I have been a Girl Scout for eleven years now and every time I think about that number, I just get so excited as the copious memories of troop meetings, camping trips, and freezing winter cookie booth sales flood my head.  All while having fun, I have learned many skills and lessons from Girl Scouts: everything from how to properly light a match to survival camping to leadership! I am sure that for many of you that are reading this, you were involved in Girl Scouts (or Boy Scouts) to some degree when you were younger and you can relate to some of my memories.

As you achieve higher ranks in Girl Scouts, you have more opportunities to serve, challenge yourself, and make changes you want to see. As a Junior Girl Scout, you are able to participate in The Bronze Award, which is a troop service project. When you become a Cadette, you are able to participate in The Silver Award, which is another service project done in groups of three or less. I participated in both of these awards when I was younger; for The Bronze Award, we raised money to buy supplies for an animal shelter and for The Silver Award, we created science experiment boxes and recorded books on tape for local schools. Many troop meetings, fundraisers, and teamwork made these projects fun and effective!

The last two ranks of Girl Scouts are Senior (grades 9-10) and Ambassador (grades 11-12), which during your time in high school as a Girl Scout, you have the opportunity to plan and create an individual and sustainable service project for the most prestigious award in Girl Scouts, The Gold Award! Many people compare this award with the more commonly known, Boy Scout Eagle Award. The reason why The Eagle Award is more commonly known is because The Gold Award is far harder to attain, but in my opinion, The Gold Award is so much better and way cooler!

The Gold Award was created in 1916 under the name of “Golden Eaglet of Merit” and has since then been through five name changes, the last one occurring in 1980 to its current name. This 2016 year will mark the centennial anniversary of this award which only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts attain.

To attain this award there are seven steps: identify an issue, investigate it thoroughly, get help and build your team, create a plan, present your plan and gather feedback, take action, and educate and inspire. The most important requirement is making your project sustainable, meaning that this is a living and breathing project. It is not something you do once and is over, but can be carried on continuing to inspire others! This is very crucial because anyone and everyone can create and carry out a super cool project, but Girl Scouts asks you to dig deeper and explore how your project can live on!

So, here I am, almost done with my Gold Award Project, “You’re Worth More Than Gold”. We are projected to finish by early April of 2016 which is crazy super exciting! Follow along with me for the next couple of months as I bring you step-by-step of this project’s evolution and process. In this series of articles, I hope to inspire you and challenge you as I explain my attempt to make a difference as a Girl Scout!

Check out my Instagram page @worthmorethangold to follow along with the behind-the-scenes action!