KATY, TX (September 11, 2015) – According to the Girl Scout Research Institute’s (GSRI) report, The Power of the Girl Scout Gold Award: Excellence in Leadership and Life, Girl Scout Gold Award recipients receive greater lifetime benefits than their peers with regard to positive sense of self, life satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service, and civic engagement thanks to their experience in Girl Scouting, including earning their Gold Award.
Allison Carpenter, a junior at Katy High School, earned the Girl Scout Gold Award – the highest honor in Girl Scouting. The award recognizes girls in grades 9 through 12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects. Less than five percent of Girl Scouts earn the award.
To earn the award, Carpenter worked with You Can Academy, a program that is part of Friends of Sundown, an initiative of Attack Poverty, a non-profit organization that partners with local communities to launch long-term partnerships called “Friends of” initiatives to empower people to attack poverty in their own lives and community. You Can Academy is a program that serves academically and/or socially at-risk children who attend Sundown Elementary School located in Katy ISD. Allison’s mission was to help kids better understand the importance of school and education so that they can lead successful lives.
“Some of these children moved to Katy from El Salvador, Iraq, Honduras, Ecuador, Mexico or the Philippines,” said Carpenter. “I want to help give them a solid educational foundation and equip them to have the best future possible so they can support themselves and eventually their families.”
As part of her project, Carpenter created curriculum for the workshops she led, including Classroom Rules, a session that showed students how to respect others, follow the rules and stay on task, and How to Promote a Lifetime of Learning Attitude, which was a discussion on how to do your best, think positive and take good notes.
“I learned so much about leadership by completing my Gold Award project,” said Carpenter. “This project has given me the confidence that once I set a goal, I can achieve it and see the project through to successful completion.”
When compared to non-Girl Scout alumnae, Gold Award recipients soar when it comes to seeing themselves as a leader, providing service to others through volunteerism, and positive attitudes about themselves and the lives they lead. More generally, over ninety percent of Girl Scouts not only attributed their success in life to Girl Scouts, but they also said they could not have had access to the same experiences anywhere else.
Earning the Gold Award is just one of the amazing things girls can do as part of Girl Scouts. To join Girl Scouts or learn more about volunteering, please visit: www.gssjc.org.
About Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council Girl Scouts of the USA is the world’s preeminent organization for girls, with a membership of more than 2.8 million girls and adults. Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Chartered by GSUSA to provide Girl Scouting locally, Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council is one of the largest Girl Scout councils in the country serving more than 61,000 girl members and 18,000 adults in 26 southeast Texas counties. For more information call 1-800-392-4340 or visit www.gssjc.org.