Locally, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (GSEMA) is proud to recognize the 60 members of the 2022 Girl Scout Gold Award class who made a sustainable impact, addressing causes they care about in our eastern Massachusetts communities.
The 2022 Gold Award Girl Scouts demonstrate the breadth of issues American teens feel are most prevalent in society today.
This year, Gold Award Girl Scout Sarah Liu from Lexington was a recipient of a national scholarship. Her project entitled “The Firefly Project” created an educational program that would stop the perpetuation of mental health stigma at the source. The program’s mission is to reduce mental health stigma and increase awareness and education about various mental health issues, especially in younger children. To learn more about “The Firefly Project,” visit https://fireflyproject.
“Here at Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, we are so proud of Sarah and her work around youth mental illness,” said Barbara Fortier, CEO of GSEMA. “The Girl Scout Gold Award allows young women to find their passion and make an everlasting change in their community. Sarah’s work has helped many young students end the stigma around mental health and provide them with a much needed support system.”
Nationally, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is recognizing the 3,500 members of the 2022 Gold Award Girl Scout class who identified the root cause of pressing issues in their communities, created sustainable solutions, and took action to earn the Gold Award: Girl Scouts’ highest achievement. This year’s class of world-changers invested over 300,000 hours in addressing real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and emotional wellness, and gender inequality in STEM.
GSUSA’s 111 councils were each provided the opportunity to nominate one of their outstanding Gold Award Girl Scouts to receive a national scholarship for over $2,000 each. The GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship recipients represent $225,000 invested, made possible by Insight Global, The Coca-Cola Foundation, and Kappa Delta Foundation.
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.
According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.
To view the list of the 3,500 outstanding 2022 Gold Award projects, visit girlscouts.org/goldawardclass.
Girls in grades K–12 can join Girl Scouts any time during the year to begin their Girl Scout journey. As girls grow with Girl Scouts, they learn hands-on leadership skills they’ll use to make their mark through the Gold Award and beyond. To join or volunteer, visit www.gsema.org.
For more information on Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts, please visit their website, www.gsema.org, or follow their social media channels, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, for the latest updates on the organization.
About Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts
Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (GSEMA) is 30,000 strong, with 20,000 girls and 10,000 volunteers in 178 communities in eastern Massachusetts, building girl scouts of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. GSEMA is the largest girl serving organization in Massachusetts and the 9th largest Girl Scout council in the United States. Girl Scouts is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, join, or learn more, visit gsema.org.
