Girl Scout Troop 10399 worked together to earn their Bronze Award. Kalia, Jordyn, Paola, and Emma decided to frame their Bronze Award project around bullying awareness. The Girl Scouts worked hard, with encouragement and guidance from their troop leaders, to create an awareness campaign and video to help stop bullying in their community. Their video is below and we asked one of their leaders, Huchani Dodd, to share her experience leading her troop to earn the first of the High Awards a Girl Scout can earn.
Q: What is it like to lead girls through earning a GSUSA High Award, especially Bronze Award?
It has been amazing to lead our girls on the path of earning the Bronze Award. I feel like at this stage, they’re maturing and gaining independence at such a rapid rate and the Bronze Award process helps them to put those newfound qualities into use in a way that lecturing can’t. Undoubtedly, we have a group of very diverse and talented girls who can truly do anything they set their minds to, but having them be responsible for the full Bronze Award process – discovering a need/problem, brainstorming ideas to address that need/problem by connecting with it in some way, realistically and effectively putting together a plan, and the actual implementation of that plan to bring about a solution – helped our girls to know, with CONFIDENCE, they’re capable of anything. There is nothing more rewarding than that.
Q: Why is encouraging Girl Scouts to earn a High Award so important?
Encouraging Girl Scouts to earn a High Award is important for their development. During this process, I think they walk away with a better understanding of who they are as individuals, as well as gain a strong sense of teamwork and the importance of each team member. The girls discussed their strengths and weaknesses and then applied that information to the necessary roles. Although they were paired with roles they felt most comfortable with, I also encouraged them to see this as an opportunity to step out of their comfort zones and be a part of an aspect they wouldn’t ordinarily choose. I stressed that’s how growth happens. And so, they accepted the challenge and spread their wings a bit and some girls learned they had the courage to do certain things they didn’t think they could. And when someone didn’t feel comfortable doing a particular task, another team member was able to assist, further emphasizing the importance of teamwork.
The Girl Scouts got a taste of working with different personalities and learned how to maneuver through those differences. They also learned how to collaborate by critiquing one another and offering feedback, most importantly they came to realize the value of not taking that criticism personally and seeing it for what it really was – an opportunity to make the overall effort better. Taking everyone’s input and contributions into consideration was mandatory for this project and even in those moments of disagreement, we continued to talk it out, compromise and ultimately arrive at a result that was acceptable to everyone because every voice matters.
These different paths of learning have equipped the girls with many life skills that they can take with them well beyond Girl Scouting and I’m confident that they will. On a final note, through earning this award, the girls were shown that a few people can really make a difference with an idea, desire to help, and hard work that takes them all the way to the finish line. My hope is that they can reflect on this Bronze Award journey and know with CONFIDENCE that they’ve strengthened their character by supporting one another, they’re more courageous than they ever imagined, and highly capable of accomplishing ANYTHING!!! See what I did there – building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place is what we do.!
Thank you to Huchani for sharing her experience with us. This kind of story-telling is so important to our Girl Scout community – we want to know more about the intangible impact of the program on our volunteers and growing Girl Scouts. If YOU have a story to share with us about your time in Girl Scouting, please reach out to our marketing team at marcomm@gssef.org.