Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) recently announced that the organization is officially bringing all Girl Scout alums who have earned the highest award in Girl Scouting—formerly known as the First Class, the Curved Bar, and the Golden Eaglet and now the Girl Scout Gold Award—into the Gold Award Girl Scout family. With this initiative, GSUSA is inviting all highest award recipients to refer to themselves as Gold Award Girl Scouts.

Individuals who have earned these distinctions have truly served as change-makers that seek to make the world a better place in their communities and society at large. They are go-getters, innovators, risk-takers, and leaders that provide sustainable solutions to society’s biggest challenges. Gold Award Girl Scouts have tackled prominent issues of all sizes, from creating after school educational programs to seeking ways to bring companionship to hospice patients. Girl Scouts of California’s Central Coast’s National Gold Award Girl Scout, Shelby O’Neil, made waves at a national level when her initiative to recognize the month of November as “No Straw November” was approved by California state legislature.

In the process of driving sustainable change that benefits their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts utilize their problem-solving skills, gain confidence, and learn lifelong leadership capabilities. They positively impact the worlds of STEM, education, agriculture, medicine, and more. Recipients earn college scholarships, enter the armed forces one rank higher than other recruits, and demonstrate higher educational and career outcomes than their peers.

“Girl Scouts are known for their commitment to making the world a better place, and there are no better examples of this commitment than the girls who have earned Girl Scouts’ highest award,” said GSUSA CEO Sylvia Acevedo. “While the award changed names a few times throughout our history, our alums who have earned it are all part of the same Gold Award Girl Scout sisterhood of incredible achievement and impact.”

“I am proud to be welcomed into the Gold Award Girl Scout family,” said U.S. Senator and Girl Scout alum Tammy Duckworth (D-IL). “I earned Girl Scouts’ highest award when it was called the First Class Award, and my participation in this organization helped teach me the importance of service as well as leadership skills I use in the Senate every day.”
“Gold Award Girl Scouts—a category that now includes First Class, Curved Bar, and

Golden Eaglet recipients—have accomplished quite a lot to earn their awards,” said Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), co-chair of Girl Scouts’ bipartisan Troop Capitol Hill, an honorary troop made up of all of the female members of the United States Congress. “For more than a century, they have represented the power and the potential of Girl Scouts, learning invaluable life and leadership skills along the way and creating positive changes in their communities and around the world.”

GSUSA is offering these alums an official Gold Award digital credential to place on their social media profiles to show that they’ve earned Girl Scouts’ highest award, as well as a Gold Award pin and access to the Girl Scout Alum Newsletter launching in February. The newsletter will enable alums to connect with the Girl Scout Movement and keep up with all of the incredible things their fellow Girl Scout alums are doing across the country and around the world.

For more information on the Girl Scout Gold Award, visit here!