Empowering young voices to lead our future generations has been a core value of Girl Scouts since its founding in 1912. Today, we are thrilled to see Girl Scout Gold Award recipients Anika Shetty, Daphne Maskrey, and Felicity Gonzalez take a modern approach to this longtime mission by creating virtual resources to enact change in their communities.

For Shetty’s Gold Award project, Finding Our Voices, she conducted a Speech and Debate Workshop for middle school students to improve their communication skills and build their confidence levels. Although, Shetty originally created the virtual workshop to help younger students, she was surprised to find that it helped her build self-confidence as well. Shetty says, “While completing this project, I learned that my ability to lead and adapt was far exceeded what I believed to be my limits. And while this project was to help build the participants’ confidence, it taught me how to build my confidence as well.”

Maskrey took a similar approach to her Gold Award project and created the Girl Scout Day Camp Leadership Program. This new girl-led board and planning committee for the Costa De Oro Girl Scout Day Camp program maximized girl involvement and provided opportunities for girls to earn valuable life and leadership skills. The board was instrumental in identifying the virtual camp platform, designing the format for the camp, coordinating the training of the Planning and Productions Committee, and screening and release of all digital content. Maskrey says the project was “very fulfilling to help other girls like me find leadership positions and opportunities for growth that will help equip them for their future.”

On the other hand, Gold Award recipient Felicity Gonzalez opted for outdoor education. For her project, Beauty of Nature through Backpacking, Gonzalez created a three-week virtual backpacking camp where she would send out a video each day and hold weekend class discussions on zoom to review the videos from the prior week. For her class discussions, Gonzalez focused on the benefits of spending time outdoors and reviewed tools and resources used for backpacking. From this project, Gonzalez learned that “you can find the silver linings in a lot of difficult situations and keep pushing forward with your ideas and be adaptable.”

For more information about the Gold Award and how Girl Scouts are creating positive change within their communities, click here.