What did you do for your Gold Award project?
Tell Me Your Story was a project that I created with the mission of capturing the historical stories of our older generation. I hosted an event at my church where many of my church members shared their stories about different events in history that they lived through. I then posted all of the stories onto my website that was linked with Douglas County and Denver Public Libraries’ websites. The website was linked to the libraries web pages so that students all over the Denver Metro-Area could use personal accounts of history to make their learning come to life.
Why did you pursue this Gold Award project?
I pursued this project because my great grandfather fought in World War II. He was always quiet about his experiences during the war and died when I was in 6th grade before he got to share those stories. When I was a freshman in high school, we were learning about World War II and I thought about how my grandfather had personally experienced what we were reading about in class and what a tragedy it was that his story had never been recorded. I then decided that there needed to be a program in place to document the stories of older generations before they are lost.
How did your Gold Award project make a difference?
It made a difference through the impact I had on the storytellers in my community, as well as the many students impacted through my event. The storytellers loved to know that someone was actually interested in what they had personally lived through and that they could help out the younger generations in our community. My project also helped out the students in my community. I made sure that my website was easily accessible to the students in my community by linking it to the Douglas County and Denver public libraries’ websites. I also had all of the information on my website for students to MLA cite the interviews so that they could use these personal accounts as sources in their papers. It also brought what they were learning in school to life because it showed how history had actually impacted a person. It showed a face changed by history instead of a date and an event.
What skills did you gain through earning your Gold Award?
I learned how to be self-reliant and time management. Through my Gold Award, I learned how to host an event all by myself and motivate myself to make appointments and meet with people independently. I also learned a lot of time management. I have always considered myself to be fairly organized and that I knew time management fairly well, but my Gold Award taught me a whole new level of time management because I had to balance such a huge project on top of my school work.
How did you make your project sustainable?
My project was sustainable through my website. I have a link on my website so that people who want to share their stories can through my website. They will be screened by the youth group at my church before it is added to the site. Also, it is sustainable through the links on the websites of the libraries because it will be accessible to students for a long time. Here is the link to my website http://goo.gl/m3olir
What was your connection to the national or global community?
The connection to the national community was that I connected stories from my church in Cherry Hills Village to students in the Douglas County region as well as the City of Denver. My international connection was through the map I posted on the front of my website. For the students studying a specific region of the world, I put pins where each story happened with links to the story as well as a Wikipedia page of the event. This showed the span of how history affects everyone all over the world.
What will you most remember about your Gold Award project?
I will remember how much one person can impact the lives of others. It is really empowering to know that I am capable of fitting a need in our community and helping others. I will remember how important my community is to me and how important it is for me to give back to it.
How will earning your Gold Award help you in your future?
My Gold Award will help me in the future because it allowed for me to gain skills such as independence and time management that will carry out into all aspects of my life. As I go off to college next year, my Gold Award will help me be more outgoing and confident among large amounts of people because my project required me to have a lot of public speaking skills.
Why do you feel the Gold Award is an important part of your Girl Scout experience?
The Gold Award impacted my Girl Scout experience in countless ways, but the biggest impact it had on me was through empowerment. In 1912 when Juliette Low created Girl Scouts, her main goal was to empower girls to feel that they can do amazing things and change the world. My Gold Award experience did just that. I feel more empowered than I ever had because of my project. It gave me leadership skills and a “go getter” personality that will forever make me feel that I can impact the world around me. I know that my Gold Award experience embodied the goal of the Girl Scouts organization and made me a stronger woman.
***IMPORTANT NOTE: This blog represents only a small fraction of the hard work, dedication and requirements that go into earning a Girl Scout Gold Award. It is simply a brief summary, which is meant to inspire Girl Scouts to Go Gold in the future. For more information on earning your Gold Award, please email highestawards@gscolorado.org