Guest Post: Girl Scouts of the USA

Girl Scouts Announces New Leaders of Troop Capitol Hill

                                      

Girl Scouts is excited to announce the new leaders of Troop Capitol Hill, Girl Scouts’ honorary bi-partisan delegation of all women members of the U.S House and Senate, for the 114th Congress. For this new Congress, the number of co-chairs of Troop Capitol Hill has been expanded to eight and includes four Democratic and four Republican members of both the House and Senate. The announcement comes as Girl Scouts across the country are in the midst of celebrating Girl Scout Day—an annual commemoration of March 12, 1912, the day that founder Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the first 18 Girl Scouts in Savannah, Georgia.

The Congresswomen of Troop Capitol Hill, which was established to educate Congress about issues affecting girls and young women, embody the Girl Scout spirit and mission, working to determine the course of our nation and make the world a better place. Co-chairs for the new session of Congress include: Senators Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Susan Collins (R-ME), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), and Patty Murray (D-WA); and their House colleagues, Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), Susan Brooks (R-IN), Donna Edwards (D-MD), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). 

“Troop Capitol Hill is made up of women leaders from across the nation who are committed to exploring and promoting policies that improve the lives of girls everywhere,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. “For over a century, Girl Scouts has been committed to connecting today’s girls with today’s female leaders who can serve as mentors, guides, and trailblazers for future generations. In the coming term, I look forward to working with our new co-chairs, and all members of Congress, to develop policies that will help girls develop the skills they need to be the leaders of tomorrow.”

In collaboration with Troop Capitol Hill, Girl Scouts works to promote policies, champion ideas, and shape the legislative dialogue around girls and young women in America and beyond. Among the major national initiatives for GSUSA in the new legislative session will be working to promote healthy living opportunities for girls, especially through increased access to outdoor activities, as well as promoting economic education programs around STEM and financial literacy and working to foster global citizenship and a global voice for girls. Additionally, Girl Scouts will work with Congress to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Girl Scouts’ highest honor, the Girl Scout Gold Award (equivalent to the Eagle Scout), which will take place in 2016.

“As a former Girl Scout, I am honored to serve as a co-chair of the Girl Scouts’ honorary bipartisan Troop Capitol Hill. At Girl Scouts girls and young women learn the values of community involvement, civic engagement, environmental stewardship, and active leadership. When women are empowered, so is our nation. I look forward to working with my colleagues in Congress as well as the Girl Scouts of the USA to tackle issues important to young women and girls.” – Representative Donna Edwards

“Every single girl has something amazing to offer the world, and no one understands that better than the Girl Scouts. When young women have the opportunity to reach their full potential, the impact they can have on their communities is tremendous. I’m honored to serve as a leader of Troop Capitol Hill—and as a former Girl Scout and a mother of two young daughters, I will continue to work to create new possibilities for girls—be it through supporting STEM in the classroom, or advancing policies to empower students to succeed.” – Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers

Girl Scouts has a long history of working with female leaders of both parties to advance the dialogue around girls and the issues they face. Recently, Girl Scouts released a video series entitled Portraits in Leadership featuring local girls from communities throughout the United States interviewing their female members of Congress about what it takes to be a leader. Troop Capitol Hill Co-Chairs Shelly Moore Capito and Barbara Mikulski were among the women who took part in the series.

The 114th Congress will have unprecedented opportunities to promote girls and their limitless potential for leadership, and Girl Scouts of the USA is proud to be welcoming new and returning members of Troop Capitol Hill for an exciting and productive legislative session. 

Give Thanks...

Give thanks to the extraordinary women in your life with a Women of Distinction nomination. Held annually in the areas of Austin, Killeen, San Angelo and Brownwood, Women of Distinction celebrates women who have distinguished themselves as outstanding members of their community through individual excellence and high levels of achievements. GSCTX asks you to consider the role models and mentors in your life and thank them through nominating them as a potential 2011 Woman of Distinction. Let us show these inspiring females that their hard work has not gone unnoticed! Nominate a woman from your area today.

To access the nomination forms and guidelines for Austin, Brownwood, San Angelo and Killeen, please visit our website.

Watch What You Watch

Girl Scouts of the USA, along with the National Association of Broadcasters, the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, and The Creative Coalition, believe every child deserves to live in an environment that fosters confidence and character. We recognize that as children's media use continues to increase, all youth would benefit from experiencing healthy and positive messages about girls and women.

"Watch What You Watch" hopes to build awareness about the need to pay attention not to just what kids watch, but how they watch it. Now more than ever, tools such as media literacy, public education and career exploration can be invaluable to young people. "Watch What You Watch" offers a clearinghouse of resources and tools that girls, parents, communities, and the media industry can use to help young people encounter and use media content that inspires, empowers, and engages.

Watch What You Watch is directed by The Creative Coalition Co-President Tim Daly and features Felicity Huffman, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Andrea Bowen, Seth Green, Rachael Leigh Cook, Kaycee Stroh, Kathryn Joosten, Carrie Ann Inaba, Teri Polo, Shay Mitchell, Ayla Kell, Josie Loren, Vanessa Lengies, Rachel Blanchard, Brooke Nevin, Lisa Gay Hamilton, and Chuck D. -GSUSA

Less is Sometimes More with this Girl Scout

If you have ever served as a volunteer or been a Girl Scout yourself, you know a Girl Scout is a girl with a strong mentality to make great things happen for both themselves and their communities. This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet one of these amazing girls. Ashley Agbasoga, 18, daughter of James and stepmom Olivia Agbasoga served on the Girl Planning Committee for the first Girls’ Respect Conference. Her story proved to me and the GSCTX staff the potential a Girl Scout can reach and the kind attitude they can acquire along the way.

Ashley became a Girl Scout in 7th grade through the advice of a close friend. From there, she experienced fun camp outs, making friends and developed a strong sense of self. She kept this mentality with her as she went through the next stages of her life. Coming from a school with very little resources, Ashley never let this factor into her goals in life. A school project with a UT grad student inspired her future career aspirations as a biomedical engineer. Ashley eventually caught the attention of Colombia University and they have accepted her as a student in the fall. Not one to forget her values, Ashley intends to use her degree to help those less fortunate in foreign countries by working with the ‘Engineers Without Borders’ program.

For the short time I spoke with Ashley, I was able to gather this girl had a great head on her shoulders. No matter what she maintains the mentality that “just because you have less, doesn’t mean you can’t do more.”

GSCTX is confident Ashley will continue to make her family, friends and us proud.

-Kristine Rheinboldt

Get the Party Started

I threw my first themed birthday party in seventh grade: a Spanish fiesta complete with a piñata, Gloria Estefan Spanish soundtrack, and a birthday cake with “Feliz Cumpleaños Panchita” (my Spanish class name). Since then, the parties have become more elaborate, more frequent and more fun!

Event planning is exciting way to let your creative side loose. From invitation design to decorations, you can use your creative energy to plan a successful event. Now to be honest, it’s not all fun and cake; event planning requires lots of organization.

I first experienced professional event planning during my graduate school internship. I was responsible for planning a 500 person event at the State House (the Massachusetts Capitol Building), which came with a huge planning notebook and long list of deadlines. As I began to plan the event, I enjoyed coordinating the event logistics and working with the selected venue staff and caterers. I always loved creating to-do lists in school and realized that event planning involved many of my interests and strengths.

As I returned to Austin after graduate school, I met my future roommate, Ruthie Broughton, of Blue Box Events, a full service event coordinating and planning business. I was quickly recruited to assist with her larger events and we also became our social circle’s party-planning duo. Event planning quickly expanded from being my profession to a personal hobby as well!

My favorite event to plan is the Women of Distinction luncheon. Not only do I get to work with a committee of fabulous women, but I have the distinct honor of interviewing the selected Women of Distinction honorees whose lives and experiences are beyond inspiring (be sure to check out this year's honorees!). The honorees’ accomplishments range from leading the civil rights and desegregation efforts in Austin to founding a successful woman-owned engineering firm in a historically male-dominated field. The women’s stories and advice are translated into personal vignettes of their lives, which are shown during the luncheon. Over 700 community and business leaders join us at the luncheon to celebrate the accomplishments of these women and support Girl Scouts of Central Texas. The attendees leave the event inspired by the women’s stories and committed to the mission and impact of Girl Scouts.

It’s thrilling to see the event come together after months of hard work, including negotiations with facility and catering vendors, committee coordination, and fundraising. I am involved in every event detail from invitation design to centerpiece selection and audio visual coordination to raffle donation solicitation. With each event I plan, I feel like a proud parent at the end of the day when all activities are finished and everything ran smoothly.

For someone interested in event planning, I would highly recommend researching internships with local event planning companies and within the hospitality industry. It is a highly competitive field, but as I discovered with Girl Scouts of Central Texas, one can have a career planning events with unexpected organizations and businesses. Beyond my love of event planning, I truly enjoy planning inspiring events that support girls as they become the next generation of women leaders.

-Stephanie Flora

Stephanie is the Development Executive for Corporate and Special Events. She is the primary event planner for the Austin Women of Distinction luncheon and S'more Soirée.

Fashionista Goes to Market

Meet Nichole, GSCTX's resident Fashionista and Retail Sales Director. You can use her experiences and expertise to launch your career in the exciting world of fashion.

Q. What education did you need to have a job in fashion?
Growing up I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do for a living but had always been interested in fashion and the world of retail so when I found out they had a degree in fashion I was hooked! I received my bachelor’s degree from Texas State University in Fashion Merchandising and a minor in business administration. Fashion merchandising is the buying, promoting and selling of fashion items.

Q. Which experience made the biggest difference in your life?
During college I studied abroad in one of the fashion capitols of the world: Italy! While there, I visited major fashion houses of designers like Gucci, Ferragamo and Pucci. I saw high end fabrics, like silk, be transformed into the beautiful pieces you see on the runway and visit some amazing textile houses. I also got to visit many of the retail stores to learn how to run a successful business in the fashion industry. The trip completely changed the way I looked at fashion and inspired me to pursue a career in fashion.

Q. Other than your job, what do you think is the coolest fashion job and why?
Product Developer- This person gets to see major runway shows and basically “copies” the design they see and turn them into ready to wear clothing. For example, they see a dress that was designed by Dolce&Gabbana that is selling for $2,200, they then slightly change the design and use much lower quality fabric and next thing you know the “same” dress is for sell at Forever 21 for $34. I think that job is cool because they get to bring high end fashion at affordable prices to people like you and me. Everything you see in a department store, specialty store and bargain store has been influenced by high end fashion and was on a runway at some point!

Q. What’s “going to market”? What will you do there?
Market is like a convention where I  meet with vendors and preview all of the products and apparel they have to offer that season. While there, I selected merchandise for GSCTX shops! (Market was just last week, January 14 & 15.)

Q. What look do you want to give GSCTX clothing and merchandise?
I want the look to be fashion-forward and trendy while still being age appropriate. Every girl should feel confident and beautiful about themselves and I want to pick merchandise that will reflect this.

Q. Other than current trends, what do you have to consider when selecting and ordering merchandise? Geographic location and socioeconomic status is very important when buying merchandise. You want to make sure your customer not only loves the product but also can afford the product!

Q. For a high school student who is interested in a fashion career, what should they do to prepare themselves?
If possible, they should get a part-time job at a retail store they are interested in. In order to understand the fashion industry you first have to understand the customer because without the customer there would be no fashion industry. I also encourage students to read books and magazines about famous designers and to stay current on trends. The fashion industry is always changing so it is important to be up to date on designers and trends. Learning about clothing construction is also a very help skill. The more you can learn about the different parts of the fashion world, the more successful you will be.

Also, they should start looking into colleges that have fashion degrees. There are many great universities in and out of state that offer fashion programs. You should find a program that includes an internship and study abroad opportunities in order to get real world experience during college. Lastly, never turn down an opportunity to learn because you never know where that door could lead.

-Nichole Stowe

Introducing Cool Careers

Has your Girl Scout ever said "when I grow up, I want to be a Girl Scout"? Well, she should.

Throughout spring and summer 2010, GSCTX staffers will be sharing their careers and the paths they had to take to get there with Grow Together blog readers. This is a great opportunity for parents and volunteers to introduce girls to (super cool) careers that are somewhat off the beaten path.

As a sneak peak, here are some of the fun careers you can get ready to learn about.

• Professional Fashionista: Discover how Nichole's love of fashion transformed from a closet of cool clothes to a successful career.
• Camper Extraordinaire: Maranda never wanted to leave summer camp...well, her dream finally came true.
• Party Planner: For the social butterfly, a career in special events like Stephanie has might be the cat's meow.
• Robot Ruler: Get paid to play with toys?! NO WAY! Unless you're Terry and you play with robots in the EDGE.

What can we say? It's pretty stinkin' cool to work for the Girl Scouts. We hope our stories light a fire for the next generation of professional Girl Scouts.

-Cheryl Black

PS For grown-ups who are already chomping at the bit to be a professional Girl Scout, check out our Careers Web page.

Swift Giving

Country-pop-music-sensation/good-girl Taylor Swift recently celebrated her 20th birthday by giving $250K to the US education system (read story). As if we didn't have enough reason to love this squeaky clean, polite, talented young lady already!

Besides being a good piece of celeb news, Taylor's generous birthday gift provides Girl Scouts with a good lesson at the holidays - it really isn't about the gifts you get, it's about the gifts you give.

If you would like to use Taylor's example as you speak to your Girl Scout about giving back, consider working in the following.

• Taylor gave to education because its important to her. What is important to you?
• If you can't give $250K (that's OK!), how can you help your community?
• What can you do right now to help others? 

For more ideas about giving back, check out the service projects Web page or read stories from Girl Scouts who are making the world a better place.

-Cheryl Black

The Taylor Swift photo is a downloaded image from Big Machine Records.

Girl Scout Grows To Be Homecoming Queen

Q. How did you first get involved in Girl Scouts and what kept you involved through high school?

A. My first encounter with Girl Scouts was when I was at four months old and my sister was a Girl Scout Daisy. When I got older, I wanted to get to do the things she was doing, so I became a Daisy. I have stayed in Girl Scouting because of the wonderful people and the unique opportunities. My Dad is in the Air Force and Girl Scouts has been great way to get active in new communities. Also enjoyable for me are the opportunities I have to work with younger girls.

Girl Scouts is a beneficial program and the best way to recommend it to others is to set an example like my sister did for me. My two younger sisters are following in mine and my older sister’s footsteps and I hope there are other girls I have influenced in such a way. After receiving the honor of Homecoming Queen at my high school, a mother came up to me with her 7 year old daughter and told her daughter that I was a Girl Scout too.

Q. What is your proudest Girl Scout accomplishment?

A. My proudest accomplishment as a Girl Scout was earning my Gold Award. Thanks to my incredible leader, Sharon, our troop was able to focus, work around our crazy schedules and keep the troop together and strong. We worked extraordinarily hard to finish our goal of the Gold Award and Sharon was there the entire way guiding and supporting us.

Q. How has Girl Scouts influenced or changed your life?

A. It has helped me accomplish goals and to be a better role-model for the people around me. It has also helped me improve my communication skills, organizational skills, and of course outdoor and campfire skills! I am an expert S’more maker!

Q. What advice can you offer girls who are considering leaving the Girl Scout program?

A. Girl Scouts can really help you in the future. You have so many opportunities to positively impact your community that it is worth sticking with it. In addition to the many traits Girl Scouting builds, there are many opportunities down the road such as scholarships.

Q. If you could tell the whole world one thing about Girl Scouts, what would it be?

A. Although tasty, there is so much more to Girl Scouting than cookies! It is so neat how Girl Scouting incorporates character building through fun activities like skiing, horseback riding, rock climbing and more. There have been opportunities for me to make a positive impact on the world by working at soup kitchens and through clean up and restoration projects all over the country. I have served as a Girl Scout Council delegate during the national restructuring of Girl Scouts. All these experiences have made me a better person.

Q. What are your plans for the future?

A. I plan to attend at least four years of college. Currently I am undecided, but I have considered becoming a physician or a marine biologist. I also plan on keeping Girl Scouts as a part of my life so I can continue to have a positive influence on younger children. Like my older sister, I plan on becoming a Lifetime member of Girl Scouts when I graduate from high school. Just as all my amazing Girl Scout leaders, Linda, Dorthey, Barbara and Sharon have done, I hope to someday serve as a troop leader.

-Mary, Girl Scout Ambassador

Mary was recently crowned Homecoming Queen at Wall High School. She is an active athlete at her high school and participated in the 2009 Girl Scout Race on the River in San Angelo. 

Glamorous Women

Most girls are five going on thirteen, twelve going on twenty and sixteen going on twenty-five. They want to dress older, wear more make up and read grown-up magazines.

This month Glamour Magazine has given us, adults and girls, a grown-up magazine article that we can all get behind - the 2009 Women of the Year. The women honored show us how to be glamorous without mascara and without stilettos but with inner strength and perseverance. Their stories can teach girls important lessons while allowing them a moment in that grown-up world they so much want to be a part of. To help get that conversation started, here's a little commentary on just two of the women honored this year. 

First Lady Michelle Obama is from a less than ritzy background yet pulled herself up by her own (very stylish) bootstraps to earn a law degree from Harvard University. She exudes the ideal of choice, having chosen a career when it made the most sense for her and choosing to be a full-time mother and wife when that made the most sense. Regardless of our personal preferences about careers and family, we can encourage girls to make their own decisions about their future, to be independent and to do what is best for them, just as Michelle has done. Her personal style, which has been compared many times to the famous Jackie O, provides another important teaching point: you can look beautiful and be fashionable while being modest and tasteful. Michelle's many fashion-forward outfits, bright colors and impressive accessories make her a great example of how class and style can mesh perfectly. Finally, when using Michelle as a teaching point, don't forget to mention, she is the National Honorary President of Girl Scouts of the USA.

Rihanna is now best known for her struggles with domestic abuse but girls knew her for her music even before then. The pop-idol demonstrates to girls that domestic abuse is sometimes a reality even for the coolest, most confident girls and women. Use Rihanna's experience to talk to girls about domestic abuse, both physical and verbal, to help them identify it and to educate them about how to stop it. (For  insights about how girls reacted to Rihanna's experience, read results from the Girl Scout Research Institute.) Beyond abuse, Rihanna can also teach girls how to take a terrible thing and use it to make a difference in the world. It may have been scary for her to speak so publicly but because she has, many women may now be better educated and more able to end or avoid abusive situations. Remind girls that to impact the world, they cannot be silent observers; they must lead by example and speak up.

Glamour Magazine's Women of the Year can provide many important lessons - that are potentially cool and grown-up since they come from one of the hottest women's magazines. The women are athletes, visionaries, peacemakers; clearly we've only just touched the tip of the iceberg here. If these lessons ring true to you, learn more about the women on Glamour.com or by watching the highlights from the event (above).

Go on, be glamorous.

-Cheryl Black