Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Megan created a storage area and a drive to stock the space with items needed for babies in the nursery with withdrawals from opioids.

Megan has been a girl scout since Kindergarten. She is currently in the 10th grade. She has completed her Bronze and Silver awards. Megan is currently on the service team for her chapter counsel as a girl member. Megan has lots of interests outside of school. You will always see Megan in a theater production of competing in speech and debate. Her area she competes in is Original Oratory. Last year she spoke about perfectionism. Megan is part of the link crew at school which welcomes new students to the high school. She is also part of the high school theater company and will be playing the part of Nigel in the upcoming production of Matilda. She loves to read and journals when she can find the time. She has enjoyed being on her dance studios dance team for about 6 years and competed in group and solo competitions. She has also been part of the National Charity League, a mother daughter charity organization since the 7th grade. Last year she was the co-president of her class and this year she brings joy as the co-sunshine chair. She is also on the National Ticktockers Advisory board for National Charity League, Inc.

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Tatiana created a website sharing coping tools to improve mental health.

More about Tatiana:

Hi my name is Tatiana Torres and I am currently in 12th grade ! I have been doing Girl Scouts for a long time, ever since Kindergarten. I was with Troop 32204 from Kindergarten to 8th grade, then went on to join Troop 31862 from 9th to now. I started my Gold Award in the beginning of Junior year and I completed my Gold Award at the end of Junior year. I was super excited to have an outlet to show what I am passionate about. Having a brain injury during my teen years opened the conversation of mental health in my household. I have learned so much in the last 4 years during therapy. Instead of waiting to magically get better, I wanted to do something with my story. So, when I heard about the Gold Award, I wanted to talk about mental health and my own story. Going into my Senior year after doing this project, made me realize the opportunities I can now make on my own, instead of waiting for an opportunity to open up for me. My goal for the next year is to go to college, be an advocate for mental health, human rights, and the environment. I want to help as many people as I can, so I will start one step at a time.

https://sites.google.com/view/calm4you/home https://youtube.com/channel/UC4jsBVkA-fQE8q6jYOCEaCQ

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Sabrina created a girl's only speech and debate event. She has also been on the Food Network.

More about Sabrina:

I'm Sabrina Richard I have been a Girl Scout for 12 years. I have competed on the Food Network as a kid chef from 2015-2018, but I couldn't have done it without the skills I learned from Girl Scouts. I am a super-seller Girl Scout, having sold about 15,000-lifetime boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I am also a 2021 Gold Award Recipient with my project Women's Words Matter: Speech for Success. I am currently a senior at Westfield High School where I compete in Speech and Debate, which was the inspiration for my project. I plan to finish high school and go off to college to continue Speech and Debate and earn a master's degree in Gastronomy (food science).

@cookwithsabrina on Instagram + Twitter,

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Madalyn championed STEM Diversity by addressing girls' underrepresentation and minorities in STEM.

More about Madalyn:

Madalyn Nguyen, a rising senior at Poway High School (PHS) Engineering Academy, is a STEM enthusiast, FIRST Robotics fanatic, and aspiring engineer or computer scientist. Getting a Mindstorm Robot in 5th grade ignited her love for robotics and desire to join every FIRST Robotics program possible: FIRST Lego League (6th grade), FIRST Tech Challenge & SWENext (7th grade) and FIRST Robotics Competition-Team Spyder (experienced/motivated 8th grader).

Seeing that girls were minorities on her robotics team, she founded the Society of Women Engineers and National Center for Women and Information Technology Clubs to create a community that encourages girls, especially minority girls, to join robotics. The purpose of the clubs is to support, promote, give opportunities for advancement, and empower girls in STEM to pursue careers in engineering.

Madalyn champions for STEM Diversity, especially for the underrepresented and disadvantaged, by volunteering over 200 hours of outreach per year since 2016 and is a 4 time recipient of the President's Volunteer Service Gold Award. During the fall FLL season you can find her mentoring about 10 FIRST Robotics teams locally and globally. Her greatest accomplishment is starting a FIRST Robotics program at Wilson Middle School in the low socioeconomic community City Heights in San Diego, California where 100% of the student body receives free or reduced lunch. Wilson Robotics increased participation by 300% and now has female representation of 30 % from zero participation. With her continued mentorship and support in procuring funding, Wilson Robotics is thriving going into their next season.

In 2019, she traveled to Paraguay to advance STEM/Robotics Education and women in engineering and Sacramento for political advocacy with Senator Brian Jones and Assemblymember Brian Maienschein.

She pays it forward by being a passionate FIRST Youth mentor & volunteer for FLL, FRC, FTC, FGC and a robot judge for FLL. She was last year's Chief Project Officer, where she oversaw the building and programming of 120 lbs robots and managed 15 subteam leads. She is currently Team Spyder Co-President, PHS Titan Ambassador (selected exclusively by teachers to represent her high school), and Poway Unified School District Career Technical Education Ambassador.

Madalyn is a changemaker and trailblazer by making a difference in thousands of youths locally and globally. For her commitment to STEM Diversity, she is the recipient of the FIRST Dean's List Award 2020, the highest honor bestowed to an individual in FIRST Robotics for leadership and advancement of FIRST's mission. She was one of 10 winners selected from 3400 nominees worldwide for this prestigious award. Even after receiving her Gold Award in April 2020, she continues to advance STEM Diversity. During the pandemic, she organized a virtual 7 weekly STEM Career Series which impacted over 700 attendees worldwide and organized and moderated a two-day Women in STEM forum with over 300 attendees. She also helped create PPE and sneeze guards for local health providers. In addition, she created and organized a virtual Global Engineering Challenge where 65 teams participated worldwide. Overall, she is an amazing & inspiring role model. She often speaks at events and was the keynote speaker for the SWE Conference in San Diego in Feb 2020. Even though Madalyn is just a rising senior in high school, you will not find a more hard-working & dedicated champion for STEM diversity. She is truly a rockstar for STEM!

Links to learn more about Madalyn and her work.

Instagram of Robotics Team & SWENext / NCWIT clubs

@spyder1622

@phs_swenext

@phs_spyder_ncwit

@goldawardgirlscoutengineer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/madalyntnguyen/

Girls in STEM Inspiration Day 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBCFCE4AGg

http://teamspyder.org/

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/story/2020-10-23/girl-scout-shares-her-love-of-stem-while-earning-gold-award

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/story/2021-02-25/poway-high-student-is-on-track-to-make-her-mark-in-engineering

https://www.powayusd.com/PUSD/media/PHS/PHS-ROBOTICS-1622-FIRST-World-Championship-Virtual-Showcase-Winner-2020-press-release.pdf

https://www.kusi.com/san-diego-teen-madalyn-nguyen-to-speak-at-stem-education-festival/

http://92128magazine.com/2017/11/01/madalyn-nguyen-engineering-her-own-future/

https://alltogether.swe.org/2020/07/swenexters-experience-attending-designlab/

https://alltogether.swe.org/2020/06/teen-robotics-engineer-madalyn/

https://alltogether.swe.org/2021/02/february-swenext-meet-greet-madalyn/

https://alltogether.swe.org/2021/05/winners-poway-high-school/

https://alltogether.swe.org/2021/02/swenext-club-spotlight-poway-high-school/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZbrZUfACnw

https://www.facebook.com/PowayUnified/posts/3012672152173683

https://www.aspirations.org/users/madalyn-127407

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Nadia wrote a book and created a game to showcase the Yanaguana Fiesta especially for patients at the hospital that overlooks the park when many Fiesta activities are held.

More about Nadia:

I am Nadia Gonzales and I have been a Girl Scout for thirteen years during which I have attended various community service events such as cleaning up after the Battle of Flowers Parade for keeping San Antonio Beautiful. Two years ago I decided that I wanted to complete a Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. As a native San Antonian, I developed a love for the local celebration of Fiesta at a young age, attending my first Battle of Flowers parade at the age of one. My love of Fiesta and volunteering inspired me to tackle the issue of the accessibility of Fiesta. For my project I wrote and illustrated a children's book titled Yanaguana's Fiesta Fun for Everyone and donated "Fiesta Fun Kits" to the Santa Rosa Children's Hospital to bring the celebration to the kids who cannot go out and celebrate. The kits included a copy of my book Yanaguana's Fiesta Fun for Everyone, a Fiesta themed Loteria game, and a little Yanaguana plush. This project took me almost two years to complete and was made possible through the help of my troop and my Gold Award Advisor/Editor Ms. Grajeda, my English teacher.

https://linktr.ee/fiestafunforeveryone - has links to Nadia's Instagram, Etsy shop, and book on Amazon.

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Sharing about the different adult recognitions offered by Girl Scouts.

Receiving the Thanks Badge II this week was a huge honor for me. However, I realized that so many people do not understand the Girl Scout Adult Recognitions that are available. AS a member of out council's Adult Recognition Committee, the biggest effort we make is educating about the awards and encouraging others to nominate volunteers. Our council has worked to make the nomination process as simple as possible and we were able to grow the number of nominations received, but I know other councils receive so many nominations that the bulk of the work is reviewing and nominations to select those to recognize each year.

The GSUSA awards include:

Volunteer of Excellence: any volunteer working with girls

Appreciation Pin: Volunteer contributing to a geographic area - this may mean a community or service unit, more than a single troop

Honor Pin: Volunteer contributing to two or more geographic areas, similar to the appreciation pin, but serving a larger area

Thanks Badge: Volunteer contributing to the entire council or movement with Thanks Badge II for someone that has received the Thanks Badge and continues to expand their work

President's Award: This award is for a group. At our council, this is often given to a group that creates a new girl experience.

GSUSA Adult Award Description and Criteria (girlscoutshs.org)

Councils often have special recognitions. Make sure to check out your council's website to find out what their process is and what other recognitions may be available.

I encourage everyone to consider nominating someone that has done something that has caught your attention. When nominating, my strongest suggestion is to make sure to share a personal story and share how the actions are above and beyond. Help the reviewers get to know the nominee's personality and the special work they do which deserves the recognition. All volunteers are important and likely deserve recognition. Encourage others, especially the girls, to nominate those you identify too. Multiple stories help strengthen the nomination and help your volunteer rise to the top of the process. The nomination process for the girls could be wrapped into a badge work or journey related to story telling or writing.

For my nomination, this show, along with the speaking engagements I have been doing to promote the Gold Award were some of the basis for my nomination. Feedback from the girls on the impact the show had on them supported the nomination.

Here is a link to a document on how to write a strong nomination: Adult Award Nomination and Endorsement Letter Examples V2.pdf (gsofsi.org)

Ideas for nominations:

Instead of 'she is a great cookie coordinator', share a story of how her cookie organizational skills helped girls step beyond their goals or what unique spin they put on cookie sales. For their cookie booth, they had the girls create a recipe cards using Girl Scout cookies the girls then gave to people as they walked into the grocery store. The sales at the cookie booth were double from the year before at the same location.

Instead of "they put on a great day camp", have the girls share how the day camp theme impacted them to achieve something else on a related topic; or how they got six businesses in town to participate in the day camp; or how they expanded the day camp from a community event to a regional event. This example is a great opportunity to use numbers in you story. Last year this day camp had 30 girls attend, by meeting with six local businesses to gain additional support and getting the day camp flyers out two months earlier than normal and including all the schools in the county, this year's day camp served 120 girls.

Don't forget the behind the scenes volunteers. Those that support your troop, service unit, or take action projects. XYZ farm assisted with connecting us to different women in the farming industry to create an event where 8 different careers were represented and girls had the opportunity to tour the working farm. We were able to open the event up to the entire county and had 50 girls attend. Plans are already underway to expand next year and offer the event council wide.

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Katryna installed two music walls at Wild Rose Elementary for kids with special needs.

More about Katryna :

My name is Katryna Dionisio and I am from California. I have been a Girl Scout since the 2nd grade, so 11 years. I originally joined to do fun activities with my friends but as I got older, it became so much more than that. I learned leadership skills and ways to make my community a better place. Through Girl Scouts, my passion for serving others grew and is something very important to me today. During high school, I was involved in other service outreach programs throughout my high school years. I held a position on La Salle's student government, where I served as a co-commission on the service team. I was responsible for implementing plans and projects that benefited our immediate community. As for my future plans, I will be attending the University of San Francisco in the fall where I plan to pursue a major in Kinesiology to potentially become an Occupational Therapist and minor in design for graphic design. With this major, I hope to continue to use the skills I have learned as a Girl Scout to serve children with special needs as an Occupational Therapist.

Link to my YouTube channel with videos of my project & the process:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCI2r45wYKtioLiOYU0FXCTA

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Aria created a documentary and educational campaign to educate regarding the dangers of vaping.

More about Aria:

My name is Aria Chalileh and I'm a high school senior from New Jersey! I have been involved with Girl Scouts since the 2nd grade, and I have received both my Bronze & Silver Awards before achieving my Gold Award. Outside of Girl Scouts, I am co-captain of my high school's debate team, community outreach leader for my robotics team, a member of various vaping prevention & awareness campaigns, and more! I will be attending college next year, and I look forward to majoring in Political Science on the Pre-Law track; I may also double major with Computer Science. My future career goals involve Law & Politics, whether that be running for public office or working as an attorney!

Project Instagram Page: @ditchthevape

Vaping Prevention Campaign Materials & Links

Pascack Press: https://issuu.com/thepressgroup/docs/pascackpress_3.1.21 Please see page 20 for article.

Pascack Press: https://thepressgroup.net/join-ph-senior-for-ditch-the-vape-on-zoom-march-2/

Pascack Press: https://thepressgroup.net/golden-girl-versus-vaping/

Montvale in Motion Television Program https://montvaletv.viebit.com/player.php?hash=bLoiAt3tTjGa

Incorruptible: Vaping Documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BIYoBvi3h5A

The Anatomy of the Vaping Epidemic Articlehttps://hillsvalleycoalition.org/post/753/

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Sauyer created a podcast to support and encourage other teens.

More about Sauyer:

Sauyer is a rising 9th grade Honor Roll student at the Champion STEM Academy. Sauyer has been a Girl Scout for nine years. What she enjoys most about Girl Scouts is learning to lead, traveling, and working with younger girls. Sauyer earned Council Young Women of Distinction for both her Silver and Bronze Awards! Extracurricular activities include podcasting, band (flute), Student Government Association, TSA, Teen Advisory Council, Junior Thespians, Book Club, and Amicette (Zeta Phi Beta). Sauyer also loves taking the stage! Theater credits include Mother Goose in "Orange is the New Glass" and orphan July in "Annie". Her career interests are Cybersecurity, Aviation, Engineering, and Acting.

Podcast: https://pod.link/1524518132

Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/thequaranteenclub/?hl=en

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Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ

Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

More about Sierra:

I am a freshman at Western Kentucky University, and have been in Girl Scouts since I was a kindergarten. I reached Ambassador in Troop 648 completing my Bronze and Silver Award as well. I graduated from Central Hardin High School and was a part of the graduating class of 2020. Where I was inspired by my art teachers to consider going into college for teaching. I plan to get my Bachelors in Fine Arts and get my teaching degree to become a high school art teacher, then getting my Masters in Fine Arts.

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Please subscribe to Hearts of Gold on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/sherylmrobinsonor on your favorite podcast app.

Support future Hearts of Gold episodes at https://www.patreon.com/heartsofgold Editing by https://www.offthewalter.com/ Walter's YouTube channel is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt0wFZRVaOpUd_nXc_8-4yQ