2023 Gold Award Yearbook | Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles

2023 Gold Award Yearbook

Dear Gold Award Girl Scouts and Families,

We’re in awe! Congratulations to you – 212 exceptional Girl Scouts who were inspired to change the world!

The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, represents your many months of work addressing areas of critical need throughout Greater Los Angeles and beyond. Each one of your incredible accomplishments is showcased here; we are so proud. Collectively, you provided an astonishing 20,496 hours of service developing and executing projects that have sustainable impact in your communities. Each project, while varied in scope, addressed a need, found solutions, and inspired communities.

On behalf of Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles members, volunteers, board members, and staff, thank you for your contributions to making our world a better place. This is just the beginning, and we cannot wait to see all the amazing ways you leave your mark on the world.

We invite you to share your journey with your younger Girl Scout sisters and inspire them to pursue Gold too. We hope you will become a lifetime Girl Scout member –and champion Girl Scouts for years to come. Thank you for a job remarkably well done, and congratulations on earning the Gold Award.

Yours

in Girl Scouting,

Theresa Edy Kiene Chief Executive Officer Mia Britel Chair, Board of Directors

GOLD AWARD

What is the Gold Award

Gold Award Girl Scouts are rock stars, role models, and real-life heroes. How do they do it? By using everything they’ve learned as a Girl Scout to help fix a problem in their community or make a lasting change in their world. And you don’t have to be a seasoned activist or star student to get there. Girl Scouts who want to get involved and go for the Gold Award get a team of trusted adults and leaders in their community to guide them through challenges and lead them to success, step-by-step. There’s no other program like it.

Earning the Gold Award requires spending at least 80 hours planning and implementing a challenging, largescale project that is innovative, engages others, and has a lasting impact on its targeted community.

The prestigious award recognizes Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts— girls in grades 9-12—for outstanding accomplishments in leadership, community service, career planning, and personal development.

Starting in 1916, the best and brightest undertook projects that improved their communities—and the world. The Golden Eaglet, the highest award in Girl Scouting from 1916-39, sparked the beginning of a long tradition of recognizing the extraordinary efforts of extraordinary girls. From 1940-63, the Curved Bar Award was the highest honor in Girl Scouting. From 1963-80, the highest award was called First Class. And since 1980, the Gold Award has inspired girls to find the greatness inside themselves and share their ideas and passions with their communities.

Nationwide, only 6 percent of all eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award. And out of 112 Girl Scout councils, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) continuously boasts the highest number of girls reaching Gold each year.

Girls who earn their Girl Scout Gold Award automatically enter the military one rank higher, qualify for college scholarships, and are eligible for additional national service awards.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Zoe Adler

Seabird Rehabilitation and Care Structures

Zoe’s Gold Award project made an impact on her community by designing and installing module rehabilitation enclosures at the Huntington Beach Wetland and Wildlife Care Center. These structures were specifically designed for the facility to help the birds have a speedier and more successful release back into the wild. An instruction manual with how to create these structures was also created to ensure sustainability for the future of the project.

Sydney Aghili

Playground Reboot

Sydney’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a safe and fun environment for her elementary school. Official rule books and instructional videos were made about playground safety and how to fairly play the school’s playground sports and games. Kids were able to be in an environment where their sportsmanship could improve.

Deya Ahluwalia

Teaching Mindfulness

Deya’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by completing 100 hours of service teaching mindfulness techniques to kids K-12 at the Boys and Girls Club, GSGLA troops and local schools. Deya held a total of 10 workshops as well as created 6 videos outlining mindfulness exercises. During these workshops, Deya taught mindfulness techniques such as yoga, breathing exercises, color relaxation, and mindful crafts.

Olivia Amigo

Discovering Dance

Olivia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing free dance classes and holding a dance apparel drive with items to be donated. Five classes were held that taught a variety of styles while also teaching the children about the importance of exercise and healthy eating. This project’s goal was to give children an opportunity to explore the art of dance in a safe and healthy setting.

Isabel Anastas

The Power of a Girl & Her Mind

Isabel’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by building confidence and bravery in young girls around Los Angeles. She wrote and published a children’s book with stories and tips on how to become a more brave and confident

person. Isabel shared her book with girls through book presentations and workshops. You can now find copies of it at seven different public libraries all around LA.

Juliana Asdourian

Bake the World a Better Place

Juliana’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of unequal access to education and food waste by partnering with her local food pantry. She developed her own website with step by step recipe video tutorials using the ingredients they receive from the food pantry. She also assembled and donated baking kits filled with any materials necessary to make the recipes to provide for those that do not have access to them.

Makaela Asher

#Plastic Purge Project

Makaela’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by bringing awareness and change regarding the use of single use plastic utensils at community events.

Hailey Au

Be a Hero with the Heimlich Hailey’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by bringing forth awareness and education on the Heimlich Maneuver to individuals as young as elementary school students. Educating others on this procedure will help them stay calm in a situation when someone is choking. This gives them a plan of action, allowing a person to take the appropriate steps to potentially save a life.

Ashley Ayala

Erasing Your Carbon Footprint

Ashley’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of high carbon emissions within the United States by creating an informational guide (presentations, crafted booklets and posters, and physical demonstrations of solutions such as plastic or organic waste collection, and creation of composting bins) that spread awareness of one’s carbon footprint and subsequently taught individuals how to reduce or combat their current footprint.

Ashleigh Baird

Charlotte Baklarz

Places!

Charlotte’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of disorganization in her high school’s drama department by organizing costume and prop closets. She rearranged and grouped items into categories, making repairs as needed. Additionally, she created a document to keep track of the props, and made emergency kits for quick fixes backstage.

Kaylee Baldi

Be the Solution to Ocean Pollution

Kaylee’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of plastic pollution by organizing a beach cleanup, educating young children in schools, and encouraging restaurant owners to use sustainable alternatives.

Dahlia Balsam

Soaring Women

Dahlia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing the issue of women’s representation in the art field. She created a mural that visualized the lack of representation of women artists.

Zoe Beck

Agoura Study Buddies

Zoe’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing a bridge between Agoura High School and the Guadalupe Community Center’s after-school tutoring program. Zoe started a club at her school that provided tutors for underserved elementary aged students impacted by the pandemic. The tutors served as mentors for these students and provided academic and social/emotional support.

Katelyn Beggs

Remembrance Candles

Katelyn’s Gold Award Project of remembrance candles made an impact on her community by bringing attention to fetal loss and being able to help those grieving from it.

Church Teen Room Gold Award Recipient.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Cameron Bender Bags for Babies

Cameron’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the developmental importance of touch in newborn babies by providing babies in the NICU with additional baby blankets and stuffed animals. By giving babies personal comfort items, they are able to connect better with others at a young age. Building personal connections with others is a very important skill to have and it’s hard to do that when you are not surrounded by a comforting environment. Therefore, Cameron decided to make babies in the NICU feel more nurtured and taken care of.

Molly Blacksher

Dog Heatstroke Awareness

Molly’s Gold Award Project made on impact on her community by raising awareness about how heat can negatively affect dogs. She informed people of the signs of heat-related illness in dogs, how to keep dogs safe in the heat, and how to treat dogs with a heat-related illness. This was done through the creation of flyers, brochures, videos, and presentations for younger Girl Scout troops.

Emily Blair

Sydney Bradley No Limits

Sydney’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by hosting an event directed towards kids with autism and their families. At this event, she created five stations that focused on different sensory activities including yoga, dancing, creative music, finger painting, and making bath bombs. Sydney also created a sustainable webpage and YouTube channel with all the information and directions for each station so the kids can do these activities at home with friends and family.

Clarissa Breard Study Like No Otter

A.B.C.D.E

& F: Awesome Boredom Crushing Done Easy and Fun

Emily’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a website for students in grades K-5, focused on strategies, games and activities designed to beat boredom on long school breaks. The activities, recipes, book recommendations, and academic enrichment resources on the website are publicly offered so they can be accessed by anyone in the nation. This website enriches students’ desire to keep exploring their creativity while promoting discovery.

Clarissa’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of educational inequality by building a free study website for students to have access to different learning methods, mental health resources reviewed by a Psychologist, scholarship application information, and other free apps and websites. During research, she discovered that there are not enough free study resources available for students with learning disabilities and for students who want a little extra assistance. Students should be provided free resources for them to learn how they study best and maintain their overall health. With this resource, students will master their studies, become well-rounded in and out of the classroom and be more prepared for college courses.

Timira Brinson

Hey Let’s Talk About Mental Health

Timra’s Gold Award Project addressed the issues of bullying and mental health. The project she created was an online forum to talk about mental health and bullying. She provided a PowerPoint and Zooms to discuss these issues with an audience of men, women, and children of all ages. She also provided a flyer to anyone who was available to participate in the online form.

Mixtli Camarena

Vaping Awareness

Mixtli’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by sharing virtual and in-person presentations to community groups and schools on vaping awareness. Her target audience was educating teenagers and families on the effects vaping has on their health. Mixtli, with the help of the American Lung Association, created a brochure to share with clinics.

Ever Carlin

Fentanyl Awareness for Teens

Ever’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by educating her peers about the prevalence of laced counterfeit pills in the Los Angeles area. She formed a team of fellow visual art students and created a zine filled with informational facts and tips on how to stay safe. Ever also coordinated an event at her high school for over 200 students and brought a speaker from a national non-profit to do a presentation on the dangers of fentanyl.

Emily Elise Castellanos

GUSD LifeVac Project

Emily’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of choking in schools by installing LifeVac anti-choking devices in every cafeteria in her school district. This project serves as a safety net against choking for over 6,000 students and 700 staff members within her community.

Ashley Chan

What Preschoolers Can Do to Help Stop Global Warming

Ashley’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of climate change by producing a children’s book that details what kids can do to fight the climate crisis through small, meaningful actions. After reading the book, children will hopefully feel empowered to make a difference in the world no matter how young they are and will be able to adopt positive habits and attitudes that will stay will them throughout their lifetimes. Copies of the book were presented and donated to the Mountain View Children’s Center.

Erin Chang

The Recirculation Revolution

Erin’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing the harmful effects of the fast fashion industry by creating and sharing educational content through sources such as YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and personal blog posts. This content spread awareness on the unethical practices established in the industry and promoting sustainable fashion and shopping habits on a global scale.

Samantha Chea

Intersectionality and the Violence Against Asian Americans

Samantha’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of a lack of education regarding the history of being Asian American through raising funds and educational efforts. These include fundraising for copies of Ocean Vuong’s “Night Sky with Exit Wounds” and “Time is a Mother” donated to a local high school classroom, and passing out flyers to local Asian immigrant hotspots in San Gabriel Valley. The main highlight of the project was hosting a speaker event at Hsi Lai Temple who discussed local safety (partnered with LA County Sheriff), hate crime resources and actions (partnered with LA vs. Hate and CACA Los Angeles), as well as how to advocate for Asian American youth mental health (partnered with SGV NAMI).

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Hailey Chee

Art Therapy Awareness

Hailey’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of easily accessible information around art therapy by creating a website and school event. Her website, which is made for students, provides introductory information on art therapy in a format that is credible and substantial, but still easy to understand. It discusses common misconceptions about art therapy, research on how art therapy can be beneficial and information on how art therapists practice. In addition, it includes interviews with credentialed art therapists and resources for students who want to learn more about art therapy.

Clara Chen

The Supply Line

Clara’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of medical supply shortage in the Ukraine by collecting basic medical supplies from local health facilities such as hospitals and pharmacies. Clara formed a team to inventory, pack and deliver items to humanitarian aid shipping companies. Clara and her team spread awareness in the community and schools about the crisis in the Ukraine and what she did to help assist those in need.

Roselyn Chin

Introducing Underrepresented Groups to Technology and Social Entrepreneurship

Roselyn’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by introducing Los Angeles youth to principles of cyber security, digital literacy, social entrepreneurship, and different applications of technology. Through her five workshops, Roselyn reached about 30 students and shared her curriculum with many more. She taught participants how to remain safe online, web development with HTML and CSS, and how to find more opportunities or programs to learn about what interests them.

Sydney Cho

Book Library Gold Award Recipient.

Michaela Chung

Dream, Believe, Achieve

Michaela’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of motivation and encouragement of young students in having a positive mindset and believing in themselves by creating a mural with the motto “Dream. Believe. Achieve.” to remind students that anything is possible once they put their minds to it. In addition, she created an informational webpage pertaining to the “Dream. Believe. Achieve.” mindset that is easily accessible to anyone. She also led interactive activities with students to help encourage them to set goals and list ways to achieve that goal.

Brooke Clifton

Making Defibrillators Accessible for Youth Sports Emergencies

Brooke’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by increasing awareness and accessibility of Automated External Defibrillator’s in her local youth soccer club and at her high school.

Kelly Cobb

Women in Business

Kelly’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by empowering young women to start their own businesses through an entrepreneurial workshop. She presented to high school students about the importance of female entrepreneurship and hosted successful female entrepreneurs to share their stories and inspire young businesswomen.

Carsen Cope

Upcycling Captured on Film

Carsen’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by upcycling unused carpet, which would otherwise now be in a landfill, into designed floor mats donated to elementary school children to use in their classroom. Carsen documented the whole process and created a documentary titled “Save The Carpet” for the general public to view.

Solana Cordon

Gracias a la Vida: Latina Voices of South Pasadena

Solana’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by recognizing, celebrating, and educating others about the many contributions of Latinas in her city. Through collaboration with community organizations, Solana was able to conduct oral history interviews and create a photographic and biographical gallery reception meant to empower the Latinx community. This exhibit now resides in the South Pasadena Public Library, along with a website for sustained educational purposes, continuing to acknowledge the importance of cultural representation and what it means to take pride in who you are and where you come from.

Isabelle Core

Wings for Change

Isabelle’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the declining butterfly population and its relation to the environmental threats of climate change. She designed and planted a 14X14 butterfly garden on the grounds of the Aveson Charter School campus that will be sustained by the coordinators, teachers, and future children who attend the school. She taught two full kindergarten classes as well as the teachers an educational presentation summarizing this issue and explained how changes can be made to prevent further extinction. She gave them seed packets along with instruction guides on how to grow their plants at home after leading interactive painting and drawing activities.

Breanna Corral

Military Veterans and PTSD Awareness

Breanna’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of bringing awareness to our veterans and what they and their families go through. Breanna conducted interviews with military veterans who have and have not suffered with PTSD and made a pamphlet with real stories and resources for anyone struggling with PTSD to use. She also created a YouTube with the interviews that she had.

Olivia D’anjou

Operation Homeless Veterans

Olivia’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of veteran homelessness in Los Angeles County by constructing an informational website for veterans and civilians, creating 110 bags with over 500 articles of business-casual clothing to donate to vets and by hosting three workshops to inspire the next generation of Girl Scouts in providing them with the necessary skills to help prevent veteran homelessness in the first place.

Lia DeFonce-Martini

Lia Cares: Helping The LA Homeless Lia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by establishing a hygiene product donation system. Lia worked with the Los Angeles Mission on Skid Row and American Airlines to create a sustainable toiletry donation system. American Airlines flight attendants have donated over 2,000 miniature toiletry hygiene products to homeless individuals in need. Lia created a digital platform, conducted interviews, and created a documentary on the homeless community in downtown LA to educate individuals in her community and beyond.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Sofia DeLuna

Positively Drug Free

Sofia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by educating teenagers and parents to learn about of the dangers of drug use. She created a website, student lessons, flyers and large bulletin boards to promote drug-free messages to educate teens on the dangers of drug use. She also hosted a webinar for parents and students where a professional spoke about the dangers and prevention of drug use among teens.

Kennedy DeVries

The Clothing Corner Kennedy’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of clothing choice and access by providing middle school students with free and unlimited access to over 800 pieces of clothing at their school. This will allow the students to strengthen their confidence by having access to new clothes and the way they want to present themselves to the world.

Gianna Dimapilis

Nutritional Planteers

Gianna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a garden and holding seven cooking classes at the Families Forward Learning Center. She planted eight fruit and vegetable plants as well as eight flowers. A watering plan was also created to give a chance for each class to water the garden. With the garden and cooking classes, she also made care books for the garden and flowers and bought items the teachers requested for the learning center’s Discovery Zone. She also made a cookbook with some of the recipes that were made in the cooking classes. Copies of the cookbook were given to the kids and the learning center. This project developed the kids’ knowledge by learning how to garden and make healthy food choices.

Ella Dobkousky

Communication for Isolation Gold Award Recipient.

Katie Grace Drummond

Exploring The Arts with Katie Grace

Katie’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the lack of funding for art and music programs in underserved and disadvantaged schools. She created an art, craft, music, theater, and wellness program consisting of a 10 thematic units, a free downloadable 177 page binder, along with a YouTube channel and 10 coordinating videos accessible to all teachers.

Dina Eltawil

Diversify Our Curriculum

Dina’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of diversity in the core novels we read in class. Dina started a campaign with the help of passionate students to push the PV district schools into adopting an anti-racist curriculum, mainly focusing on the inclusion of core novels written by and about POC (people of color), especially women of color.

Audrey Emis Science Lessons for Native American Children

Audrey’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of Native American students not having as many STEM resources by creating a science lesson plan consisting of 12 sets of notes, experiments and selfmade videos.

Isabel Enciso

The Refuge

Isabel’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of mental health by giving several presentations to her church’s youth group. Here she discussed several types of mental health issues, symptoms, effects and ways to cope. In addition, Isabel did many mental health exercises and provided pamphlets summarizing everything she had taught. Having dealt with mental health issues herself, Isabel wanted to help her peers by letting them know they’re not alone.

Angelique Espinoza

Project Playground

Angelique’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing a safe place for children in the shelter to play with their mothers. The playground helps the therapist who works with the children provide sessions using play therapy, which helps the kids communicate their feelings and heal wounds from their traumas.

Nicolette Eusebi

Santa Clarita Elementary Digitized Scrapbooks and Yearbooks

Nicolette’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of losing decades’ worth of her elementary school’s history by scanning and digitizing 60 years worth of scrapbooks and yearbooks. Nicolette also created a website that includes the digitized books to be viewed, as well as comparison photos between the “then and now” of the school and newspaper articles related to the school. This project serves as an educational tool for learning about the school’s history.

Melanie Evans

Vector Control Education and Awareness

Melanie’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of dangerous and invasive mosquito populations in her community as well as the lack of education and awareness of residents in the area by teaching them about Vector Control and how to best solve the growing problems in their own backyards. She conducted searches at local schools in order to make them safer for the students and staff and provided information packets for staff, parents and families to use. The ultimate goal was for more people to be aware of how to deal with mosquitoes as well as have access to the proper materials and information they need to take the correct steps to address it.

Ella Ferguson

Driving 101

Ella’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of practical drivers’ education for teens in the U.S. as lessons move online. She did this by offering inperson lessons and demonstrations surrounding various car-related topics that are not often discussed in the online course. This includes how to change a tire, how to jumpstart a car, how to escape a car in emergency situations, etc.

Grace Franklin

Empowering Students with Autism

Grace’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing a functional and educational garden at Macy Intermediate, which connected students with autism to nature. She constructed three above ground garden planters, filled them with soil and taught the students how to plant herbs and strawberries in small group lessons. The students loved digging, planting, and watering their plants. They even enjoyed eating the strawberries they had planted!

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Ava Frans

Compost Take-Back Project

Ava’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of food waste by providing the necessary education and materials to start a simple garden, educating their community on how to shop sustainably and compost and by providing a local elementary school with a hands-on hydroponic learning garden.

Lauren Gao

Securing Safety

Lauren’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of firearm safety by working with her marksmanship team to raise awareness. They created an informational website and accompanying videos about gun safety and storage, and built brand new rifle racks with implemented safety features to demonstrate proper storage. She also made a presentation for her service unit.

Angeni Garcia

Arts and Crafts with the Elderly

Angeni’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by making the elderly smile. She made time to do some fun arts and crafts with them. She even put bags together with some of the supplies that she received for the residents.

Kelly Gee

Lending a Helping Hand

Kelly’s Gold Award Project made an impact on the children of her community by inspiring them to develop philanthropic hearts and minds. She wrote, illustrated and published her children’s book called “Lending a Helping Hand” which follows the protagonist, Tate, who helps people in need at home, school and locally. The book was donated to libraries and 17 elementary schools in her hometown and is currently listed on Amazon with all profits given to Luna Peak Foundation Children’s Oncology.

Laila Gibbs

Senior Connections with Nature

Laila’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of senior isolation by creating an art program at a senior facility. The weekly art projects were developed using photographs taken of nature. Seniors participated in each activity as they were taken through each step. The post survey concluded that the seniors felt connected with nature and their positive mood increased.

Alexandra Giese

Little Libraries - Big Impact

Alexandra’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by constructing, installing and communicating the availability of three Little Libraries with 202 books adjacent to elementary schools in the City of Bellflower. Her direct efforts to promote voluntary reading will have a significant impact on children’s literacy rates.

Molly Gin

Carport Transformation

Molly’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by transforming the carport storage space of a domestic violence women’s shelter into a boutique for the mothers to shop in for clothing and housewares. This will help the mothers with self confidence and self esteem as they will be able to shop for their families themselves rather than needed clothing and housewares being picked out for them.

Samantha Gin

A Better Way to Feed the Community

Samantha’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping a local food bank. She remodeled the storage space by cleaning, adding shelves and painting. She also created an organization system for the space to store donated food and clothing. Lastly, Samantha wrote Standard Operating Procedures for the food bank to maximize efficiency and outline the safety of volunteers.

Madeleine Gomez

Doodlebug Designs: Art Accessibility for All

Madeleine’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a bilingual art curriculum in Spanish and English for the children staying at the Ronald McDonald House. After her best friend was diagnosed with cancer in 2019, Madeleine turned to art as an outlet for processing difficult emotions. She created an opportunity for children with similar experiences through 30 step-bystep art instructional videos and sixty art supply bags.

Juliana Guardado

Giving A Helping Hand

Juliana’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of homelessness by donating many supplies to give out to the homeless.

Lily Gustafson

Teaching Rocketry to Elementary School Students

Lily’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the gender gap in STEM fields by recording videos on the four forces of flight and coding, as well as teaching three rocketry classes to 4th through 6th grade students. Lily worked with the organization Boundless Brilliance, which aims to educate and inspire students in order to close the gender gap in STEM fields. Lily taught classes and made videos in order to engage students in STEM through learning about rocketry and coding, as well as inspire them to pursue STEM in the future because those fields are for everyone.

Alise Gutierrez

Comfort for a Ruff Day Gold Award Recipient.

Katherine Gutierrez

Coping with Coloring

Katherine’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of anxiety within children and teenagers by creating a coloring book. Each drawing that she made for the book consists of mandalas, geometric figures that have been proven to ease stress when colored. In addition, the drawings are paired with quotes that relate to advice on calming anxiety. Katherine’s coloring book can be accessed through the web domain “color-plushies.com,” where each drawing is available for print.

Lucy Hasenmayer

Helping Bob Hope USO at LAX

Lucy’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping the center efficiently manage incoming supplies and donations meant for military members and by establishing connections with local volunteer groups with The USO for future outreach needs and requests.

Hope Hepburn

Positivity Pallets

Gold Award Recipient.

Samantha Herrmann

F.A.C.E.-Future

Aviation Career Exploration

Samantha Rose’s Gold Award Project addressed the projected global shortages of airline personnel. She inspired youth ages 5-15 to explore various aviation careers while learning the basics of flight, identifying common aircraft parts, and building a model airplane out of recycled materials. She organized a series of 10 STEAM Workshops with trained volunteer docents to educate through her “Model H20 Bottle Airplane Factory”. Industry professionals were interviewed to create educational videos, and a digital media kit for use in K-8 classrooms and museum discovery centers. She also collaborated with 20+ industry sponsors to host a free Aviation Discovery STEAM Center for two airshows inspiring 5,000+ youth to explore aviation careers.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Anna Heur Step to Specs

Anna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by collecting over 4,000 donated pairs of glasses to distribute to those who couldn’t afford a pair. She measured each prescription with a lensmeter, built an online database to catalog them and established a free glasses program at the Los Angeles County hospital. Over the course of two years, she gave out over 1,000 pairs of glasses to patients and became a partner of the Keck School of Medicine. Lastly, she authored a published and peer reviewed paper on the project.

Haylee Hewton

Female Representation in Children’s Literature

Haylee’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by inspiring young readers to embrace workplace gender inclusivity through children’s literature. Haylee created a children’s book titled, “I will do my best” which used the Girl Scout Law to introduce leadership qualities to 4-6 year olds. The book included images of young Girl Scouts dreaming of careers in fields that are currently underrepresented by women like pilots, engineers, firefighters, etc.

Haley Hoang

Inspiring the Next Generation of Women in STEM

Haley’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of women in STEM careers by creating and hosting STEM workshops for girls. She found six female engineers from different fields to participate as guest speakers to speak about the obstacles that they face. She found role models from the STEM industry who made positive impacts in their place of work.

Haley Holmes Water Works

Haley’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating and leading a community coalition to provide $25,000 worth of hydro-panels to provide safe, clean drinking water to the community of South Phoenix. The majority of the South Phoenix community does not have access to affordable clean, safe drinking water, which is vital to all forms of life. Haley’s business model among five coalition partners allowed for the funding and installation of eight SOURCE Global hydro-panels at the site of Spaces of Opportunity.

Sophia Horton

Disability Etiquette, What’s That?

Sophia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by updating the training manual and bibliography for Culver City’s Abilities Carnival. She taught Girl Scouts how to be respectful to people with disabilities and that we are more similar than we might seem. Additionally, she made a bibliography containing movies that feature people with disabilities. Together, these materials will be used in the future to train Girl Scouts before they volunteer for the Abilities Carnival.

Alyssa Hsiao

Reading Room Renovation

Alyssa’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of an unorganized and unwelcoming reading room by reorganizing and redecorating the room. She painted large bookcases, made over fifty custom book bin labels and efficiently organized over a thousand books. She used warm inviting colors with a boho theme accent. This made the room look and feel very warm and inviting for students and teachers.

Phoebe Hsu

Generational Love

Phoebe’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by building a connection between teenagers and elders at a senior living home, bringing the residents happiness through visits with interactive activities.

Katelyn Hung

Smooth Transistions and Reading Enrichment

Katelyn’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping homeless clients transition into housing and providing basic household essentials. For clients with young children, she also created reading comprehension guides to increase interest in reading, and sharpen their comprehension skills.

Caitlyn Iaccino

The Scribbler’s Sanctuary

Caitlyn’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by lending young writers the opportunity to have their creative voices be heard by the public. People who had never previously thought that they could be published ended up finding their voice on her website. Now that they have shared their voices with the world, and found a place for themselves on The Scribbler’s Sanctuary, these young writers can share their work on their social media platforms, with their friends or with fellow writers.

Grace Imatomi

So Together Early Academics Major

Grace Imatomi’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the lack of S.T.E.A.M education at the preschool level. She created a free website of over 100 S.T.E.A.M lessons targeted specifically towards preschoolers, using affordable, reusable, and recyclable materials.

Heather Jeon

Minimizing Screen Time for Children

Heather’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of impaired social, emotional and cognitive skills in youth rooted in the overuse of technology by holding workshops where she encouraged children and parents to spend less time on electronics and more time with one another. With the help of an amazing group of volunteers, Heather organized crafts, games, story walks and story times in order to help children learn and have fun in ways that reduce stress and foster personal connection. Her project aimed to help children become more engaged in offline activities to help them develop habits to overcome problems, such as anxiety and addiction, associated with excessive technology.

Carleen Miranda Jimenez

The Musical Journey

Carleen’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of decreased arts education in public schools by creating a rudimentary music theory curriculum accessible to middle and high school students. She hopes to exemplify the attainability of arts education and to ignite interest and passion within middle and high school students.

Abigail Jovel

Making It Make “Sense”!

Abigail’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a space where neurodiverse kids can go to “desensitize” when overstimulated during class or therapy sessions. She educated visitors to the room - including staff, volunteers and parents on sensory sensitivities and how to use the items in the room to help their students. This beautiful and interactive space will educate and serve visitors for many years to come.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Jordan Karambelas

Permaculture Is Our Future

Jordan’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by designing and constructing an aquaponic system on her high school campus. This system consists of a lower bin containing fish and an upper bin containing crops that utilize recycled water from the lower bin. This system saves water and land space while educating the community on ways to implement sustainable agriculture.

Gianna Karkafi

Books for Lebanon

Gianna’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of underfunded education in Lebanon by donating school supplies to multiple classes at a public school in Lebanon. She also held a book drive and collected and donated French books to the library at the same school and English books to refugee Middle Eastern children in America. Lastly, she started the Middle East Club at her high school to raise awareness about the situation in Lebanon and cultures in the Middle East.

Meghan Ke

Elders Speak Out

Meghan’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of anti-Asian hate crimes against the elderly by promoting Zoom interviews with five AAPI elders nationwide who provided insight on their experiences in America as well as thoughts on current events. The videos were posted on YouTube for all to see and reached over 100 people. She also presented her project at a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion PTSA meeting as well as a local church.

Kailey Keating

P.A.U.S.E Corner

Kailey’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of kids with cognitive disabilities struggling in classrooms not made with them in mind. She did this by installing a P.A.U.S.E corner in a classroom at her local elementary school. This corner is was equipped with many helpful items to get struggling neurodivergent kids through their days and be successful in the classroom. She also developed educational booklets for the school to send out to teaching staff, educating them about the symptoms and needs of neurodivergent learners and dissolving stigmas.

Nanor Kejejian

Healthy Habits for the Future

Nanor’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing middle school students at Armenian Sisters’ Academy with three lessons in health. The lessons addressed topics such as healthy eating, physical fitness and mental health. Each class had its own lesson, activity and product.

Sarah Keller

The Importance of Blood Donation: Educating Individuals to Create Lifelong Donors

Sarah’s Gold Award Project created a blood drive and educated teenagers on the benefits of donating blood consistently by making an informative pamphlet based off of a survey with information collected from blood donors. The blood drive was the largest blood drive in the Red Cross Southern California district and collected over 40 units of blood, each unit saving an upwards of three lives. The pamphlet was six-sided with information about why donating blood is important, where to donate blood, and common misconceptions about donating blood.

Lauren Kim

Cranes for Kids

Lauren’s Gold Award Project made an impact on their community through the art of origami. Partnering with OIC hospital in downtown Los Angeles, Lauren created an origami art cart full of supplies and handmade, stepby-step origami tutorials for pediatric patients to use. These tutorials are meant to provide relief in a stressful situation, as children are often separated from their family in a foreign environment in order to undergo treatment at OIC. Because OIC’s mission is to provide orthopaedic surgery to children regarldess of ability to pay, 75% of OIC’s patitents are charitable care.

Lola Kim

Creative Characters for the Creative Minds

Lola’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of chronic underfunding of the arts in public school by increasing access to a visual arts program that was easily accessible in their community. Lola taught a summer program at her local Boys and Girls Club, which included how to draw the human figure, create a story line, then ultimately how to create their own comic book. Lola then published her own how-to book so the center can allow kids to learn this art craft on their own.

Lois Kirk

Let’s Beautify

Lois’ Gold Award Project addressed the issue of decorating the new Burbank Boys and Girls Club - Main Club. She designed and painted a mural that incorporated the Club’s Core Values. She also taught an art class in primary colors, complimentary colors and color theory.

Elenore Krauss

Growing Gardens

Elenore’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of mental health in senior citizens by helping them learn a new hobby of gardening. This hobby could give them a purpose and get them outside. It’s a hobby they can share with others.

Ready Recipes

Ila’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating recipes for affordable meals. These recipes consisted of nonperishable items to provide to low-income families. Multiple families received meal bags with ingredients to a recipe as well as a recipe book to be able to cook these meals on their own.

Amanda Krausz

Sprouting New Beginnings

Amanda’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping bring joy to the residents of a local family homeless shelter. This was done by creating and leading over 15 art/science workshops that are still currently being held, while also growing a fruit and vegetable garden for the residents living there. In addition, she aimed to address the low access the children had to reading materials by creating a tiny library filled with books for all ages.

Julia Krider

A Warm Welcome to Immigrant Families

Julia’s Gold Award Project worked with Miry’s List, a nonprofit organization that helps settle immigrant families in Southern California. Julia contributed welcome gifts of recipe books and hand-sewn potholders to their welcome kits. These welcome kits will help these families start a new home in the United States.

Ila Krauss

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Josephine Kwak

SLC School-Run Newspaper

Josephine’s Gold Award made on an impact on her community by creating a space for students to write, participate and share their opinions in an extracurricular activity that built their connections with one another.

Jordan Lac

Your

Words, Your Voice

Jordan’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by holding public speaking workshops for youth in her community and creating a public speaking curriculum for her community center and schools to use.

Brooke Lackey

Ready to Grow Gardens

Brooke’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by conducting extensive research and meeting with multiple managers at local nurseries to determine all of the vital gardening materials and venturing into the community to partner with local businesses for donations. She spent countless hours in the greenhouse organizing and preparing for planting days with the “Ready to Work’’ program, a group of special education students at Carousel Ranch who are learning the essential skills to be successful in the workplace. With her guidance, the students learned that with perseverance and determination you can grow a plentiful garden with your own hands.

Ashly Lam

Educating Youth in Science Gold Award Recipient.

Nicolette Lamanna

Keeping DACA in the Public Conversation

Nicolette’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by spreading awareness about the relevance of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in a postDACA society. Nicolette conducted extensive research, including interviewing multiple immigration attorneys. To promote sustainability, she created a bilingual website (talkaboutdaca.com) with resources for undocumented individuals and presented her research at 10 different Los Angeles high schools, reaching over 500 students.

Julia Lambert

Native Plant Garden

Julia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by replacing a church lawn with a sustainable garden of California native plants. She taught the kids at the local preschool about the importance of native plants and biodiversity. Finally, she gave a presentation and flyers about the project to the churchgoers.

Kailey Leba

Art Around Us

Kailey’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by inspiring kids to explore their creative sides. She worked with a preschool to help develop the children’s art capabilities by teaching them different art mediums. She led a team in creating a mural at the school to spark the imaginations of future students.

Allison Lee

Train Your Brain: Ending Mental Health Stigmas for Student Athletes

Allison’s Gold Award addressed the lack of resources for teens and athletes regarding mental health by creating a local student organization, Train Your Brain, and a website containing a culmination of lectures by health professionals and free resources. Through the partnership with her high school’s counseling center and athletic department, Allison created a large outreach towards student athletes, parents, coaching staff and the athletic department’s faculty. Today, the Train Your Brain website contains a variety of interactive resources for all high school students, including lectures and local media sources to help open up and end stigmas against mental health around her local community, and is run by the website’s student forum.

Megan Lee

Injury Prevention In Swimming

Megan’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the most common injuries in swimming. She partnered with a physical therapist to hold physical therapy workshops for swimmers on the Rose Bowl Aquatics swim team. In the workshops, the swimmers learned why injury prevention is essential and specific exercises to prevent injuries.

Makenna Lee

A Meal Goes a Long Way

Makenna’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of green house gas emissions given off by the food industry by organizing a vegan meal plan and performing outreach. The project elaborated on the intricacies within the food industry, and what products or processes are harmful to our environment and our overall health. All of this information and the science behind it was put into a website. To promote the message of her project, she reached out through platforms like Instagram and YouTube, as well as teaching an elementary class how to make one of the vegan snacks and explaining how incorporating more plant-based meals into your diet can be beneficial.

Ava Leslie

Miss Music Producer: Inspiring Gender Equity

Ava’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of gender inequity in the music industry by inspiring girls to enter maledominated music production careers. She reached girls globally by creating a YouTube channel and locally by teaching an all-girls music production class.

Elizabeth Leung

STEM for Girls

Elizabeth’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of opportunities for girls interested in STEM by hosting STEM fairs for youth. One was held in the Columbia Memorial Space Center in partnership with the Girls in STEM Club and the other was held at her home church. She distributed STEM kits to girls in grades 4-7, which contained mini experiments for them to do at home. She had around 375 attendees total between the two fairs.

Elizabeth Lewelling Lending Library

Elizabeth’s Gold Award Project made an impact on their community by creating a self-sustaining library where people can give a book and get a book in a communicity location within walking distance from their homes. The lending library is located in a local park and provides increased access to books that will aid in increased literary. This serves as a great example of the value of Girl Scouts and our commitment toward giving back to the community with sustainable contributions.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Chloe Liao

The Benefits of Teens Volunteering Locally

Chloe’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by motivating students to volunteer within their local community. She created workshops to give students fundamental information and resources from local organizations that will guide them to successfully and positively volunteer in their community. As well as, created kits to distribute to an organization of their choice. She created a website and a service program partnership between Boys and Girls Club and Chandler School.

Sophia LimoncelliHerwick

Aquaponics for the Heal The Bay Aquarium

Sophia’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of marine ecosystem degradation by promoting a sustainable farming practice called “aquaponics” through an exhibit and educational materials at the Heal The Bay Aquarium. The exhibit and accompanying educational resources are used to teach visitors about this renewable method of farming in the hopes that it will inspire them to think more about how they themselves can practice sustainability.

Morgan Lippert

How to Survive Middle School

Morgan’s Gold Award Project, addressed the issue of common social, academic and personal struggles new students in Middle School might face.

Olivia Liu

Radio Rebel

Olivia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing emergency supplies to her high school and training people in her community in HAM Radios. After noticing a lack of emergency preparedness at her high school, Olivia planned her Gold Award so that it could address this issue. Olivia trained five groups about how to use HAM Radios in the event of emergencies to various Girl Scout troops. Olivia also trained the students and teachers at her school. Olivia raised money via Girl Scout workshops to provide emergency supplies to her school.

Katelyn Lugo

The Johvanny Project

Katelyn’s Gold Award Project named after her cousin Johvanny Molina, addressed the lack of resources available to people with Autism Spectrum Disorders who are transitioning into adulthood. Katelyn designed a website with resources regarding health, education, fitness, services and a calendar with events in her community for people with autism. She will continue hosting group meetings and outings for teenagers and young adults with autism.

Sophia Luu

Dance Education for the Community

Sophia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by teaching kids how to dance. She taught eight 45-minute classes at the Boys and Girls Club incorporating fun dance activities and combinations. In addition, she lead a Girl Scout Brownie Workshop to help them earn their Dancer Badge by teaching them new dance moves and helping them to create their own dance. Through this, she hoped to teach kids about the importance of artistic expression in an academically focused society.

Sean Lynch

Write Away! Helping pre-teen girls find their creative voices.

Sean’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping pre-teen girls find their creative voices through a series of Creative Writing workshops coming out of the Covid Pandemic.

Elli Lyznick

Canary Quotes

Elli’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by spreading positivity and mental health awareness through the use of positive quotes. These quotes were placed in the wellness center and counseling offices of her high school, ensuring hundreds of teenagers would see them everyday. She also did activities with Brownie troops helping to educate them on the importance of positive mental health.

Nikolina Mancinelli

Healthy Eating for Kids

NIkolina’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of poor nutritional food choices in young children by providing nutrition education to preschool-aged children. She developed a “Healthy Eating Activities” curriculum containing healthy eating activities, templates, guidelines and more. This curriculum was implemented at several local preschools.

Emily Mancini

Savored Memories Will Never Be Forgotten

Emily’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating resources for seniors and their family members. Through her project, she was able to create a brochure, website, webinar and an article focusing on how young people can interact with their senior family members. In addition, she created a raised garden bed for the seniors of her community partner Onegeneration, an intergenerational daycare facility.

Jane Marriott

Taking Cloud Preschool Above and Beyond!

Jane’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by revamping the play-yard at the public preschool serving young children with disabilities. The play-yard was run down and in need of refurbishment and Jane was excited to make a big improvement. Jane led a team to refresh the space by building a sensory sandbox with custom bench seating, painting two vibrant interactive butterfly murals and creating a tricycle parking space.

Erin Marsh Emergency Ready

Erin’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by supplying her previous elementary school with accessible emergency supplies, by classroom and per student, so they would be prepared in case of an emergency. Included with each kit was a list of all expiration dates since the school agreed to replenish anything that would expire. Emergency Information sheets were handed out to each student to take home detailing home safety and also a backpack emergency contact card was given out for the parents to complete and put in their child’s backpacks.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Kaitlyn Matthews

Respect The Ocean

Kaitlyn’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by increasing awareness of being safe around the ocean. Her project educated children and adults about swimming safely in the ocean, where to swim and how to decrease the risk of drowning. Information was taught about the environmental impact of keeping trash out of the ocean and beaches. Career options stemming from her project, such as becoming a Lifeguard or entering the Coast Guard, were also discussed.

Meghan McAndrews

Employment One-Stop

Meghan’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of productive aid in aftercare recovery as well as reducing and addressing stigma surrounding mental health advocacy. This was done by creating resources and bringing in experts who discussed navigating the labor market and entering the workforce in this odd [post]-covid shift with employment. Other experts discussed empowerment, identifying passions, self love, and how to create healthy and well-adaptive coping mechanisms to deal with anxiety and stress. Finally, tote bags with self care and hygiene items that would aid clients in their job interviews were made along with videos and digital materials to be used for all!

Stephanie McAnnally

Volunteer Encouragement for Youth and Volunteer Appreciation Project

Stephanie’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by bringing awareness to the importance of volunteering, being involved in your community and giving back. She conducted research, created a booklet and promoted nonprofit organizations to local youth groups. She not only promoted volunteering at in-person presentations, but also created a YouTube channel that informed many viewers of the importance of volunteering and giving back.

Davryn McDuffie

Let’s Understand

Davryn’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of discrimination. Davryn created a resource for elementary educators, LetsUnderstand.org, that provides free, grade-specific activities that help facilitate positive discussions about embracing and celebrating differences. She also conducted a book drive to supply DEI books to all ten elementary schools in her community and presented activities to hundreds of kids.

Megan Mendonca

Aquaculture in Art Gold Award Recipient.

Lia Meza

The Environmental Education Project Gold Award Recipient.

Claire Miller

Rewriting Sharks’ Reputation-Spread the Word!

Claire’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by writing and illustrating a children’s book about a young fish student navigating his understanding of a new classmate, a shark! Throughout the story he learns that what he thought he knew about sharks was wrong. By presenting her book through live readings to local elementary schools and donating copies to even more elementary schools, Claire spread the lesson to respect your world’s oceans and to see sharks through the lens of understanding their beautiful purpose.

Ella Minton

Lactation Room Makeover

Ella’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a safe and welcoming space for mothers to pump milk for their babies.

Alyson Moulton

Addressing Child Obesity through Education and Awareness

Aly’s Gold Award Project impacted her community by teaching kids about healthy and affordable eating. Aly accomplished this by developing and publishing a no-bake cookbook with accessible and inexpensive ingredients. Aly demonstrated through presentations and documents in the cookbook that making healthy food is fun and easy!

Katherine Mueller

Young Women’s Safety Preparedness Program - Safe, Sound, Smart

Katherine’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by teaching young women how to live safely and confidently while living independently in college. Through online seminars, a website and originally designed pamphlets provided in local schools, Katherine educated girls on how to navigate hazardous scenarios they may face in a society where women are more often victimized. She also held an in-person self defense seminar for girls at her school, which taught participants key self-defense and confrontational tactics to prevent violence.

Lauren Muir

Donations for Millikan Students in Need

Lauren’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing financially struggling students with basic necessities. These were made available at the Wellness Center on campus and included food, hygiene products and more. She also held a Winter Formal Fair where students could stop by and pick up any formal wear and accessories for the dance for free.

Nell Murphy

Journey to Manzanar

Nell’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of AAPI hate by educating on the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Nell created a virtual tour of the historic site that anyone can do.

Vivian Musacchia

“What’s Wrong With You?”

Vivian’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of ableism in her local school district by creating training videos for staff and students. Vivian covered proper terminology to use when referring to disabled people, how to make the learning environment more accessible, as well as what to do during emergency situations with disabled individuals. Vivian believes that incorporating these accessibility practices for youth, as young as elementary school, can breed a more inclusive society.

Megan Nakayama

Project: Go with the Flow

Megan’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing the need for feminine hygiene products at her all girls high school. She held a successful feminine product drive that collected $3,500 worth of products that were used to create 35 period boxes to be distributed throughout the school. The last portion of her project included revamping the school’s existing feminine product dispensers and educating the student body with two informational pamphlets on women’s period health.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Noelle Nelson

Teach Teal: Food Allergy Awareness

Noelle’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the lack of food allergy awareness in schools by creating an elementary school curriculum, website and videos to teach both students and teachers about food allergies. The goal was to teach students all about food allergies including what food allergies are, the top nine allergens, allergic reactions, food allergy bullying, anaphylaxis, media misrepresentation of food allergies, empathy and more through engaging textbooks and activities. Noelle taught her curriculum to the fourth grade class at her community partner school and sent the Teach Teal program to six other schools, ensuring that all students go out into the world knowledgeable about food allergies.

Hailey Neufer

The Sensory Design Project

Hailey’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing a pre-school speech therapy classroom with a re-design focused on the sensory needs of children.

Gianna Nuccio

Girls Fight Back

Gianna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by teaching high school girls self-defense and danger assessment. Three workshops were hosted for girls aged thirteen to seventeen, working with twenty girls in total. The workshops incorporated skills and techniques to use in threatening situations to help victims and survivors stay safe.

Anna Oeser

Fentanyl Awareness

Anna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing rising overdose rates. She launched a social media campaign on the dangers of fentanyl, conducted educational workshops and created an informational video to spread awareness (materials can be accessed at https://youtu.be/ RccWXhhmcC0 ). High school students learned key facts on fentanyl and harm reduction techniques such as the use of fentanyl test strips and the life-saving medication naloxone.

Mollie O’Grady

Hygene Education and Mychal’s Learning Place

Gold Award Recipient.

Maya Okada Expression Through Art

Maya’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community through exposing the youth at La Primera Preschool to her art program. She taught the preschoolers the importance of expressing their identity and creativity, along with helping them develop their dexterity skills. With the guidance from her troop leader, wisdom from her project advisor, Mrs. Cheryl, and help from her follow troop members, Maya was able to accomplish her goals.

Anouk Osborne

Promoting Equity at Los Angeles County High School for the Arts

Anouk Osborne’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of inequality in the schools Cinematic Arts Department by creating a website of essential resources accessible to all students enrolled. These resources include a compendium of actors, locations, costumes and props. As well as creating a mentorship program between professionals in the film industry and interested LACHSA students. Allowing mentors to share their practical knowledge, provide encouragement, and guide mentees to appropriate internships

Julianna Othmer

Music Garden

Julianna’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of inequities in arts education particularly music education by creating a Music Garden for students with items that can withstand the weather elements and can easily be found. To ensure the project is sustainable for years to come, the initial Music Garden box and creation stations were treated for weather and every item is replaceable as needed with common tools such as wrenches and hammers. A YouTube channel was also created that has pictures, videos, and explanation on how to build a Music Garden anywhere as well as downloadable printouts.

Evelyn Pae

The Heartshare Project

Evelyn’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the lack of art education by creating a free week-long art summer camp in Santa Anita Mix Academy for 107 underserved children. Each day she used her self-made lesson plans to educate on a diverse range of artists and art mediums including sculpting, drawing and painting. To ensure their art journey will be sustained, each student was given art material goody bags and participated in a group painting that is hung on their school.

Melanie Papadopoulos

Period Peace of Mind

Melanie’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of poverty and menstrual inequity in Cuba by presenting health workshops and supplying girls with washable, sustainable menstrual pad kits. The kits are life changing and allow girls to manage their periods with dignity, without having to miss school and future opportunities.

Aleena Parikh

Bridging Generations

Aleena’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of training on digital technology in the elderly community. The digital divide is real and is growing amongst our elderly. Seniors are eager to learn to use modern phones, applications, shop online and communicate with family members. This project provides seniors with the necessary support to become digitally literate and self sufficient in a digital world.

Sarah Park

Lax to the Max

Sarah’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by allowing underserved communities, such as Compton and Long Beach, to have the opportunity to learn lacrosse. By creating clinics, Sarah was able to bring her high school teammates to teach lacrosse to young girls, providing equipment such as sticks, balls and a goal for the girls to practice with. Eventually, the girls were able to participate in a tournament and experience a real game and the joy of playing lacrosse.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Makena Parker

Aloha Roots

Makena’s Gold Award project made an impact on her community by sharing the beauty and joy of Hawaiian culture through the teaching of hula dancing, the art of lei making and lauhala weaving.

Asha Patel

Lights, Camera, Action: Eating Disorder Awareness

Asha’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by educating middle school students about eating disorder awareness and body image. Asha created a five episode video curriculum about eating disorders, symptoms, resources, social media and the healthcare system to give students a better understanding of eating disorders and mental health to prepare them for their teenage and adult life. This curriculum allows them to make mature decisions about sensitive topics, as they now have the proper knowledge to deal with such issues. Her goal was to make eating disorder resources more widely available for middle school students and to combat stigma surrounding eating disorders.

Alexa Perez

Hope for Hoving Home Gold Award Recipient.

Mary Piscatella

Dignity for All Women. Period. Mary’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the stigma and lack of knowledge of proper hygiene during menstruation among preteen and teen girls as well as provided houseless and low-income women with free

menstrual products. Unfortunately, young women and girls are taught the science of menstruation rather than proper hygiene in their school health programs. Mary created her own curriculum to teach appropriately aged girls topics ranging from a brief description of menstruation to different options of menstrual products to how to use and dispose of a pad and a tampon. Mary worked to supply her community partner, Westwood Transitional Village, with free menstrual products through community donation and collected over 6,000 menstrual products in total.

Marie Placido

Garden Boxes for YMCA of the West San Gabriel Valley

Marie’s Gold Award Project made an impact on their community by building two garden boxes for the kids attending the YMCA day care and summer camp. These boxes provide an educational space to learn to grow vegetables and various other plants. By including these boxes in the kids’ everyday routine will help engage their minds and expand their knowledge on growing and taking care of plants.

Eleanor Ragle

Period Power Project

Eleanor’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of period stigma and misinformation by creating a website that hosts period information and resources. To gather that information, she surveyed hundreds of men, women and non-binary individuals about their experiences with periods. She then shared what she learned by analyzing the data and creating graphs for her website that represented data about menstruation -- such as the cost of periods and what people with periods wanted others to learn. Finally, she organized, recorded, and posted multiple live workshops with expert speakers on topics relevant to menstrual education, including “International Menstrual Stigma” and “Hygiene Products: 101.”

Sarah Porter

Creating Connections Gold Award Recipient.

Carmel Randolph

Monarch Butterfly Waystation

Carmel’s Monarch Butterfly Waystation addressed the issue of the Monarch species now being endangered and losing habitat, shelter and food sources. The built Monarch Waystation includes pollinator plants as well as food sources for Monarch butterflies, which also doubles as shelter. She educated the public on how they may create their own Waystation at home. The Waystation also allows the Monarchs to come and go as they migrate. She earned two certified Waystations, one at home and one at Arlington Garden in Pasadena.

Anjali Rao

Patio Planters

Anjali’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by building two planter boxes and planting them for the special education class at her high school.

Shanthi Rao

Mosaic Tile Project

Shanthi’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by increasing access to wellness resources for students in the Special Education program at San Marino High School. During the project, Shanthi taught students how to create a custom tile that was installed into the sensory wall. The kids were able to participate, learn a new skill, see what their hard work created and had fun while doing so.

Kaia Reichow

Kaia Reichow’s Garden Center

Kaia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating and building a work table and three planter boxes for the kids of Santa Clarita Elementary. Her goals were to foster a sense of responsibility in growing something as well as create a place for kids to learn outside of the normal in-classroom

setting. She wanted kids to have a place to relax if they were feeling overwhelmed, as well as be a place students can learn life skills and have a hands-on learning experience.

Bela Reis

Bela Bakes

Bela’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by holding baking workshops at sober living facilities. These workshops not only taught the women who attended how to bake, but brought joy in their lives, and helped them on their road to recovery.

Ryann Reynoso

PHS Bulldog Wellbeing Lounge

Ryann’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of mental health by constructing a rejuvenating space for educators on her high school campus to focus on their mental health. This space is designed for educators to relax by prioritizing their mental health. Mental wellbeing is not a one-time offer, we have to continue to seek ways to take care of the staff and those that serve our students. Acknowledging that we all need a moment to disconnect from the life around us and zoom into our internal wellbeing will flow into the work these educators do with students daily.

Kate Richards

Project HERstory

Kate’s Gold Award project addressed the lack of education on women’s history by writing a kid’s book on the women’s suffrage movement profiling the lives of 19 unique suffragists (19 for the 19th Amendment.) She also did presentations on suffrage and activism at her local elementary schools.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Olivia Ries Kits for Kids

Olivia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing arts and crafts kits for the homeless children at Home Again Los Angeles. She gathered donations of supplies from members of her community and led troops of younger Girl Scouts in making the kits. Olivia shared the instructions for the kits with younger Girl Scouts who kept the project going by making arts and crafts kits for children at another homeless shelter.

Samantha Rios House of Hope

Samantha’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of poverty and homelessness in the community, more specifically the vulnerable women and children. Samantha visited Alexandria’s House monthly and cooked warm delicious healthy meals, hosted a sock, toy, and school drive, and created care kits for the women and children at Alexandria’s House. Samantha connected and built many friendships with the families and created a cook book for the families!

Meah Rivas The Giving Garden

Meah’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing the importance of the environment. She rehabilitated the garden at Woodlake Elementary School and taught a hands-on lesson to three different fourth grade classes where the students were able to plant their own succulent in the garden. By soliciting and gathering multiple donations, she restored the garden with various amounts of plants, fruits, and vegetables for the students to enjoy.

Ariela Robinson

Reducing Animal Stress

Ariela’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by helping local animal shelters and rescue groups. She collected and made items to donate that enrich and de-stress animals. She also taught others how to make these items, and about the importance of animal enrichment and keeping animals less stressed in shelters and rescue groups.

Lorelei Rocca

Increasing Community Awareness Around Fire Safety and Preparation

Lorelei’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by educating over 500 families about the importance of fire safety and how to be prepared. She did this by creating a detailed website, starting an Instagram account to post fire safety tips on, attending a community event where she passed out fire safety education materials she made and some that were donated by the fire station she worked with, hosting six presentations at the Altadena Public Library and regularly communicating with her Homeowner’s Association.

Victoria Rosales

Diversity In Music

Victoria’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by addressing the lack of women in the music industry. She worked hard to a create cost-free mini-series of workshops on the fundamentals of some of the different careers in the music industry. This was an easily accessible source of information and education to guide young diverse people looking to get involved in the music industry.

Simra Saeed

Bringing Joy to Sick Children

Simra’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating videos for child patients at Miller Childrens’ Hospital. She led various activities, such as drawing and reading, that were placed on the hospital’s closed-circuit television channel, The Millie Show. These videos will remain on the channel and allow the patients to engage in meaningful learning and play, even in a distanced environment.

Niloofar Sahimi

Battling

Menstrual

Poverty

Niloofar’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of menstrual poverty and lack of sustainability by creating reusable hygiene kits filled with products menstrual products like pads, underwear, and reusable bags to toothbrushes, shampoo, hair brushes, and distributing them to the Friends in Deed’s Women’s Room. She held sewing workshops to create these sustainable, reusable products and held community dialogue events to speak on the issue in question and providing resources to destigmatize it. As a result she became an ambassador for the Red Cross’s International Humanitarian Law Campaign, an environmental ambassador for The Pad Project, securing an internship with Operation Climate at Duke University, and has become the President of her Days for Girls club at her high school.

educate the community on why drought-resistant and native plants are important for the environment. By choosing the sheriff’s station she worked in a public space in order to create public awareness of climate change.

Jordan Sarrail

You Can Do It, Too!

Jordan’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by spreading awareness of the sport of cross country mountain bike racing to middle and high school girls. By doing so, myths were debunked, facts were spread and girls were inspired to learn more about the sport. With more girls informed and empowered to try out this sport, the numbers of female racers in this maledominated sport can increase in the coming years.

Lillian Sanfilippo

Bring Back the Green

Lillian’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of climate change. She landscaped her local sheriff’s station with native and droughttolerant plants and trees to promote sustainability. The project helped

Nicole’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of increasing crime in her community by raising awareness and partnering with the police department and her neighbors to promote, implement and directly assist with citizen-centered strategies to reduce crime. She hosted and organized three block parties that connected the neighborhood and created strong community bonds, thereby improving the residents’ quality of life. Finally, she addressed traffic concerns in her cul-de-sac by building improved signage to reduce traffic so the children can play safely in the street.

Raquel Segura

Tree of Hope

Raquel’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating and building an idea that would give pediatric patients a goal and something to participate in. This project was designed to include all patients and their families to celebrate their accomplishment of finishing their medication. Ringing the bell and placing their name on the Tree of Hope gives them a positive outlook for a future.

Nikila Samudrala Housing Kits Gold Award Recipient.

Nicole Sasaki Neighborhood Safety Improvement Project

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Marie Sekiguchi

Bold Voices, Authentic Choices

Marie’s Gold Award Project addressed the lack of representation for minorities and LGBTQ+ people in media by running writing workshops for teens. She prepared workshop activities and contacted authors as guest speakers in partnership with WriteGirl Los Angeles, a writing initiative for girls in Southern California, and the Pasadena Public Library.

Natalia Serrano

Emergency Preparedness for Children with Autism

Natalia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by hosting four workshops for children with autism to learn more about emergency preparedness. Natalia also uploaded four videos to YouTube.

Brooke Shepherd Little

Labs

Brooke’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of boredom from sciencerelated topics in young children by hosting a series of fun and engaging workshops at Victor YMCA in Torrance that examined rudimentary scientific topics with various science experiments. Additionally, she created a binder that was donated to the main YMCA facility where other staff members can check out the binder and carry out the same activities at their site, and developed a website with all the same information, plus further information about her project and child development.

Samantha Simon

Cummunity’s Child Garden Project

Samantha’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of rising obesity rates in children in poverty by building a garden at a local women’s and children’s shelter and teaching the children to plant and harvest their own vegetables. She also created a recipe book along with videos to give the children easy and healthy recipes using the vegetables in the garden to promote healthy eating.

Jessica Snow

Accessible Raised Gardening Table for the Elderly

Jessica’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing an outdoor activity for the elderly, allowing them to be free of caregivers’ assistance to participate. It also encouraged healthy living by being outdoors, eating fresh grown vegetables and by socializing with other residents. Lastly, it provided a way for all of the residents, no matter their mobility circumstance, to participate in an activity to benefit their overall mental and physical health.

Audrey Sterzick

Volunteer Center Awareness

Audrey’s Gold Award project made an impact on her community by raising awareness of the Volunteer Center. The Volunteer Center is a food bank that relies on donations. Audrey’s project encouraged community members to donate during the summer months, when the Center often struggles. Members of her community learned many simple and valuable ways to contribute.

Kaiya Suehiro

The Wellness Book: 99 Ways to Destress

Kaiya’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of acute stress in teens by making a book with simple ways to manage stress, and by creating a wellness kit, canvas posters, and workshops for her high school’s new Wellness Center.

Kaitlyn Sulivan-Pascual Reforming and Mending Mindsets

Kaitlyn’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the ongoing global mental health crisis among teenagers by writing and publishing a book and producing an anxiety video simulation to spread awareness on mental health and debunk the social stigma.

Angeline Sutandinata

The Special Needs Support Network

Angeline’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of isolation in the special needs community by providing a safe space for neurodiverse and neurotypical students to form meaningful friendships and complete art activities together. The project shared the importance of special needs inclusion through in-person and online informational presentations and invited guest speakers from special needs organizations to share their insight on how students can create an inclusive environment at school and in their community.

Hannah Tanchauco

Poverty Women Lacking Feminine Hygiene Products

Hannah’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of period poverty by collecting feminine hygiene products to donate to homeless shelters and educate the community about period poverty.

Nicole Tanita

The Road to Belonging

Nicole’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating six self advocacy videos of students with Down Syndrome. These videos provided an opportunity for students with Down Syndrome to tell their stories of their road to belonging. The videos also helped build a more inclusive community where others are able to understand, appreciate, and embrace differences between individuals.

Sydney Tatevossian

Sustainability: The Little Things Start With You

Sydney’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of negative impacts of people’s carbon footprint on the environment by providing alternative methods and activities for individuals to do in order to reduce the negative effects they have on nature. Sydney did this by showcasing ways in which individuals could incorporate sustainability into their daily lives via videos on a TikTok account dedicated to teaching others about this issue. Sydney also hosted multiple park and beach clean-ups over the course of her Gold Award Project.

Isabella TerryDobrovolska

Making Homeless Women Have a Better Sense of Connection and Well-being

Isabella’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of how to cultivate food as well as mental health by working and learning how to grow food that can then be used as a food source for those in need.

Claire Thompson

Menstrual Equity Whittier

Claire’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of menstrual inequality among unhoused individuals in Whittier by creating partnerships between companies and shelters to provide unhoused individuals with free menstruation kits and educational tools. Claire’s project effectively made menstruation products accessible for unhoused individuals in her area, getting them one step closer to a stable living situation.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Isabella Thompson

Buddy Bench

Isabella’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of plastic waste by educating elementary age students on the importance of recycling. Isabella collected and sorted over 200 pounds of plastic caps in order to provide a Buddy Bench for the local elementary school. Through classroom visits, organized games, and creating her own website, Isabella provided the students with resources to help them make the environment a healthier place.

Lily Tochner

Be The Change

Lilly’s Gold Award Project titled Be The Change addressed the issue of civic engagement among teenagers by providing leadership opportunities to high school students through Be The Change club chapters across Los Angeles. These chapters worked together to educate their peers on social issues while gaining leadership skills by attending workshops and planning events combatting human rights injustices. Through teamwork, the chapters put together events like an informative service event educating the community on foster care reform while putting together over 80 toiletry bags for a local homeless shelter housing foster kids who are transitioning out of the system.

Nicole Torres

Chino Hills Teen Advisory Board

Nicole’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a teen board to allow students across Chino Hills to become vocalized on various issues we care about, from environmental depletion, lack of education and learning about our local government. The board will be filled with students that care about various issues, established to address the issue of the overlooking of young people’s ideas and voices to feed the connections between the youth and the world around them. This project will directly benefit the youth population in her city, Chino Hills, to build a united front that only encourages positive values that will go back into our community.

Eve Trapnell

Trash 2 Treasures

Eve’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by repurposing the trash and recyclable materials found around the Ballona Creek and within households in the neighborhood, turning them into childrens’ art projects within a summer camp class. Eve turned recyclable materials like egg cartons, toilet paper rolls, yogurt containers, bottle caps, bubble wrap, straws and cardboard boxes into maracas, castanets, bird feeders, stamps, and compostable plant holders. This Gold Award Project helped her community by diverting less trash to landfills.

Alique Tufenkjian

Self-Image & Mental (HEAL)th

Alique’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of teenage girls’ negative body image as a result of social media by creating a social media campaign and publishing a book called “Girl to Girl, Unfiltered.” Utilizing her love of photography, she conducted photoshoots of 11 girls and gathered their unique stories and experiences on body image, mental health and beauty standards. She held a photography exhibit and created a social media campaign that included an Instagram page, hashtag and photography challenge, which encouraged other teens to show their authentic selves and what selfcare looks like to them during the “International Boost Self-Esteem Month.” Her book is available online and has garnered interest from as far away as France, Germany, and the UK.

Lorien Valcarce

The Recycling Game

Lorien’s Gold Award Project titled The Recycling Game addressed the issue of people not recycling, reusing and reducing waste enough by informing and inspiring them. The game is fun, educational and inspiring, and anyone around the world can play it. There were four minigames, each addressing an aspect of recycling.

Maya Van Dyke

Helping Priceless Pets Gold Award Recipient.

Maya Vasquez

Bugs & Bins

Maya ‘s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of climate change and pollution by teaching about composting to elementary school students. She was able to teach different grade levels from TK to 6th grade about the importance of composting and how it helps the environment. The students she taught were also able to create their own compost at school. They used this compost to create their very own garden.

Sienna Vaughn

Debate: The A is for Accessibility

Sienna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by exposing underserved students to public speaking and debate. She created a comprehensive curriculum to help schools offer speech and debate programs. She also worked with the California Lawyer’s Association to promote judging by lawyers for debate tournaments, since the requirement that judges be provided by students who want to participate in speech and debate is often an impediment to participation.

Sanika Vaze Ready Set Prep!

Sanika’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of disaster preparedness by helping her high school prepare for a disaster by remodeling, restocking, organizing and cleaning the emergency materials storage container as well as bringing awareness towards the importance of disaster prevention.

Parker Velazquez

Promoting Healthy and Quick Cooking to Aged-out Foster Young Adults

Parker’s Gold Award Project providied spice and staple kits to youth aging out of foster care. She created a cookbook with healthy and inexpensive recipes for the youth to share with their kids, and educated others about the needs of youth aging out of foster care.

Milani Vo

It Takes A Village

Milani’s Gold Award Project made an impact in the girls basketball community by inspiring, creating interest, increasing skill sets, lowering stress levels, and creating community. Milani’s project originated from reflecting on her own experiences as a three-sport athlete, and after conducting research and talking with other players and coaches. She realized other girls in basketball had similar experiences. The project had a multifaceted approach for middle through high school girls that included guest speakers, skills workshops, an art event, a community service project, and more. Milani contacted coaches beyond her local community that she found in her research to provide them with information about her project, and created a website so players and coaches around the world could follow her approach to create lasting change in girls basketball.

Drew Vranesh

Unhooked

Drew’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of social media and cell phone addiction among teenagers and how it effects their mental health, by forming a crochet club to get teens off of their screens. Teenagers getting unhooked from their phones and hooked onto crocheting was the goal. Her club helped spread awareness about screen related mental health issues, revived the lost art of crocheting, brought teenagers from all different groups together, and donated their creations to organizations.

2023 GIRL SCOUT GOLD AWARDEES

Sophia Walker Fresh Start

Sophia’s Gold Award Project made an impact on their community by providing care packages to the homeless through a mobile laundry washing service, and helping younger Girl Scouts earn the Homelessness Awareness patch.

Abigail Walston

A Home-Grown Future

Abigail’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating four sustainable planter boxes to bring beauty and life into the cement courtyard at the Bridge to Home homeless shelter. These boxes were filled with blooming perennials and fertile soil, which gave the clients at the shelter the opportunity to plant their own herbs and vegetables. Since their installation, the boxes have been used daily by clients at the shelter and have improved the mental attitudes of many.

Pauline Wang

Kind on the Mind

Pauline’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of mental health issues by spreading awareness through social media outreach. The goal was to spread awareness, break down stigmas and support those who are struggling with mental health issues through visual podcasts, Instagram livestreams and social media posts. Through statistical facts, anecdotal stories and live interactions, information could be shared regarding all forms of mental health disorders, ways to support others, and how to take care of yourself mentally and emotionally.

Katelyn Waugh

Pleasantview Wellness Garden

Katelyn’s Gold Award Project made an impact on their/her community by creating a welcoming outdoor space for the clients, staff and guests at Pleasantview Industries. This outdoor space was designed to promote mental wellness and community by

getting outdoors. Pleasantview Industries is a nonprofit organization in the Santa Clarita Valley that provides services to people with disabilities.

Sydney Weiss

Crops 4 Kids Gold Award Recipient.

Amanda Wong

Crafts to Relax

Amanda’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating craft and activity kits for her school’s Wellness Center. The Wellness Center’s goal is to support and protect the emotional and mental wellness of students by providing a calming place for them to relax and take a short mental health break during their school day. Amanda created five different types of craft kits to give students a variety of hands-on activities that promote relaxation and stress relief.

Danielle Workman

Teaching About Tolerance

Danielle’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of racial discrimination by creating a diversity education curriculum for kindergarten students. This curriculum, consisting of nine readings and paired activities, has been implemented in all of the transitional kindergarten classrooms at Highland Oaks Elementary School. In addition, this project won the Arcadia Educational Foundation’s You & Me Grant of $10,000, funding it for the next ten years, as well as the Mayor’s Certificate of Commendation.

Alice Xie

Helping Through Headlines

Alice’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by providing local junior high school students the opportunity to learn all about journalism, from chasing the story and writing it to learning about photography and design. This project

aimed to teach upcoming generations about current events and keep students informed about our world so they can make the best possible decisions in their lives, communities and societies. After months of guiding students through phases of planning, writing and designing, Alice helped the junior high students produce and publish a forty page journalistic magazine for their peers to spread awareness about the state of our world and promote the educational growth of up and coming leaders in our society.

Jennifer Yamashita Adventures in Japanese American History

Jennifer’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by teaching kids about different Japanese American historical sites in the Venice/ WLA area. She did this by creating a website with a story that leads kids on a time-traveling adventure to learn about the different places. Jennifer shared the website at various summer camps, churches, and classrooms with over 100 users participating.

Lily Yllescas

Helping Club de Observacion de Aves Auropalliata Start a Student Birders Club

Lily’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of human-caused wildlife poaching and endangerment, and habitat destruction on the island of Roatan, Honduras by educating and advising Roatan’s fledgling adult membership about methods to engage young people by in nature through bird watching and art. Lily provided the Club with ten reusable Bird Watching Field Kits comprised of backpacks, binoculars, field and sketch notebooks and art supplies, and she designed an eBird instruction flip book for each Field Kit which will support Club Auropalliata’s mission to ensure that data from Roatan is available to the international scientific community. A student club will also provide Roatan’s young people, already socioeconomically at risk, to be mentored, included and active in a community.

Jenna Zach

Individual Struggles with Teens: Short Film

Jenna’s Gold Award Project made an impact on her community by creating a short film on various types of anxiety and how to identify and cope with it. She collaborated with her peers, friends, and staff with psychology expertise to create a credible film. It was presented to classrooms at her school and Q&A panels were held.

Natalia Zamora

Music for the Soul

Natalia’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of Alzheimers by creating a program using music therapy principles for residents of nursing homes. Music therapy has been proven to stimulate the brain and has the potential to spark memories that were forgotten. Her program offers a mental gym for residents of the Artesia Christian Home through various games (like musical bingo or music trivia) and pre-recorded concerts for the residents to enjoy.

Congratulations

to the 2023 Gold Award Girl Scouts

Thank you for making the world a better place through your creativity, tenacity, and passion. You are inspiring.

WE’RE SO PROUD OF YOU!

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Mia Britel Chair

Renee Fraser Vice Chair

Denise Gutches

Vice Chair

Andy Park Vice Chair

Tania Van Herle Vice Chair

Erin Oremland Secretary

Michelle Wroan Treasurer

Sue Callaway

Carolyn Cassidy

Dean Catalano

Erin Dawkins

Elisabeth Dick

Monique Earl

Sonia Endler

David Gallagher

MacKenzie Green

Sheetal Medatia

Bill Nelson

Jim Niemiec

Nina Skorus-Neely

Dawn Solér

Anna Tom