This is the question that most often gets lost along the way: which honors does my class require? The information exists, it's official, and it's clear — but it's scattered across six different class cards, each with nine sections numbered in Roman numerals. Anyone who just wants the answer ends up flipping through PDF after PDF.
So we cross-checked everything. We went to the requirements published by the South American Division on adventistas.org, section by section, from Friend to Guide, and pulled out every requirement that calls for completing an honor. The result is below: a single table, with the card section each requirement comes from, what's fixed, and what's your choice.
If you still don't know how the card works on the inside, it's worth reading first what the class card is. And if the question is how to earn an honor in practice, the path is in how to earn an honor.
How many honors does each class require?
Let's go straight to the number. Adding up the requirements of the six regular classes published by the South American Division, a Pathfinder who completes the whole journey from Friend to Guide earns 21 honors just to fulfill the cards — not counting any extra honor they earn for fun.
| Class | Age | Color | Honors required | With fixed name | Of your choice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friend | 10 years | Blue | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Companion | 11 years | Red | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Explorer | 12 years | Green | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Pioneer | 13 years | Gray | 3 | 1 | 2 |
| Voyager | 14 years | Purple | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| Guide | 15 years | Yellow | 3 | 0 | 3 |
| Total | — | — | 21 | 5 | 16 |
Notice the shape of it. The earlier classes ask for fewer honors, but almost all from concrete, visual areas — animals, seeds, handwork. Voyager, at age 14, is the peak of the curve: five honors, three of them with a name locked in. It's the class that pulls the Pathfinder from “learning things” toward “taking on commitments.”
An important nuance in Guide: besides the 3 mandatory ones, the Guide card has a health requirement (section V, item 2) where one of the four alternatives is precisely completing the Nutrition honor or leading a group in Physical Culture. If the Pathfinder chooses that path, Guide turns into 4 honors. It's an option, not an obligation.
Which honors are mandatory, name and all?
These are the ones nobody escapes. At five points in the regular cards, the South American Division gives no alternative: it writes the honor's name and that's it. If you want to know the absolute minimum every Pathfinder invested from Friend to Guide carries on the sash, this is the list.
| Honor | Class | Where it appears on the card | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camping I | Friend (10 years) | VIII. Camping Craft, item 2 | I |
| Basic Rescue | Pioneer (13 years) | VIII. Camping Craft, item 3 | — |
| Temperance | Voyager (14 years) | V. Health and Physical Fitness, item 1 | — |
| Adventures with Christ | Voyager (14 years) | VI. Organization and Leadership, item 3 | — |
| Pioneering | Voyager (14 years) | VIII. Camping Craft, item 2 | — |
It's striking that three of the five are concentrated in Voyager. That's no accident: it's the class where the Pathfinder starts being treated as someone who teaches, not just learns. Pioneering, for example, is building structures with spars and rope — something that only makes sense after years of tying knots, class after class.
And when does the card let you choose?
In the other 16 spots, the card does one of two things: gives a closed list (“complete one of the following”) or points to a whole area (“complete an honor in Arts and Handicrafts”). In the second case, the freedom is enormous — the Arts and Handicrafts area alone has dozens of options.
| Class | Section and item | What the card tells you to choose |
|---|---|---|
| Friend | V. Health and Physical Fitness, 1 | Beginner Swimming I, Physical Culture, Knots and Lashings, or Basic Water Safety |
| Friend | VII. Nature Study, 1 | Felines, Dogs, Mammals, Seeds, or Pet Birds |
| Friend | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Any one from the Arts and Handicrafts area |
| Companion | V. Health and Physical Fitness, 4 | Beginner Swimming II or Camping II |
| Companion | VII. Nature Study, 2 | Amphibians, Birds, Poultry, Livestock, Reptiles, Mollusks, Trees, or Shrubs |
| Companion | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Arts and Handicrafts, one not yet done |
| Explorer | VII. Nature Study, 2 | Astronomy, Cacti, Climatology, Flowers, or Animal Tracking |
| Explorer | VIII. Camping Craft, 2 | Camping III or First Aid – Basic |
| Explorer | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Arts and Handicrafts, one not yet done |
| Pioneer | VII. Nature Study, 2 | Any one from the Nature Study area, not yet done |
| Pioneer | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Missionary and Community Activities, Vocational Activities, or Agricultural and Related Activities |
| Voyager | VII. Nature Study, 2 | Any one from the Nature Study area, not yet done |
| Voyager | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Missionary and Community Activities, Agricultural and Related Activities, Science and Health, or Home Arts |
| Guide | VII. Nature Study, 2 | Ecology or Environmental Conservation |
| Guide | VIII. Camping Craft, 4 | One that can count toward the Aquatics, Sports, Recreational Activities, or Outdoor Living Master Awards |
| Guide | IX. Lifestyle, 1 | Recreational Activities, Science and Health, Home Arts, or Vocational Activities |
Two things worth keeping in mind here. First: starting with Companion, most requirements carry the phrase “not previously completed.” In other words, you can't repeat the same honor across two classes to knock out two requirements. Second: starting with Guide, the card already starts pushing you toward the Master Award — it asks for an honor that counts toward a bigger set.
What changes in the advanced classes?
Every regular class has an advanced version, done after the regular one, at the same age. Together, the six advanced classes ask for 17 more honors — and here the proportion flips: 11 come with a fixed name and only 6 are your choice. If you want to understand the logic behind this second layer, see what the advanced classes are.
| Advanced class | Item | Honor required |
|---|---|---|
| Nature Friend | 5 | Camping Craft |
| Nature Friend | 9 | One in Missionary Activities or Agricultural Activities |
| Hiking Companion | 11 | Backpacking |
| Hiking Companion | 12 | One in Home Arts, Science and Health, Missionary and Community Activities, or Agricultural Activities |
| Field and Forest Explorer | 4 | Christian Grooming and Courtesy or Family Life |
| Field and Forest Explorer | 11 | One in Home Arts, Science and Health, Missionary Activities, or Agricultural Activities |
| New Frontiers Pioneer | 1 | Christian Citizenship (the card adds “if not previously completed”) |
| New Frontiers Pioneer | 4 | Map and Compass |
| New Frontiers Pioneer | 8 | One in Recreational Activities, not yet done |
| New Frontiers Pioneer | 10 | Campfires and Outdoor Cooking |
| Forest Voyager | 3 | Youth Witnessing |
| Forest Voyager | 10 | Drill |
| Forest Voyager | 11 | Wildlife |
| Exploration Guide | 1 | Stewardship |
| Exploration Guide | 6 | One that counts toward the Outdoor Living Master Award |
| Exploration Guide | 9 | Camp Leadership |
| Exploration Guide | 10 | Family Budgeting |
Adding the regular and advanced classes together, a Pathfinder who completes all twelve classes between ages 10 and 15 earns 38 honors just from the card requirements. Pinned to the sash, they tell the story of six years of club life all on their own.
Read alsoCamping I, II, III, and IV HonorsHow do you figure out the area and level of each honor?
You may have noticed that the card sometimes cites an area (Nature Study, Science and Health) and sometimes a level (Camping I, II, III). These are two different systems living side by side, and it's worth understanding both.
Area is the content group the honor belongs to. The official honors list published by the church at aml.adventistas.org organizes the list into nine areas — Arts and Handicrafts, Agricultural Activities, Missionary Activities, Vocational Activities, Recreational Activities, Science and Health, Regional Honors, Nature Study, and Home Arts — plus a separate block of Master Awards, which isn't an area. One heads-up: the class cards sometimes write the area name a little longer than the official list does (“Missionary and Community Activities,” “Agricultural and Related Activities”); in the tables above we kept the exact wording of each card. The area is identified by the badge's background color, and that's how they're grouped on the uniform. The detail on each color is in honor areas and what the colors mean.
Level only exists in a few honor families — the ones that carry a Roman numeral in the name. Camping I, II, and III is the most visible case within the cards, and it's no coincidence that it tracks the ladder of classes: Friend does I, Companion may do II, Explorer may do III. Beginner Swimming I and II follows the same idea. Most honors have no level at all — there's just one, and that's it.
- Area → answers “what subject is this.” Applies to every honor. Shows up in the badge's color.
- Level → answers “what rung is this.” Only applies to numbered families, like Camping. Shows up in the name itself.
- Master Award → answers “what full collection is this.” It's the set of honors on a theme that earns a separate badge.
When the Guide card asks for an honor that “can count toward one of the Master Awards below,” it's using this third concept: it doesn't matter which one you pick, as long as it belongs to that collection.
Who approves it, and what can vary at your club?
This is where a lot of people get confused, so let's separate the layers honestly.
What's the rule and doesn't change: the list of honors required per class. It comes from the South American Division's class cards, published on adventistas.org, and it's the same across the whole territory. Your club can't swap Pioneering for something else in Voyager, or waive Temperance. The DSA itself reinforces this on the combined-classes page: the combined card is support material and does not replace the official cards for each class.
What varies, and who decides: the calendar and the how. Which honors from the choice list the club will offer that year, in what order, with which instructor, on a weekend or at a campout — that's a decision for the club's board, within the plan of your Conference or Mission. Two units in the same club can do honors of a different nature and both be right. Final approval of the investiture goes through the Conference/Mission's Youth Ministry, via the regional or district coordinator.
What gets recorded, and where: the official record of class, honor, and investiture is kept in the SGC, the church's Club Management System — and it's also what covers insurance and the member's formal standing. No third-party app replaces that, including Desbravai: Desbravai helps organize day-to-day work (who's on which honor, what's missing, who's already turned things in), but the record that counts for the church is still the SGC's. If you don't use it yet, see what the SGC is and how to sign in.
In practice: complete it per the card, get it approved by the instructor, record it in the SGC. Everything else is a tool.
Why does the card tie class and honor together?
You could look at this table and see nothing but paperwork. But there's an educational design behind it, and it becomes obvious once you read the columns top to bottom.
Notice that every regular class has an honor requirement in the Lifestyle section. That's not decoration: the church wants every year of club to leave a practical skill installed in the boy or girl. At 10, 11, and 12, that skill is manual — in the first three classes, the Lifestyle requirement always lands in Arts and Handicrafts. At 13, 14, and 15, it migrates to mission, vocation, agriculture, health. The curriculum is asking the teenager to experience work, not just crafts.
Notice too that Nature Study appears in all six classes, and that the requirement changes shape: in Friend, it's a list of domestic animals and seeds; in Guide, it's Ecology or Environmental Conservation. It moves from the concrete to the systemic. It's the same child looking at the same world with ten more years of depth.
And notice, finally, the camping ladder: Camping I in Friend, Camping II as an option in Companion, Camping III as an option in Explorer, Basic Rescue in Pioneer, Pioneering in Voyager. Nobody builds a spar tower at age 10. But whoever pitched a tent at 10, slept in the woods at 12, and learned rescue at 13 builds at 14 — and teaches at 15.
That's why “rushing an honor just to close out the card” wastes the program. The honor isn't a stamp: it's the piece of the class that stays with you after the badge comes off the sash.