Travel Thursday: Part 2- What will my Girl Scout get out of a trip?

Happy Thursday, Blogger friends! 
We're continuing this week with Part 2 of a three-part series just for parents about the joys (and concerns) of Girl Scouts traveling the country (and the world!) 

For the series, we interviewed Beth Abel, who is a member of the Council’s Travel Interest Group and a Girl Scout adult volunteer in CTGSC since 1992, during which time she was a troop leader and the founder of the teen Girl Scout outdoor program, High Adventure Team. Ten Girl Scouts received their Gold Awards under her leadership. She has been a sponsor on international trips for GSUSA and continues to enjoy a forty year career counseling with adolescents and their families.

Q: Will my daughter be meeting strange people on this trip? 

A: That is the beauty of traveling, meeting new and interesting people. So much personal growth happens for a girl when she experiences herself successfully handling a new situation and a new culture. All of the activities that were planned by the girls will be supervised by the adult chaperones and they make sure that the girls’ safety is the number one priority. They will have the chance to make new friends and talk with different people.

Q: Will I get a detailed itinerary of the trip? 

Yes, every trip as it gets closer to the event will have a detailed itinerary as well as phone numbers of places the girls are staying and chaperone cell phones in case of an emergency. Remember these are girl planned trips, so the girls make the decisions on the activities and lodging so if the group hasn’t talked about it yet, there is no information to give.

Q: You talk about independence and leadership on these trips. How will my Girl Scout gain that on this trip? 

A: Leadership growth and development happens from the beginning as the girls talk on conference calls and plan out the details of the trips. They experience their unique contribution to the team of girls working together. Girls will learn to navigate in the new city they are visiting, maybe a new language and money management. These are just some of the few independent skills girls will be taking away from council trips.

Q: Will my Girl Scout learn anything on this trip? 

A: What won’t your Girl Scout learn on this trip? How to work in a group, money management, teamwork, navigation and map skills, use of public transportation, manners and etiquette (for those fancy nights out!) and if she is going abroad, a new language!

Have a question about Girl Scout travel that you'd like answered? Email Communications@gsctx.org! 

Travel Thursday: New series

Happy Thursday, Blogger friends! 
I'm sure you've seen some of the amazing trips our Girl Scouts have been going on this summer. You and your Girl Scout are probably a little jealous of these trips that the girls are taking. As a parent, it's hard to think about letting your Girl Scout travel without you. This week kicks off a three-part series just for parents about the joys (and concerns) of Girl Scouts traveling the country (and the world!) 

For the series, we interviewed Beth Abel, who is a member of the Council’s Travel Interest Group and a Girl Scout adult volunteer in CTGSC since 1992, during which time she was a troop leader and the founder of the teen Girl Scout outdoor program, High Adventure Team. Ten Girl Scouts received their Gold Awards under her leadership. She has been a sponsor on international trips for GSUSA and continues to enjoy a forty year career counseling with adolescents and their families.

Here we go with Week 1's Interview Questions! 

Q: My daughter has never been away from me that long before. How do I know she's ready? 

A: A girl who is ready to travel without her parents or even a long time adult volunteer relationship will give you clear signals that she’s wanting to spread her wings somewhat. The Council Travel Interest Group is just the place for her next step out into the world, where she has the appropriate next level of supervision. Girls become acquainted with the adult volunteer, the trip lead, way before the trips happen. If you Girl Scout has never traveled before we suggest a shorter trip. We encourage the Girl Scouts to approach travel in a progression, much like becoming acquainted and comfortable with the outdoors. Shorter trips for first timers, and longer national ones for girls who are not old enough to go abroad yet. The last step in the progression is 2 week trips internationally for girls who are ready to see the world!

Q: How do I know my Girl Scout will be safe? 

A: Safety of girls is always the Girl Scout adult volunteers’ number one priority. Although the girls are planning the trips, the trip lead will make sure that the activities are safe and appropriate. Certifications that are necessary for safety will be acquired by the adult volunteers participating. Trip plans are made by trip group consensus well before the trip occurs and the itinerary is followed. We will not go to places which are not safe nor countries in which the U.S. does not have good relations. 

Q: Can I come with my Girl Scout daughter? 

A: Council trips are meant to be girl based trips, which means we want to take as many girls as possible on a trip with the minimum number of adults needed. These trips are for girls, not for the adults. You can apply to chaperone a trip if your daughter is not attending it and you have the experience needed for that trip. Only special circumstances will allow chaperones to attend trips with their daughters but that is at the discretion of the Council Travel Committee.

Q: What if my Girl Scout doesn't know anyone on the trip? 

A: That’s ok! It’s amazing how quickly the girls make new friends through Girl Scouting! The girls are all from Central Texas so they will all have that in common. She will be able to make new friends with girls her own age. They all want to go on the same trip so they will be able to share with each other the activities they want to do. Plus, if they attend the phone conferences before the trip so they will have at least spoken to each other by phone and communicated beforehand via e-mail.

Do you have a question you'd like answered during our travel series? Send your questions to Communications@gsctx.org! 

Travel Thursday: Grand Canyon

This was a trip of firsts, my first destination, my first time to the Grand Canyon, my first plane ride and my first time traveling out of the state for a real vacation. I'm really glad I got to go on this trip, and that spring woods could pay for so much of it! I'm really thankful, because if that didn't happen there's only a tiny little chance I could of made it on this trip.

This trip was good from start to finish, the lead hiker (Sarah) was really informative and welcoming to us when we got to her house! Really all the grown ups from the cactus pine council were really good at teaching leadership and they were very informative before we set off for the canyon! 

Being inside the canyon was really refreshing and fun, and I never expected that many people to be at the bottom of the canyon in phantom ranch! Oh speaking of phantom ranch, I got sworn in as a phantom ranch junior ranger, which was loads of fun because we had to run all the way there to get the ranger to sign off on our booklets before she did a ranger talk.

Camp MariPai was great as well since we got to go horseback riding, canoeing and we watched Tangled! I'm glad we got to share a unit with all those brownies, they were adorable! We all made friends, and when we had to leave one of the brownies even started crying. It was really heart breaking, knowing we won't ever see those girls again.

The teens on the trip made pretty good friends with each other. We got along well for the most part. But it's a shame they don't live close by either... I guess I have more reasons to travel the U.S.!

Oh and we got to go to a nice water park and a place called amazing Jake's, where we played games and rode a few little roller coasters and played a REALLY fun game of laser tag because we were the only ones in there (besides one cute little girl).

I know it sounds cheesy but after surviving the canyon, I really feel like I can do anything I set my mind to.

- a very thankful Girl Scout, Tamara B.

Council Trip Spotlight: Japan

Girl Scouts love to travel—from the field trips they take as Brownies to the global adventures they go on as teens. If you love exploring different places and cultures, then Girl Scouts is the place for you.

You can experience all that our country has to offer, whether you’re touring space camp in Alabama, taking in a Broadway show in New York City, or visiting the birthplace of Girl Scouts’ founder, Juliette Gordon Low, in Savannah, Georgia. And you can plan even bigger adventures around the world, traveling with other Girl Scouts who share your love of adventure.

Council Trips are hosted by GSCTX and coordinated by girls with the help of a trip leader. Girls will plan their trips from activities and transportation to food and entertainment.

Girls who attend these trips are eligible to money earn with the Council Trips troop and can use their Cookie Dough to attend the trip but are not eligible for Destinations specific financial assistance.

Don't have time to help plan but still want to go? No problem! Email the trip coordinator, pay your deposit, and your spot is reserved. Trips are girl-led, girl-planned and girl-enjoyed! Is this your first time to participate on a council trip? Click here for answers to some frequently asked questions.

Japan 2017

Check out this great information from Amber, Myra, and Makayla, who are just three of the 
seventeen girls who are traveling to Japan in the summer of 2017. These girls can’t wait for some first- hand experiences living and working in Japan! 

Amber says she is most looking forward to "the cultural differences and buildings. They seem interesting to look at.” 

Myra is more pursuant about exploring the lifestyle of Japanese culture. “I want to see how they live, their food and how the language is different.” 

These girls will get a ton of different ideas, plenty of new dishes and adventures through some of the oldest temples and shrines in the world!

Makayla looks at it from a STEM perspective. “I want to know what modern technology they have that we don’t use yet. The bullet train, the extensive toilet system and all sorts of technological items.” 

Their twelve day itinerary includes visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone, Osaka and Kamakura. These girls are ready to discover The Great Buddha, Odawara Castle, Arashiyama Bamboo Forest, Mt. Fuji and the dozens of other places the girls have worked to plan on seeing.

There are only five open spots left so jump on the bandwagon now and join the Japan crew for the international trip of a lifetime! Interested? Sign up on ebiz today! E-mail the trip lead, Emily Magnotta with questions. 

My trip to Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida

During Spring Break I got to go to Harry Potter World in Orlando, Florida. It was for my birthday and I was looking forward to it for weeks before!

I was not disappointed. I traveled there by plane with my mom.

We first went to Hogwarts and Hogsmead. I got a magic wand from Ollivander's Wand Shop. My favorite thing was to cast spells with the wand at designated spots marked by medallions attached to the sidewalk. 

We went on a ride called Forbidden Journey - best ride ever! We got to fly around Hogwarts castle with Harry and other characters. They helped us get past big spiders, dementors and other scary things.

We ate fish and chips at the Three Broom Sticks with pumpkin juice. Pumpkin juice wasn't all that great, I'll have Gillywater instead! I saw a little bird with only one foot, a little sad.

Next we saw Buck Beak and Hagrid's hut when we went on a ride called the Ride of the Hippogrif. That was a fun ride too. Since the line wasn't too long, we did that ride many times.

Then we took the Hogwarts Express to Diagon Alley. A two-park ticket is a must. There was a moving cat made out of a measuring tape in one of the shop windows.

Here you can also visit Knockturn Alley which is a little creepy. We saw a vanishing cabinet and even heard the bird inside. The wand works here too. 

Back at Diagon Alley we went to Honeydukes and got chocolate frogs. Mine had a Godric Gryffindor card in it.

I absolutely recommend Harry Potter World to all of his fans!

Zoe

GSCTX Media Girl 

10 Things I Can't Wait to do in Japan

GSCTX is taking a girl-led trip to Tokyo, Japan in 2017. While you still have some time before you need to pack your bags, it's not too early to mark the date on your calendar and reserve your spot on the trip! 




Here are 10 things we CAN'T WAIT to do when we go to Japan: 

-         1 – Try new food! Do you like sushi?

-         2 – Visit the Great Buddha- it's way better in real life than in pictures...

-         3 – Do a service project in a local community- Girl Scouts are all about service!

-         4 – See different cultural and historical museums- there are tons of cool artifacts! 

-         5 – Explore different cities like Tokyo and Hakone- Hako-where?! 

-         6 - Ride a cable car up Mount Komagatake- oh my gosh, for real???

-         7 - Take a guided tour of the Bamboo Forest- there's a whole forest...? 

-         8 -  Visit Odawara Castle- will we see a prince and princess? 

-         9 - Ride the bullet train to Kyoto- what the heck is a bullet train?! 

-         10 - Share your love for Girl Scouts with Japanese Girl Guides- new sisters, yay!

We definitely just convinced you. Email EmilyM@gsctx.org for more info on this trip! 

Gold Girl Scout Spotlight: Gwendolyn Cochran

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.

A New Way to Meet Seniors' Needs

Today's featured Gold Girl Scout is Ella Fischer who created a program to rent medical equipment to senior citizens. Congratulations, Ella, on earning your Gold Award!

My name is Ella Fischer. I am from Troop 1473 out of the Pecan Trail Service Unit. For my Gold Award project, I worked with Drive a Senior to create Ollie’s Closet. Ollie's Closet loans medical equipment to senior citizens who do not have access to medical equipment due to various financial situations. In the process I helped write a grant to pay for the building and purchase software for an inventory and asset control program.  

First, I moved, cleaned, inventoried, barcoded, and entered all of the equipment into a barcoding system. Next, I added a loft and braces to hang walkers and crutches and started moving all of the equipment inside. Lastly, I trained personnel at the Drive a Senior office on how the system works.  This all will allow the organization to better serve their 500 clients and to help them keep track of what is needed in their loan closet for the future.

 My journey towards earning my Gold Award is one that I will never forget. Through Girl Scouts, many new doors have opened for me and even more now that I have earned my Gold Award. The adventures and experiences that I have been able to be a part of, as well as all the things I've learned, all became possible by being in Girl Scouts and striving for Gold. I have also met many inspiring and interesting individuals along the way. There are always challenges involved in accomplishing great things, but the feeling I have now that I've earned my Gold Award is very rewarding. My encouragement towards others to pursue earning their Gold Award is tremendous based on the amazing experience I had and the feeling of happiness I gained from helping others. 

Gold Girl Scout Spotlight: Hannah Buffington

Today's Gold Girl Scout Spotlight is Hannah Buffington, who established a letter-writing campaign for elementary school children to send notes to soldiers stateside. Congratulations on earning your Gold Award, Hannah! 

At the beginning of my project, I knew I wanted to pick an issue that I really cared about; and something that was going to make an impact on many people. I chose my project because our soldiers are something that are truly close to my heart, and I personally know many people who have fought for our country. Once I had my issue, I started thinking about ways that I could potentially impact our troops. Which is where my project, Letters to Soldiers, originated. 

Many of our troops overseas receive letters and care packages and reminders that we are very appreciative of their service; but what about our troops back home? What about our troops who have been wounded in service? 

So I decided to address this issue directly by writing letters to these soldiers that would hopefully show them that they are appreciated and cared for. But I did not want to just do this alone. I wanted to tell more people about my project and spread my enthusiasm for it to many others as well. 

So I thought, what better way to impact two groups of people than teaching children about our troops and helping them write the letters. This worked out perfectly. I was able to teach the second grade classes at Blackland Prairie Elementary School how to write a friendly letter, and then to put those skills to work by writing letters to the wounded soldiers at Brook Army Medical Center. 

Working with the second grade students was really such a wonderful experience because I got to talk about something that I cared about and watch a group of children start to learn and want to make a difference also. I hope that in my setting an example of how even a teenager can make a difference, these children will grow up and take issues that they care about and also work to make a difference. It doesn't matter how old you are, or how large or small the issue is. Anyone can make a difference; all that’s needed is the motivation and the will to make a change. 

It's a Wrap: 2015 Girl Genius STEMfest

On Saturday March 21^st the fourth annual Girl Genius STEMfest was held at Texas State Technical College for a day filled with hands-on, minds-on experiences for girls’ grades 6-12^th to better their minds with STEM careers. This year was especially exciting because of the great partnerships with not one college in the area but three!  We partnered with Baylor University for the second time and for the first time McLennan Community College, all three colleges provided support to make the event possible by providing volunteers, workshop instructors, and college swag.

 “The STEMfest was an incredible event this year and I had a great time!  I participated in “Bubble Pack” which was about medicine, “Are You My Blood Type?” which was about blood types, ”Fossils and Chocolate” which I loved, and “Water you waiting for” which was all about water pollution.  I learned all about medicine and how they packed it, I learned how you get your blood type from your parents, and I learned about the different types of rocks and fossils.  I will definitely be returning so that I can learn some other cool new things, meet more new people, and go on new adventures on campus.  Walking around the school was cool because it gets us to understand what walking around college might be like.  My most favorite part though was the fossils and chocolate because I have a passion for all kinds of rocks.” -Ravyn Dietzman, Girl Scout Cadette

Our goal was to reach 175 girls this year at Girl Genius and we not only achieved our goal, we exceeded our goal by having 183 girls attend this year.  The girls participated in a full-day conference that was designed to allow fun, hand on experiences in a real lab setting in various STEM fields taught by college instructors.  Much like a professional conference that adults attend, the girls registered and chose their own workshops.  Workshops covered an array of diverse STEM fields from welding, automotive mechanics, pharmaceutical technology, biology, geology, engineering, veterinarian technology and more.  Girls were able to practice “blister packing, “which is the method pharmacist use to package medication.  Girls learned that surgical technology is more than just what the TV shows portray in the “This Ain’t Grey's Anatomy” workshop, and mastered the art of circuits by powering LED lights through conductive and insulated play dough. 

“I am very grateful to Time Warner Cable and the Girl Scouts of Central Texas for making such a wonderful event possible.  Girls having a great time and learning so much in the process is a winning combination!  We are certainly looking forward to next year!”  -Melissa Dietzman, Girl Scout Volunteer

This event would not have been possible without the generous support from Time Warner Cable’s Connect a Million Minds initiative, which is an initiative to address America’s declining proficiency in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), which puts our children at risk for not competing successfully in a global economy. Thank you Time Warner Cable! 

What is Banning Bossy?

For the past couple weeks you have probably been seeing #banbossy all over the internet and haven’t be sure what it is all about. We are here to help clear that up for you! Lean In and Girl Scouts have partnered up to create a movement of girl leadership. The campaign is encouraging girls to speak up and stand out at their schools and for the community to stop using descriptive words like “bossy” to describe these young girls.

                Words are extremely impactful, especially in the life of a young girl so when they get called words like “bossy” or “pushy” they are less likely to participate in future activities and take leadership roles. The Ban Bossy campaign wants to change this stigma and elevate girls to be the best leader they can be.

                Their website www.banbossy.com  is filled with helpful information and leadership tips. Girls, parents, teachers, managers, and troop leaders can download the tips and help ban bossy. So join the movement along with prominent female figures like Sheryl Sandberg and Beyonce and #banbossy today!