Achieving the pinnacle of Boy Scouts of America (BSA) felt like a full-circle moment of what was and what’s ahead for Fort Washington, Maryland’s Mark Turner Jr.
After a 12-year journey of service and stewardship, the 20-year-old rang in 2026 with an official Eagle Scout ranking and a reimagined take on what it means to define a legacy.
As for his own, rooted in a lineage of perseverance, Turner told The Informer he sees himself in a culmination of greatness that has shaped his entire life, including the future he’s building for himself now.
“I want people to think my name and…think about the things I did — what did I do around campus, how did I treat people, how was the person,” said Turner, a Morehouse College sophomore. “You want to leave a good legacy, and I feel like there’s more to [it].”
Culminating a trek that began in 2012 with Pack 1515, Turner joins less than 6% of all Boys Scouts of America, and fewer than 0.01% of African Americans, in holding the Eagle Scout honor.
For proud mom and Howard University alumna Alyssa King Turner, the moment amplifies a mission as personal as it was about serving others.
“It’s that diversity of development and the different things that Scouting offers that put him in a rare category, especially to achieve the top level,” she told The Informer. “He was a leader in our Jack and Jill chapter, he had to be a leader in scouting. All of those things are the little pieces that put together the total person.”
Alongside his late father, a former assistant scoutmaster whose name he carries, Turner Jr. leveraged the traditions of acquired skill development and leadership through kayaking, camping, hiking, and service projects, totaling 27 badges by the time he was 18.
When he wasn’t addressing food insecurity through the Scouting for Food initiative, the business major led and organized 29 volunteers in an Eagle Project in 2023, erecting benches in the milking barn of Maryland’s Oxon Hill Farm and boosting 236 community hours in the process.
Reflecting on what propelled him the farthest, and even brought him back to BSA after nearly quitting in 2020, Turner mustered up one theme of his story.
“I would say it’s resilience,” he told The Informer. “After my father passed, it was kind of like, ‘This is one thing we had together; I don’t really want to do it anymore.’ But I’ve been resilient in a lot of ways in my life that have helped me get to where I am now. If I didn’t continue and finish, it would have just been a disservice to him and his legacy, and how I saw the whole way of scouting.”
Setting the Bar of Service and Education
An admittedly “pro-HBCU mom,” King Turner honed in on the value of prioritizing spaces that center character development and leadership – from Scouting for America to historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and Greek-letter organizations.
For the 60-year-old Bison and member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc., the benefits of inclusivity and discipline stretch beyond campus walls and time spent there, carrying forward the very foundation these institutions represent.
“To be in a nurturing yet challenging environment that will push you to your limits with the love and the caring and the ability to be that leader prepares you – bar none – to be in the real world,” she explained. “What environments you put yourself in have a tremendous significance on who you are going to be as a human being.”
Much like her own childhood, King Turner told The Informer community engagement and activism was the norm for the Fort Washington household. Be it hitting the pavement with communal outreach, or hopping from back-to-back meetings via Zoom, a day in the life centered on illuminating a generational call to service and advocacy.
More than that, it set the bar that continues to drive the Eagle Scout today.
“I couldn’t even remember if it was a chicken or egg situation, it’s what I always grew up seeing,” he told The Informer. “Even now in college, when I’m not doing anything, I feel like there’s something I should be doing, and that’s me joining clubs or different organizations. I want to do something with my time.”
With two years under his belt at Morehouse, he seconded the power of collective belonging and identity that HBCUs offer – even touting opportunities to meet other honorees of BSA’s highest ranking.
As for what’s next, set to the backdrop of a limitless sky, Turner offered a simple plan.
“These next two and a half years in college, getting a job, and being successful,” he said with a smile, “I think that’s all I can really think about right now.”
