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The decision to earn higher awards (Silver Award for Cadettes and Gold Award for Senior/Ambassadors) is left to each individual girl. As a group, the troop earns the prerequisites and then it is up to each girl to decide if she wants to take on the challenge of a Silver and/or Gold project.
Nationally, approximately 10% of eligible girls earn a Silver Award and just 5% earn Gold.
Samantha Shockness, Gold Award
Mindfulness Where it Matters
In a post-pandemic world, the mental health challenges faced by children have become increasingly urgent. COVID-19 amplified stress, anxiety, and depression among youth, with the U.S. National Library of Medicine identifying the virus as a "universal stressor" that has intensified mental distress. Compounding this issue, excessive social media use has created further strain, with children and adolescents who spend over three hours daily online doubling their risk of mental health problems, including depression and anxiety.
To combat these pressures, experts highlight the protective benefits of physical activity and mindfulness practices, such as yoga, which can reduce anxiety, enhance mental clarity, and build resilience. Inspired by this need, I developed a project to teach mindfulness to Girl Scouts, providing them with tools to manage stress and nurture emotional well-being. My efforts have provided young girls with actionable techniques, such as breathing exercises and positive habits, to help them manage stress, regulate emotions, and cultivate self-awareness. Inspired by my personal journey of using yoga and mindfulness to recover from the mental toll of the pandemic, I aimed to offer others the same opportunity for growth and resilience.
Aarohi Gorpade, Gold Award
C Change
"I was driven by the urgent need to facilitate proactive steps towards environmental sustainability. Recognizing the critical role of individual actions in combating climate change, I was motivated to create a solution that empowers people to understand and minimize their carbon footprint. Though addressing climate change requires collective action on a larger scale, initiating change at the individual level remains a crucial starting point. By providing accessible tools for estimating and reducing carbon emissions, I aimed to foster a sense of personal responsibility and inspire a collective movement towards sustainable practices. I firmly believed that a unified effort, stemming from informed individual actions, can pave the way for a more resilient and environmentally conscious society."
Emily Morrow, Gold Award
Girl Scouts in STEM
Emily hopes to have a career in engineering and therefore decided to focus on STEM education for her project. To do so, she joined the Techalongs FTC robotics team and work on enlarging their impact. She was instrumental in expanding their footprint in the FIRST community and their successes in the 2023-2024 season.
As a part of her work, she greatly expanded the team's outreach efforts, offering multiple badge and engineering workshops to Girl Scouts of all ages and organizing outreach events to publicize the both the team and FIRST robotics.
In the off-season, Emily designed a day camp program for over 100 girls who were introduced to basic robotics over the course of a week.
Grazia Caramucci, Gold Award
Step Out into the Outdoors
Building on a successful Silver Award centered on outdoor games and equipment for our council and neighborhood camps, Grazia dedicated her Gold Award project to providing outdoor event opportunities for her Girl Scout Sisters in the Pima neighborhood.
Planning and executing a series of events throughout the year, girls were able to particiapate in hikes, attend encampments, learn basic camping skills, and earn outdoor education badges. Adults were provided with opportunities to complete their Troop Camp Certification at many of these events.
Grazia's central focus, however, was on getting girls camping at an early age. To do that, she designed an encampment for first-time campers at Parson's Leadership Center. Called "Pima Camp Jammin," this event was a home run, with over 100 girls attended, many camping for the very first time. Girls and their leaders were introduced to how much fun camping can be and were enthusiastically asking when they could do it again!
Tiffany Wong, Gold Award
Kickstart the Arts
Gold Award Scholarship Recipient
Stemming from her passion of dance, Tiffany dedicated her Gold Award project to providing art centered opportunities for her Girl Scout Sisters in the Pima neighborhood. She created four art badge events and multiple badge plans for Girl Scout Daisies, Brownies and Juniors. From producing the plans to planning and hosting the events, Tiffany found her project to be a creative outlet, further feeding her love of the arts. A success, Tiffany’s events saw double the attendance from art centered Girl Scout events the year prior, her badge plans are currently hosted on a website for volunteers and Girl Scouts to easily access. A Girl Scout of six years, Tiffany attends the University of Arizona studying speech, language and hearing sciences with a minor in educational psychology.
Ariana Schein, Gold Award
Hacienda Healthcare Prom Closet
Gold Award Scholarship Recipient
As a student at Desert Mountain High School, Ariana Schein joined a peer leadership club whose purpose was to participate in extracurricular activities with special needs students. She discovered that children with disabilities are often isolated and unable to take part in everyday normal activities, and also had added expenses related to their care, which excluded them further. Schein, therefore, decided to create a prom closet for the special needs kids at Hacienda Health Care. The closet allows patients to borrow dresses so they can attend the prom hosted by the organization. Schein organized and held a drive to collect dresses, and collected donations for other items like racks, hangars, and make-up. She collected almost 100 dresses.
Aarohi Ghorpade, Silver Award
Other Silver Awards
Lila Doan: STEM Education
Anjini Ghorpade: Water Conservation
Grazia Caramucci: Outdoor Games for Girl Scout Camps
Brynne Bowles: Adapted Dance Education
Serena Schein: Arts Hall of Fame
Rebecca Libby and Ariana Schein: Character Counts Kids Club
Olivia Lira
Sydney Hertle
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