Tag Archives: Highest Awards

Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards

Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Kayla Bernstein, Colorado Springs, “Sustainable Farming”

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

I planted a garden for all the residents of the Medalion nursing home to enjoy outdoor activities, blooming flowers, potted plants, vegetables, and landscaping.

Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?

There are no locally grown vegetables for the residents to help assist in a balanced diet. Also, the gardens were not maintained and I felt this was just as important.

How did your Gold Award project make a difference?

Looking at how beautiful the front of the facility is with my help. Watching my eight containers grow from start to finish. Watching the flowers and vegetables bloom in the main garden. The food from the gardens were given to the staff and residents for them to enjoy all summer.

What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?

I learned life skills and how to work with older people and groups. I learned how to manage my time as well as others.

How did you make your project sustainable?

Residents can maintain this garden.

What was your connection to the national or global community?

The use of organic materials are becoming popular so using organic materials is what I chose to do. Just like the Girl Scouts theme of “Going Green”, using organic plants, helping the environment and giving back is very important.

What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?

What I will remember the most is pulling weeds and maintaining the gardens for the residents and the staff members.

How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?

I think I will grow my leadership skills because this project taught me so much. I have learned how to budget my time, my resources, and team members.

Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

I feel that every Girl Scout should do a Gold Award project to give back to our community.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org

Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Mikayla TerLouw, Grand Junction, “Fall Into Reading”

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

I worked to encourage family literacy and increase the amount of parents who participate in reading-related activities with their children. I organized an event at Orchard Avenue Elementary School on October 2nd, a carnival-style “Fall Into Reading Dinner & Game Night.” There were 10 stations, each run by a volunteer where the students and their parents could play games and receive reading-related prizes, such as books and bookmarks. Parents could also participate in a Literacy Bingo game, where they could visit each of the stations and read a poster with different ways to encourage kids to read. Once they filled out the bingo board with reasons to participate in family literacy, they were entered into a drawing to win a reading promotion gift-basket, with books, notepads, and a beanbag.

The second part of my Gold Award was the Reading Challenge, which was a six-week long competition at Orchard Avenue. Students received reading logs to fill out when they read for 20 minutes, or read with their family. I collected the logs every week and displayed them on a bookshelf display with a shelf for each class in the lobby, so that the kids could track their progress. The class with the most minutes read at the end received a pizza party, and the top four individual winners received gift baskets with gift cards and other miscellaneous prizes. Also, there was a drawing every week where one kid from each class who had read that week could choose a small prize.

Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?

I love to read and I wanted other children to be encouraged to read more with their families, so that they may have the same love of reading as they grow older.

How did your Gold Award project make a difference?

I addressed the growing problem in our community with the decreasing amount of reading by students. I wanted to encourage more students to read, and also to involve their parents.

What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?

I developed strong communication skills during this project. I have never considered myself a strong communicator, but I not only learned better ways to communicate, but also realized the methods of communication that are easiest for me. I talked to many people during this project, whether it be teachers, volunteers, or businesses. The ability to communicate with different types of people is crucial for everyday life, and this project allowed me to develop these skills. When I had difficulty working with people, or we mis-communicated, I had to think critically to quickly overcome these problems. Talking to others has always been difficult for me, but I challenged myself to interact with many people in order to make the project a success. I also learned the importance of time management and careful planning. With the “Fall Into Reading Dinner & Game Night,” I sometimes felt rushed, so I learned to budget my time better for the reading challenge. I also had detailed plans and back up plans to consider the many problems that could happen. This critical thinking ensured that even during the challenges and setbacks, the project could run smoothly.

How did you make your project sustainable?

The “Fall Into Reading Dinner & Game Night” will be an annual event organized by the Orchard Avenue PTA, to remind kids and parents annually to keep participating in family literacy. I hope the students at Orchard Avenue were inspired by the Reading Challenge to read more with their families, and that they will continue to do so even though the challenge is over. The teachers also discussed having a Reading Challenge again next year.

What was your connection to the national or global community?

Because this is a growing issue in my community, it is also a national and global issue as well. As I researched the importance of family literacy, I found many statistics from across the country highlighting the need to read as a family. Not only does family literacy raise reading test scores (by up to 74 points, with an average increase of 10 points), but it helps with other aspects of school, such as math. Reading also drastically increases a child’s vocabulary. Since more time is spent at home than at school, parents have a greater influence on their children’s reading capabilities than teachers. This influence can be best exercised by reading regularly with their children, although many parents do not know this. I was able to inform many families about the importance of reading. As the students and parents at Orchard Avenue learned the importance of family literacy, I would hope that they would tell other people they know, like friends and family, so that more people may become aware of its importance and how they can encourage family literacy.

What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?

I will remember the time and effort I put in to making this project a success. I also built many strong relationships with the teachers at Orchard Avenue, as well as the volunteers. I will remember the excitement of the kids who won, but also their enthusiasm about reading when I visited their classrooms every week and talked to a few students about their reading.

How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?

I have learned many important life skills, such as communication, collaboration, time management, etc. These are all skills important to adult life and work. Learning these skills now will allow me to be more successful later on in my life.

Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

I enjoy helping my community, and the Gold Award gave me an opportunity to perform an elaborate project to address an important community issue. I also connected with many more Girl Scouts, primarily while I was seeking out more volunteers.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org

My journey to earn the Gold Award

Submitted by Dana Ruby

Confident, ready to tackle the day, and special – all of these are feelings that I get when I have a nice outfit on, but not everyone has the opportunity to experience this. When I decided I wanted to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award,  I wanted to work to solve this challenge. I worked to develop a plan for children, whose families may not have the resources to help themselves, receive clothing.

When some Girl Scouts pick out the issue they want to focus on for their Gold Award, it’s an easy decision. I, however, couldn’t think of an issue right off the top of my head. The process of picking an issue really made me think about what I have a passion for; what did I love so much that I could focus an 80 hour project addressing a community issue on? 80 hours is a long time. I didn’t want to lose steam and become less motivated to complete my project, and I didn’t want to lose the passion I had for my issue I picked. These were all factors that I had to consider when deciding what my project would be about.

After spending a long time thinking- and after discussing it several times with my Girl Scout troop- I finally picked what my issue would be about: clothing. Why something seemingly materialistic like clothes, you might ask? It turns out not to be as materialistic as you might think.

Although I have always had a passion for clothes, the interest really became evident when I started high school. That was when I realized that I have always felt way more comfortable tackling the day in a nice, put-together outfit that I felt confident in. It didn’t matter what the items of clothing were: just as long as I enjoyed wearing them. So, that was what I wanted my Gold Award project to be: an opportunity for people to feel the same way, but who might not have all the resources to help themselves.

Keeping this in mind, I narrowed down who I was going to help to primarily kids. This was for a multitude of reasons, but I really wanted the parents of these children to get the feeling that they were providing their kids this clothing, which is a need that can often take a back-seat in their lives. I also hoped that the kids would get the happiness from picking out their own clothing, just like in a store- that’s about half of the fun! As mentioned before, I wanted my event to help provide an easy access to a need that hasn’t necessarily taken priority: why would they be worried about what clothes they were wearing when they didn’t know where their next meal would be coming from? My goal was to make this need easier to access so it could become more of a priority.

After contacting several organizations, such as women’s shelters, transitional housing, and food banks, I received interest in return from Warren Village, a transitional housing organization in Denver, near Cheesman Park. That was an extremely exciting moment for me- one more step to making my Gold Award idea a reality! Through Warren Village I got a fantastic project adviser, access to contacts that helped further my project, and an opportunity to complete it, which I will be forever grateful for.

After I first met with the volunteer coordinator there, I had learned a lot more about Warren Village. This, I felt, was very important: how was I going to partner with them without knowing all there is to know? For one, I learned that on average, there are more than 80 families living at Warren Village, and the majority of those families only earn an annual income of $11,999 of less. With that income, a very minimal amount is probably spent on clothing. This was a very integral piece, for it helped me better understand the residents and Warren Village as a whole, and how much a need for clothing there actually was.

Through this meeting, I also received several contacts that could help provide clothes for my event. One of the contacts I received was someone who had provided clothing for events at Warren Village before. She is affiliated with Plato’s Closet, a popular second-hand clothing store primarily for teens. Plato’s Closet would give her clothing they no longer needed for these specific events. I immediately contacted her and we set up a time for me to come to her house and pick up some clothing. When my mom and I got to her house, we got more then just “some”; I was pleasantly surprised when I saw there were bags and bags- and more bags! Although most of the clothes were for teenage girls, I received the clothing for little kids and older boys afterwards, through a clothing drive I organized at my church’s Vacation Bible School this past summer, as well as donations from family and friends.

An integral part in making a Gold Award successful is having people who can help and support you. As it got closer to my Warren Village shopping event, I built a team to help me with the special day. Some were able to help hang and pack clothes the day before, while others were able to help with the actual event, whether it be setting up or breaking down the event space, giving out tickets or “cashiering”, or helping the residents pick out clothes. At the beginning of the day, I delegated everyone to complete tasks in order for everything to be set up before the event was supposed to start, and we were able to accomplish that without a hitch (well, mostly). On September 20th, with the help of my team, the event ended up going very smoothly! We provided clothing to the majority of the families that live at Warren Village. The leftover items (which had definitely decreased since the beginning of the day) were donated to ARC, and Warren Village was able to receive resident vouchers for all of the donations.

Along with the event, which was the primary aspect of my project, I did educational presentations to several groups at my church. I created a presentation to teach others more about Warren Village, the Gold Award, and overall homelessness in the United States. I am scheduled to do a presentation in January about my Gold Award journey to the troop leaders in my service unit, Centennial Star, in order to spread awareness, but also to give them an idea on a community service project to do with their own troops. At these meetings, I will then give the troop leaders an informational packet I created on how to put on my event. I am also planning on giving this packet to Warren Village and several high schools in my area (for their honor societies and other community service programs).

So far, working towards my Gold Award has been a huge learning experience for me! I have learned how to cold call (or email) people I have never met before, along with taking on the role of “project manager” for a large event. I have also expanded my ability to present in front of people who are older than me, developed my time management skills, and learned how to efficiently delegate people towards completing a common goal. These are only a few of the examples of how I have stretched myself these past 11 months, and I know I will continue to grow during the last chapter of my project. Before beginning this journey and now as I near completion, I absolutely had no idea the amount of learning and growing experiences I would gain from working to earn my Gold Award.

*** Earn your Gold Award by Feb. 28, 2015 and you could win the $1,000 Stephanie A. Foote Leadership Prize! It will be awarded to a Girl Scout who has received her Gold Award in the current year and whose project is selected by an independent panel as an exceptional example of sustainable impact through leadership. To learn more click here.

Girl Scout volunteers as a STEM Student Mentor

Submitted by Christina Bear

Golden

The acronym of S.T.E.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is creating a buzz in K-Graduate education these days primarily because of the projected job availability, especially in computers and technology. A nationwide effort is happening to motivate younger students toward STEM education and STEM careers, especially for minority students including girls and women.

A recent US News article “Latinos aren’t interested in STEM fields” struck me, a junior at Colorado Academy looking forward to studying Computer Science in college, that there is a distinct a need in my community to change this inequity right here in Colorado.

I developed a project for my Girl Scout Gold Award to benefit the Hispanic students in the Horizons Summer Program, a non-profit that is sponsored by my school Colorado Academy.  I initiated an introduction to STEM for minority elementary students and taught them technology topics of Scratch computer programming and Lego robot construction and programming.  Over the span of a week from June 30 to July 3, 2014, I taught 14 third graders an abbreviated STEM curriculum. Getting the students to enjoy their first experience of computer programming and technology was my main goal.

The students expressed comments such as “Can we program in our free time?” and “Can we do this next summer?” leading me to conclude there is a clear benefit and need for after school and summer program STEM enrichment for minority children. I realized that high school students can develop themselves as STEM mentors in informal teaching using the knowledge they have gained in their schooling. For example, I found it helpful that my coursework in math, sciences, and computer science allowed me to comfortably conduct an informal teaching course in STEM.

Going for a Gold Award with Girl Scouts has been a fulfilling experience and unique from any other project I have done. In particular, the Gold Award process made me carefully think of impact on my community. The immediate impact was hearing the students’ positive comments and getting teacher’s feedback that the students expressed a new found interest in STEM.

The Gold Award also requires that I sustain my project, which is unique and challenging. The concept of sustainability is a real-world necessity especially if you want to bring change to your community. Working with a nurturing mentor, Ms. Rae Ann Dougherty with the Girl Scouts of Colorado, I learned professional tips such as to include an Executive Summary in my manual. It is also my hope to sustain the program at Horizons Colorado Academy depending on funding and student availability.

Given the potential value of high school students teaching younger students on a voluntary basis, I started Project STEM Student Mentors to motivate my peers to give back to their communities by volunteering to educate our younger students. I have prepared a manual from a student’s perspective on my experience and guidelines to initiate a program at your school accessible from my web site www.projectstemstudentmentors.com. Character, commitment and competence are all necessary ingredients to have a successful high school student STEM mentor program.

As for minorities in STEM, I believe that diversity brings out about creativity and that is sure to lead to innovation. This is what our students and really our country needs to become successful on a global scale. I am grateful to Girl Scouts of Colorado to complete a Gold Award project that changes my world for the better.

For more information about Project STEM Student Mentors, contact Christina Bear at cmbear37@gmail.com

*** Earn your Gold Award by Feb. 28, 2015 and you could win the $1,000 Stephanie A. Foote Leadership Prize! It will be awarded to a Girl Scout who has received her Gold Award in the current year and whose project is selected by an independent panel as an exceptional example of sustainable impact through leadership. To learn more click here.

Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Alexandria Bellas, Colorado Springs, “Shooting for the Sciences”

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

I did a Girl’s Science Event for girls in grades 6-8 that brought together exhibitors around Colorado to present a booth to the girls. Physics, aviation, space, and more were all addressed in the booths. Hands-on activities, as well as experiments, were used by the exhibitors to engage the girls and really interest them in the sciences!

Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?

I pursued this project because I felt that the issue of the number of women in STEM fields needed to be addressed. As a little girl, I had always dreamed of being a scientist, pouring acids into beakers, wearing goggles, and creating chemical reactions. I want the same for every girl. I wanted them to be able to have the confidence and will to be able to aspire to achieve.

How did your Gold Award project make a difference?

My Gold Award project affected girls at an earlier age and influenced them to pursue higher level science and math classes in high school and possibly even in college.

What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?

I gained invaluable leadership skills as well as better time management through earning my Gold Award.

How did you make your project sustainable?

I have passed on my project to the Key Club at my school, who will continue the event in future years. I also hope that the information that the girls gained at this event will be ever in their minds. My hope is that they, too have been inspired to inspire others.

What was your connection to the national or global community?

My issue was not only a local issue, but it is also an issue nationally and globally as well. The issue is similar all throughout the nation, and many initiatives have also been taken, such as mine, to resolve that issue.

What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?

I will always remember the girl’s smiling faces at my event. This gave me a feeling that I will never forget, one of accomplishment and success.

How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?

My Gold Award has provided me with so many  valuable skills that I will be able to employ in the future in college and my future job as well. These skills seem to be unobtainable in any other way. Through my Gold Award, I have been able to achieve more, and gain the confidence that I need to achieve more in the future.

Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

I feel that the Gold Award is essential to the Girl Scout experience because it allows you to take on a massive challenge, and for you to be a leader of it. This, to me, has been the perfect way to signify a change that I have made and a mark that I have left next to my Girl Scout name.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org

Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Mattie McGarey, Louisville, “Love Every Inch”

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

I started a blog dedicated to aiding those recovering from eating disorders and the education of those who wanted to learn more about eating disorders. This lead to me giving a talk at Boulder High School’s body positive club about my project.

Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?

I decided to pursue this issue because I have seen eating disorders do terrible things to the lives of my friends. Adolescent girls heading to college are the most prone to developing eating disorders at such a stressful time in their lives and I thought that this project would be a great way to guide my peers into to this time of change. I am also a dancer and have seen eating disorders very present in the dance world, so I also wanted to explore and educate those who were close to me through dance about this issue.

How did your Gold Award project make a difference?

I was able to educate others on how to recognize signs of eating disorders as well as offer support and resources to those suffering from them.

What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?

I was able to gain skills and experience dealing with real world issues that I would not have been able to experience without completing the Gold Award. I not only learned leadership, planning, and goal setting skills, but I also learned interview techniques and how to network amongst a group of people who could help me in achieving my goals.

How did you make your project sustainable? 

The blog that I created, loveveryinch.weebly.com, will exist forever and the Boulder High Body Positive club that I spoke at remains active.

What was your connection to the national or global community?

Eating disorders are a widespread issue, not just in America, but around the world. Being able to start an open conversation about eating disorders in Boulder will hopefully lead to a more in-depth exploration of this issue in other places.

What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?

I think my most memorable experience was getting the chance to talk to a club of people my age who were dedicated to body positivity.

How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?

Being able to have experience leading a project and completing one’s goals are important skills to have in one’s life. Besides developing communication and networking skills, I am able to have a piece of work proving that I am driven and hardworking when it comes to things I believe in.

Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

I was able to take initiative of a project that I felt passionately about and I was able to take all of the leadership skills that I had learned throughout my time in Girl Scouts and apply them by myself.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org

Congratulations to the Bronze Award Recipients December 2014!

Bronze_Award_Starburst_HRAll of the Colorado Girl Scouts who have achieved Girl Scouts Highest Awards this year have done amazing things! With your accomplishments, you have shown yourselves to be leaders in your community and advocates for others. Girl Scouts of Colorado is very proud of you all and the example you set!

Individual or combined Service Units are encouraged to plan celebrations honoring the highest awards recipients. Please contact your local Program Support Specialist for additional support.

Bronze Award Recipients December 2014

Troop41105 – Colorado Springs
Alexandra Shemon
Evelyn Opps
Kirra Suba
Naomie Daugherty
Zerelda Daugherty

 

Congratulations to the Silver Award Recipients December 2014!

Silver AwardAll of the Colorado Girl Scouts who have achieved Girl Scouts Highest Awards this year have done amazing things! With your accomplishments, you have shown yourselves to be leaders in your community and advocates for others. Girl Scouts of Colorado is very proud of you all and the example you set!

Individual or combined Service Units are encouraged to plan celebrations honoring the highest awards recipients. Please contact your local Program Support Specialist for additional support.

Silver Award Recipients December 2014

Troop41105 – Colorado Springs
Nichole Carano
Troop42393 – Colorado Springs
Emily Clark
Troop43360 – Fountain
Breanna Maxcy
Jordan Hensley
Natalie Unger
Troop62967 – Highlands Ranch
Cassidy Christian

Girl Scout creates STEM Day for Gold Award project

Submitted by Katherine

Western Colorado

Girl Scouts is the absolute most amazing experience and opportunity. Not only can you meet amazing people, experience new or abstract activities, pursue values and endeavors you love, but you can also change the world. My greatest goal in life is to improve the world in all ways. I’ve been working towards my Gold Award and my project has impacted me and my community greatly, which has begun my goal of helping people.

I’ve lived in the same rural, isolated town my entire life. In my town, I find education severely lacking. In fact, I went the first seven years of my school life without STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), that explains my love and obsession with it in grade school, the first time I was exposed to it. I’ve taken every science class offered in my school and compete in extra science activities. I love science and plan on pursuing it in the future. I’ve had many friends that didn’t experience this though. STEM has the reputation of being challenging and frightening. Having never been exposed to it previously, they avoided it completely. My belief is that if they were exposed to it earlier, then they would be more interested in it now. Reviewing the school district’s lack of STEM education, I took the initiative and enacted a STEM day at the elementary school.

It took a lot of coordinating, leadership, planning, and communication. But, I arranged two full days, timing from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., where every class grades first through fourth would experience three different branches of science for thirty minutes. They spent seven minutes learning about physics, chemistry, and biology. At each station the students made a project to keep. This made the learning more fun and interactive. Not only did the students enjoy themselves, but they learned a lot too. They learned about air resistance and parachutes for physics, paint and food chemicals for chemistry, and DNA for biology. More importantly, they learned about possible career options and of the amazing world of STEM.

In order to know what was learned and enjoyed most for future STEM Days that will be continued by the teachers in future years, a survey was distributed to the students. These results showed that no students heard of STEM before that day, but most wanted to learn more about them and possibly pursue that as a career. The survey also compared the numbers of those who liked science in the beginning to those who liked it by the end of the day and there was a seven percent increase. This supports my idea that STEM education at a younger age will result in more students interested in those subjects. I have introduced over 500 students to the wonderful world of science. My hope is that by being introduced to science at a younger age, the classes will appear less intimidating, encouraging students to take science classes and to pursue such careers. Society is reliant on STEM and the related careers. By encouraging and educating the younger generations in STEM they will be more likely to pursue it and to benefit society through their expanded knowledge.

I took the first initiative to educate and offer the students scientific opportunities. Girl Scouts granted me this opportunity to encourage others in exploring my interest in STEM. Through this project I worked with a variety of ages, from the young elementary school students, to the high school volunteer helpers and educators, and to the adults that permitted such a day in the elementary school. Through this I expanded my interpersonal communication ability between all ages. Through this project, coupled with being the oldest and most experienced Girl Scout in Gunnison, I have evolved into being an excellent leader. Girl Scouts is extremely valuable to me and allows me to pursue my interests, achieve my greatest potential, and become a better person.

*** Earn your Gold Award by Feb. 28, 2015 and you could win the $1,000 Stephanie A. Foote Leadership Prize! It will be awarded to a Girl Scout who has received her Gold Award in the current year and whose project is selected by an independent panel as an exceptional example of sustainable impact through leadership. To learn more click here.

Girl Scout Gold Award Project: Nina Asher, Greenwood Village, “Gates Summer Camp Hike”

What did you do for your Gold Award project?

Took inner-city Denver kids at the Boys and Girls Club on an education hike up near Boulder, CO.

Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?

I wanted to take the opportunity to make a positive impact on the kids at the Boys and Girls Club.

How did your Gold Award project make a difference?

I was able to teach the children about a topic they never would have learned about otherwise.

What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?

I became a better leader and more comfortable leading others. I was in charge of a group of counselors, who were older than I was, and I was forced to learn to interact and lead a group of people I was unfamiliar with leading.

How did you make your project sustainable?

I created a Hike Manual that will be passed down from summer to summer at the camp. It is for the counselors to use and teach from. Along with that, I created a Hike Activity Book for the campers to keep them engaged in what was being taught.

What was your connection to the national or global community?

Wherever these kids go in their life they always will keep the knowledge they learned at camp. This information will help them in many aspects including respecting nature and staying safe in circumstances of natural disasters common to Colorado.

What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?

The most fond memory I have about my Gold Award project is working with the kids at Gates Camp and getting to interact and teach the children.

How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?

This experience has taught me many things, but most importantly, about teaching children and what a difficult, but rewarding task that can be. In the future, I will keep the skills I learned from this project and apply them when I hopefully become a teacher.

Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?

The Gold Award is a culmination of all my hard work over the years. Over everything I have learned when I was Brownie up to doing the actual project, everything I did lead up to my project and prepared me for that as well as for the rest of my life.

***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org