News Post

Betty Boatwright ‘22, Louisa Cave ‘22, and Abigail Torres '22 were presented with Girl Scout Gold Awards this spring, having earned the highest honor in Girl Scouts.

 

The Girl Scout Gold Award involves a minimum of 80 hours on a “take action project”; this means the project is “done with the community and not for the community,” addressing the root cause of an issue. Before beginning their Gold Award, the girls had to complete two Girl Scout journeys.

 

Louisa’s project focused on eliminating the stigma surrounding mental health that often prevents teens from seeking help. When she noticed that her peers were struggling to cope with the unprecedented mental health challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, Louisa sought to provide educational resources to foster dialogue around this growing crisis. She designed an educational website with videos, resources and surveys in addition to creating an informative Instagram account. She worked with Visi Minds Matter Club, a student run club dedicated to educating and increasing awareness for mental health, to help organize a virtual mental health week at her high school during the pandemic. In addition, Louisa shared her website, flyers and other resources with several local high schools who integrated her project into their own school communities.

 

Betty’s project is called Mind on Media and addressed specific topics related to teenage digital media use such as online messaging, physical and mental effects, online reputation and digital footprint, social media, and digital privacy. Betty created a website that included the information she compiled about these topics, as well as a self-guided club curriculum based on educational materials that she created. The self-guided club program allows for someone to not only learn about teenage digital media use, but also to teach others using the lesson plans. “I chose this topic project because as the world starts to rely more and more on technology, I felt it was important to educate myself and my peers about the different uses, dangers, and aspects of digital media,” shared Betty.

 

Abigail's project was rooted in a desire to educate children on preparing for natural disasters, after seeing the devastation in Puerto Rico in 2017. She led a team of editors, animation assistants, and voice actors to develop an informational video. Abigail said, “I learned that I am more
resilient than I thought. This project is easily the hardest thing I have undertaken in my life."

 

Kudos Betty, Louisa, and Abigail!