary Public Service, Personal Development, and Physical Fitness. You must accumulate the necessary hours over a certain amount of months. For example, the Bronze Medal requires a minimum of seven months of activity in Voluntary Public Service, seven months of activity in Personal Development, and seven months of activity in Physical Fitness.
  2. Months do not need to be consecutive. For instance, if you register with the Award in January and work on Personal Development in January, February and March and then do not work on any Personal Development until October, November and December that would count as six months of activity.
  3. Months are cumulative. For example, the seven months of activity you complete at the Bronze Medal level will be carried over to the next level, leaving a minimum of five more months of activity needed in order to qualify for the Silver Medal.
  4. Months may only be counted once in the same activity area. For instance, if you play soccer and softball during the same six month period for your Physical Fitness activity, you will only get credit for six months of activity, not 12 months of activity. If different goals overlap in the same month, the month may only be counted once for the respective program area.

Record Book

Have you set your goals? If not, choose an advisor and get started!

Have you achieved your goals? If so, it is time to receive your Congressional Award!

Whether you are setting your goals for the first time or have already achieved your goals, you will need a Record Book. You will need to develop goal statements and choose activities to accomplish your goals. Then get your advisor’s approval and get started!

When you have achieved your goals, complete all parts of your Record Book, ask your Validators to sign their appropriate pages and ask your advisor to sign the first page. Your advisor’s signature will certify that your goals were met in each of the four program areas. We recommend making copies of your submission for your records. Do NOT submit anything that you would like back as we cannot return submissions. Submit your completed Record Book and any supporting material to the same individual or organization that got you involved in The Congressional Award Program. This may be your Sponsoring Organization, local Congressional Award Council, or:

The Congressional Award

PO Box 77440

Washington, DC 20013

Call Toll Free: 1-888-80-AWARD
Phone: (202) 226-0130
Fax: (202) 226-0131

Register Now

  • There are two ways to register for the Award – online or via hard copy form. Either way, you will still need to send in the signed waiver and one time $15 Registration Fee. If you register online, your information is downloaded directly into our system. You may start counting activities as of the date you registered online or signed your waiver – you may not count activities logged before your registration.Note – you cannot move your start date back to count previously completed activities – the Award is about goal setting and working on specific activities to meet those goals. We cannot backdate registration dates.
  • Before your register, you should have the following information on hand – you cannot go back and complete the online form once submitted:
  • Advisor Name and Contact Information
  • You can change your Advisor at any time, but to get started we do ask that you have an appropriate Advisor in mind. You must choose an adult, other than your parents, relatives or peers, to serve in this capacity. You will need to include their contact information including email address. Once we process your registration, your Advisor will receive a welcome email from us about their role in the program. We do not share Advisor information with third parties.
  • Sponsoring Organization
  • If you are affiliated with any of our partners, let us know! We like to keep these organizations up to date regarding participation in the Award. As the Award is non-competitive, many activities you complete through similar organizations can be counted towards your Award. Note – you do not need to have an affiliation in order to register for the Award.

Resources

Full Program Book – View complete guidelines (including Record Book Pages):ProgramBook

Record Book Pages – Document your activities: Printer Friendly Download

You may print this document or type right into the Record Bookbefore you print it off. If you type into the Record Book, please note that each field is space limited. If you run out of space, just submit additional pages (typed, hand written, etc).