Take Action - when it doesn't go the way you think it will....

I'm an advisor for a couple Gold Award girls, and I just had the extreme pleasure of signing the final report for two of my girls.  These girls are as different as night and day! Both did a great job, and both had a HUGE learning curve about how things might not go as well as they had planned, not due to their lack of effort, though!

Sam's project Took Action with a local elementary school. She had a plan to educate the kids about all sorts of environmental waste, create a no-waste zone, hold an e-waste drive to raise funds for recyling units at the school.  She had a great plan, support from the VP and the Science teachers.  And while she was able to reach sooo many kids, the part of her plan that the VP was going to help with, fell through.  I bet he just ran out of time.  And the part of doing the e-waste drive didn't work, due to the e-waste truck canceling the night before.  An alternate plan at a local JC fell through, when the school didn't perceive that there was enough benefit to the school to do it.

Wow!  Nothing Sam did was bad, and she sadly learned that those she was counting on, and had confirmed, didn't do their parts.  Her comment was, "well, maybe I set my expectations too high?  Maybe my goals were unrealistic?"  She was still able to complete her Project, leaving the VP and school with her curriculum to be repeated this school year, and the VP has assured her that he will!  But if everything had gone as she originally planned, she sure would have been much happier with the results.

For Lori, after she'd completed her Project, when I asked, "well, what would you do differently?" she had a rush of ideas of how much better the club could be, and what she was going to do this year! As part of her Take Action Project she started a DV Club at her HS, and she was the President.  For the coming year, she will still be the President, but she will have other officers elected to work on different jobs, leading one meeting a month, etc. so she doesn't have to do everything.  More speakers, more information about Safe Dating to give to her HS.  She learned that letting your team help is a good thing!  She learned that using her leadership in a different way could get her better results. 

They've both done some growing up!  Sam is a freshman in college, and Lori is going into 11th grade with a whole slew of AP and IB classes.  These girls are both smart and nice, and they are both committed to making the world a better place.  I'm very proud of both of them.