C-SWEET CELEBRATING GIRL SCOUT

Cookie Ceos

When it comes to investing in the future, there are few methods as simple or as tasty as the Girl Scout Cookie Program. For many Americans, cookie season means rushing to stock up on Thin Mints, Samoas and Tagalongs. But for the Girl Scouts themselves, those stacks of boxes do so much more than satisfy an annual craving.

As the largest girl-led entrepreneurial program in the world, the Cookie Program teaches Girl Scouts valuable life lessons they’ll take into their careers and communities. During cookie season, as Girl Scouts are planning, selling, taking orders, distributing and delivering, they’re also gaining fundamental knowledge in economics, entrepreneurship, sales, the value of hard work and more.

Whether it’s the annual cookie program or one of the other community activities in which they are involved, these Girl Scout “Cookie CEOs” are learning the value of goal setting, decision-making, money management and business ethics. All these are a part of what makes the Girl Scout experience so unique.

Lifelong learning and achievement are the foundation of the organization, and many successful business leaders — CEOs, executives, entrepreneurs — got their start as Girl Scouts. That means the boxes you buy today are, in some way, shaping the leaders of tomorrow. Perhaps the Girl Scout website puts it best: “Every bite counts!”

On the pages that follow, we’ll meet five Arkansas leaders who represent Today’s Cookie CEOs. These women serve as strong examples to young girls of the role Girl Scouts and its many programs can have in their future achievements.