Articulate the Issue

"Don’t dance around problems -- articulate the issues as precisely as possible."
--Victor Lipman, writing at Forbes

This is incredibly difficult for many adults, and most of our Gold Award girls!  I think that for some girls, especially the 9th graders, critical thinking is not perceived as an everyday need.  So, maybe they haven't had much practice exercising that part of their brain. Or perhaps they've been spoon-fed information for such a long time, that the girl just waits for someone to give her the answer, instead of doing the work  herself, to research and synthesize and come up with an answer.

We need to let the girl figure it out!  We are there to encourage, support, provide resources and be a sounding board for the Gold Award girls, NOT the solver of their dilemmas!  And this takes time!  Using the GSLE model, we should be turning over the girl experience to the girl, in age appropriate ways. So that by the time she's a Senior/Ambassador, she is leading her own GS experience.

Think of what valuable skills she's learning over her GS time.  How to dig deep, how to suss out the problem and then figure out how to solve it.  And it starts small:  designing a menu for an overnight.  Then planning a Day Camp.  Going on a destination. Completing a Silver Award Take Action project.  


Then, when she's ready to start her Gold Award, she has the tools, the skills, to articulate the issue and understand the root cause so that she can Take Action in a meaningful way.  I encourage all of us to support the girl in her efforts. They will make us proud!

Drop-in Sessions for Gold Award

As many of you know, the Older Girl Committee/Gold Award Interview Committee hosts a Sunday drop in session several times a year.  This is meant to be used by the girls who have completed their Journey, and are working towards completing their Gold Award application.

Talking with the other Committee members, afterwards, I was struck by the variety of projects, girl maturity, understanding of the requirements, and the progress that each girl had made toward thinking through her potential project.

Part of our job is to be encouraging and supportive. And another part is to really get the girl to describe what she wants to do, with whom and how.  And yet another part is to reinforce page 2 of the Gold Packet entitled "Standards of Excellence."  This is the standard to which all Gold Award Projects are held.  We encourage ALL girls to use this Tool Kit tool as they work on sussing out their projects.

One girl had an idea for a group garden.  She had a real passion for sustainability in the gardening/compost/food sense of the word!  I think her issue was about how everyone needs nutritious food. And she had the research to show how starting with youngsters ages 9-12, can help to ensure they know about and can produce good food!  This girl was using her resources wisely, and had already found out how to apply for a Seed Grant.  She already had a group garden space to use, and she had identified two youth organizations to partner with.  Truly, she was on the right track!  We talked for about 15 minutes, about different ideas, how to use the food, how to measure success and how to ensure sustainability.

Another girl had her heart in the right place, wanting to provide activities for a group at her church with similar interests.  This one had some good ideas, but no clear root cause or solution. Plus, it would only affect 15 people.  Truly, a nice service project, but not a Gold one.  We sent her back to think bigger!  Use her passion for what she's interested in, and figure out how to make a more sustainable change in her community.  I think she'll figure it out!

And yet another, had an idea of helping kids get adopted.  A noble cause to be sure, but maybe not one that a teenaged girl could actually do.  But what could she do?  What would be a way to take this girl's passion for helping unadopted kids and make a Gold Award Project?  We chatted about having a "Successful Adoption Day", but realized that was a Service Project - only making a difference for one day.  We also talked about providing resource lists for adoptive parents, but didn't know what was already out there for them.  We sent the girl back to do some research, to see what she could do to make sustainable change in this arena,  and to identify the root cause she wanted to address.

Truly, I'm looking forward to seeing how these 3 applications come back, and how the girls will Take Action.

No Lone Rangers!

One can acquire everything in solitude -- except character."
--Stendhal, French writer

Truly, we want our girls to become girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place!  And they don't do this in a vacuum!!!

The Gold Award Take Action Project challenges the girl to identify her issue, zero in on the root cause, and then make a plan to address the need.  She also needs to gather a team of people to help her achieve the goal.  These can be adults who work with the agency, parents, troop leader/advisors and teachers at school, to name a few. But this also means that she needs to gather a team of her PEERS to accomplish the task.

Her Take Action Project should be large enough to need peeps!  (people=helpers=workers)  And the Gold Award girl needs to be the girl leader in the girl led process.  She is the one who needs to galvanize the troops to work together, cooperatively, to achieve the goal. Our Gold girl needs to be a leader, probably a manager too, but a leader who sets the big goal and then encourages/facilitates the way for the goal to be achieved.  She takes the responsibility to ensure success, but she doesn't do it alone:  there are others helping.

When we interview girls, we often say, but where's your leadership?  And we hear a litany of scheduling times, writing thank you notes, organizing something, etc.  That's management! And while every project needs some management, a leader is the one who is going to make sure the team is doing the work, and that's our Gold girls!

Encourage your girls to lead.  They've had a whole slew of practice as they've moved up the Girl Scout ladder, and now is the time to show what they've learned.  And encourage them to think in terms of the team and the team's success in accomplishing a goal.  Very rarely can one girl, all by herself, make the impact that a whole team of girls can.

Happy Birthday Girls Scouting!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GIRL SCOUTS!

100 YEARS AND COUNTING... 

I have to confess, I love this 100 year image.  

The red circle interior is identical to my First Class Award pin that I received in 9th grade.

Quite a ways before the Gold Award Project was event conceived!

Make it Meaningful

"Put your heart, mind and soul into even your smallest acts. This is the secret of success."

--Swami Sivananda Saraswati, Indian Spiritual Teacher

We had a really fun Gold Award Training the other night!  Small group of committed (or ought to be committed, LOL!) parents and advisors.  All were there to learn how they can best help their girls earn the Gold Award.  We trainers hit hard on the ideas of taking action to make a difference in the community, raising the bar in terms of expectations, and helping the girl identify her issue and root cause.

We talked about having the girl identify what she's passionate about.  Because we know, without that passion, it will be difficult for the girl to move forward and complete her Take Action Project. She needs to truly have the motivation to take on the hardest challenge she'll have in her Girl Scout career!  Having only lukewarm interest will not cut it!

We want our girls to put their heart, mind and soul into their project!  This is the passion that needs to be channeled into a Take Action Project.  Why?  Partly so they want to do it, and partly because, it's contagious.  Girls who lead with passion and heartfelt belief attract others, and bring others along as the girl leads the work to be done.  She is perceived as a winner, a leader with charisma who is going to achieve a great goal.  Now who wouldn't want to be on her team???

Our girls really need to know success.  It's more than crossing a finish line in a race, because that's very individual. This is about achieving a far-reaching goal with a team of supporters with whom she can celebrate success.  The girl has the knowledge that she made a difference in the world, and that she is a leader.  That she took on a challenge, overcame obstacles and had success!

Be sure she has a chance to reflect on what she's accomplished and also to celebrate! 

"Discontent is the source of all trouble..."

 



“Discontent is the source of all trouble,
but also of all progress,
in individuals and nations.”
               - Berthold Auerbach, 19th century Poet and Author

Of course I think that this quote is relate-able to the Gold Award!  Aren't we asking the girls to identify issues in their communities that speak to them?  And couldn't one of the reasons that an issue might appeal to the girl be because she is not happy with how some people are treated?  

I think this may be true for many of the social services.  The girls talk about what's wrong in the world:  too much hunger, too many homeless, too many unclaimed pets, etc.  So isn't it the girl's discontent with the status quo that motivates her to Take Action?

And by investigating the issue, discovering the root cause, "the source of all trouble", she is able to make a meaningful contribution to her community.  She takes was is uncomfortable, and seeks to fix it.  That's progress!  And it's even a more REAL progress when she makes her work sustainable.  She is making progress that continues, past her involvement with the project.

I like that:  "the source of all trouble" is the root cause or issue that we're asking the girl to identify and apply herself to resolving.  A pretty big undertaking, but our girls are up to it!  We just need to support her efforts.

The Gold and Colleges

We all know that earning the Gold Award looks great on a college application, as it says something about the girl and what she's done, but did you know how great it also is when the girl is applying for scholarships?

One Mom was talking about how her daughter is applying for grants/scholarships and that sometimes it's tough to find references for the specific issues each scholarship entails.  She is very grateful that her daughter earned her Gold Award, because the leadership, community commitment and project impact that a Gold girl has achieved have a relevance to the qualities these scholarships are looking for.

What if there are 4 well qualified girls applying for a scholarship?  All have varsity sports, all have about the same 3.5+ GPA, all have participated in clubs and other organizations at school.  What may separate them from each other?  The Gold Award, to be sure!  This award says that this young woman has successfully completed a project from start to finish.  That this project was approved by a GS council.  And that the girl made a minimum commitment of 80 hours to it.

Our girls use their leadership to complete the Gold.  With that work comes a maturity, a readiness for discovering new things, and the ability to Take Action in college. What institution of higher learning won't want HER!  And using her resources wisely, the girl has a non-parent Project Advisor who can write a letter of recommendation that specifically talks about what the girl did. Not the team or the class, but just one girl.  Making a difference.

I find these letters very difficult to write. But when I'm done, and I re-read it, I'm almost in tears of joy, because I am so proud and impressed by what the girl has done.  Without hyperbole, she's taken on a task and achieved a goal. Measurable and sustainable!  What a great thing!!!