Gold Award

It is official!! My Gold Award has officially been approved by GSCM! I wanted to do a quick blog post discussing the Gold Award, what I have learned from it, and how you can earn it!

What is the Gold Award?

The gold award is the highest honor of Girl Scouting above the Bronze and Silver Award. It can be earned by senior and ambassador Girl Scouts. It can be compared to the Eagle in Scouting.

What are the requirements?

The amazing thing about the Gold Award is that it allows girls to come up with their own creative area of interest. You can chose your passion and explore an area or intrest you would like to focus on. This can range from exploring the need to protect bees, building a park bench for your community, or like me creating a Girl Scout travel website. It allows you to learn about topics you enjoy. It requires about eighty hours of service to your cause and it must be sustainable. Sustainable just means that after you have completed your Gold, you should find a way for the purpose of the project to continue. Whether that be a website that lasts forever, passing the project on to younger Girl Scouts, or creating a social media page that is kept up. Their are other requirments like completing journeys that can be found on https://www.gscm.org/en/our-program/highest-awards/gold-award.html

Why earn the Gold Award?

This motivation can be differnt for everyone. For me, I knew I wanted to earn the Gold Award ever since I was little. The idea of accomplishing the top goal of Girl Scouting was too great an opportunity to pass up. Similar to summiting a mountain, I wanted to spend my final years as a Girl Scout completing this goal. The other great thing about earning your Gold is that it connects you to real life issues and makes you recognize issues in the community. Once you become aware of those issues, you can take action and find solutions or ways to alleviate those challenges. The Gold Award is also recognized as an accomplishment not only in Girl Scouting, but also in real life. Colleges, jobs, and citzens recognize the Gold Award as a prestigious title earned by only roughly 6% of Girl Scouts annually. The good news is, with more advocacy for why you should earn the gold award, the larger this number can become!

How did I Know I wanted to focus on Travel for my Gold Award?

When coming up with a topic for my Gold Award I built a list of topics that interested me, I was curious about, or I wanted to take action with. I have loved to travel and was first introduced to major traveling through Girl Scouts. Whether through local trips or internatio, I found passion in learning about other places, cultures, and of course seeing the landscape. I have been fortunate to Travel with a Girl Scout Travel Group to incredible places that I other wise would have not been able to experience. Before I joined this group, I did not realize that traveling as a Girl Scout was possible. I wanted to open up this concept to as many girls as possible by creating a platform with travel tips, accounts, and other resources. My Gold Award was platform was hence created.

What tips do you have for people considering earning their Gold?

1) GO FOR GOLD! If you are on the fence about deciding if you want to go for Gold I highly encourage you to go for it. Common issues why girls do not go for gold is because they are hesitant it will take too much time, they can’t come up with an issue, or they think it will not benefit them in the long run. While these are may seem like valid issues, I promise the Gold Award is an investment you will want to make!! Finishing off Girl Scouts with a bang is so worth it!! At times I was hesitant and faced setbacks like tech issues and a Global Pandemic, but in the end it has been one of my favorite accomplishments that I have completed. I highly recommend going for Gold!!!

2) Reach out to others! Do not be afraid to talk to other Girl Scouts who have completed the Gold Award or Adult leaders. Contrary to belive, the Gold Award is not a solo endeavor. You do not and can not work independentl. You have to build up a support system to give you advice and assist you. If you do not know girls directly who have completed their gold I encourage you to reach out to your council. They would most likely be able to connect you with girls in your area who have completed their Gold or guide you along the way.

3) Partake in a Gold Workshop. The Gold Award sounds very complex at first and I did not personally understand all the ins and outs. I decided to attend a Gold Award workshop and this really took me from step one of deciding to do Gold to step two actually completing Gold. It helped me brainstorm passions, connect with other girls going for Gold, learn about the requirements of the Gold Award, and put a plan in place. I recommend being apart of this. The great news is that a lot of virtual events are taking place currently so you can look out for virtual meetings and events discussing Gold.

3) Get started as soon as possible. A lot of times people underestimate the amount of time goals like the Gold take, and I will admit I was one of them. The sooner you start the better So don’t be afraid to start thinking about your Gold even when your a Cadette or younger. While you can’t actially start the Gold till your a senior Girl Scout, you can still brainstorm ideas and topics you want to tackle. Once you become a senior start as soon as possible! High School is a busy time, but I promise you can fit your Gold Award in if you use your time wisely. The sooner you start the longer you can work on it and the more time you can space out so you don’t have to crunch it out. Take into account the time it takes to fill out paper work, submit a proposal, wait for the proposal to be approved, rework proposal, resubmit proposal, work on the eighty-ish hours, and submit Gold. Please do not let this scare you from going for Gold, just know that the sooner you start the easier it will be for you to accomplish the Gold in your time frame.

If you you would like to go for Gold and have any questions feel free to reach out to me!! I am open for questions, suggestions, or advice and would love to help others complete their Gold!!

Feel free to contact me using the email under the about me page or in the questionbox on the bottom of the website.