Today's Gold Girl Scout Spotlight is Gwendolyn Cochran, who empowered middle and high school girls in her community to be more engaged in the fields of math and science. Congratulations on earning your Gold Award, Gwendolyn!
The Dripping Springs community lacked a strong foundation
of young women interested in the sciences. There was an absence of female members of the Robotics Club, the
Physics Club, and active member’s math and science UIL events.
I targeted this
problem in a two part project, first by implementing the Women in Math and
Science clubs at the Dripping Springs High School. And secondly, by organizing
and leading a symposium to rally young women together and engender them to be
more active in the science communities at the middle and high school levels.
With this project I engaged young women in my community to be involved in the
math and sciences and give them useful contacts and opportunities to get
involved in Dripping Springs.
My club at the school will continue to engender
school age girls to be active in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and expand their horizons. I created a sustainable and beneficial
foundation of girls to be inspired and get involved in expanding female
influences at school and around our community.
While the symposium was a one
day event, it created a foundation for the group to begin being noticeably
active and emphasized the importance of participating in math and science-based
extracurricular events occurring locally. The club will be sustained at the
high school level by new members taking over as seniors graduate, our teacher
sponsor’s continued support, and the affiliation with the longstanding
Inventor’s Club on campus. The community now has, and will continue to have, a
larger amount of girls empowered to take action in math and the sciences.
My advice for younger girls would be to first and foremost pick a topic that you feel passionate about, because you
will devote a large majority of time and soul into this project. Secondly,
never be afraid to ask for help from volunteers and troop members. Chances are
if you are passionate about something, so is someone else who would love to get
involved. Lastly, keep your head up! This isn’t a project to get just for the
prestige of saying you earned it, it is a chance to inspire change. When you face
a great challenge, which you undoubtably will, do not give up. Look for a
different perspective, because from a different angle a mountain might seem
like a molehill.
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