Going for the Gold

Local Teen Merits Highest Scouting Honor

by Mimi Greenwood Knight

COVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATES of 2021 assembled as a class for one of the last times for senior awards night. District Attorney Warren Montgomery took the podium to announce the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Leadership award. This graduate, he said, had maintained a 3.5 or higher GPA throughout her four years of high school. A dedicated athlete who’d been recognized as the school’s student of the month, she spent years in Girl Scouts, even achieving its highest honor. Meghan Michel’s friends whispered, “It’s you! It’s you!” But it wasn’t until he said the graduate worked as assistant manager of Pat’s Seafood in Covington that Meghan knew her classmates were right. She rose to accept the title and the scholarship money that came with it. Before the night was over, she’d return to the stage again and again, accepting an academic award of excellence, Louisiana High School Athletic Association all-academic scholar athlete award, outstanding performance in World History and Social Studies, Marine Corps Semper Fidelis Commendation for Girl Scout Gold Award and a financial scholarship from Shelter Insurance Foundation. Those who know the confident teen weren’t surprised. Meghan is a polite, well-spoken, well-rounded, self-assured young woman. And she gives much of the credit to the 11 years she spent in Girl Scouts.

“The Girl Scouts gave me confidence through accomplishment,” she said. “I also found most of my friends through Girl Scouts.” From the beginning, Meghan was determined to get all she could out of her years in green. She was the scout who sold 500 boxes of cookies a year (for a total of 6,000 to date). If there was a badge to be earned, she jumped in with both feet. As soon as she was old enough, she was eager to mentor not just her two younger sisters who followed her into the troop, but also younger campers at Camp Loblolly, where she served as an assistant troop leader.

Debbie Melancon has put in so much time as a scout leader she’s now leading the daughters of her former scouts. She’s had the privilege of leading Meghan during her high school years. She says, “In Girl Scouts, we seek to install compassion, courage, confidence, character, leadership, entrepreneurship and active citizenship in girls. Meghan has learned all that and more. She’s motivated in her career goals. She knew what she wanted to do from an early age and understood what it would take to get there. It’s been amazing to see such a young girl with a plan in place and the confidence and determination to make it happen. The adult leaders at Camp Loblolly always loved it when I assigned Meghan to their unit because they knew they wouldn’t have to worry about a thing. Her drive and her work ethic are what we hope to see in every Girl Scout.”

Those qualities came in handy as Meghan worked toward her Girl Scout Gold Award in the middle of a worldwide pandemic. “She had to revisit her plan and make adjustments because of COVID restrictions,” says Melancon. “A big part of the project needs to be about education and advocating for your community. She had to figure out ways to do that while safely social distancing. It’s amazing she was able to pull it off in just two years. But if anybody could, it’s Meghan.”

The equivalent of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout Award, the Gold Award requires 80 individual service hours after completing all pre-requisites and an approved service project to be completed in one to two years. Nationwide, through their Gold Award projects, girls are tackling topical issues such as literacy, awareness of sexual abuse, distracted driving, diabetes management and access to local fresh food. The project Meghan chose was something she called “Naturally Confident.” Her idea was to involve young children in learning and practicing outdoor skills at the Northlake Nature Center in Mandeville with the goal of building their selfconfidence and feelings of self-worth.

Activities included constructing birdfeeders, learning to read a compass and identifying wildlife, as well as aspects of wilderness safety and first aid, and culminated in a Naturally Confident badge which Meghan designed herself and handed out to children who completed her program. “Because I struggled with self-confidence as a young girl, my goal was to give kids a stepping stone to build their self-esteem on their own,” says Meghan. “I got to see the lightbulbs go off when they figured out how to do something new and their confidence build as they learned new skills—confidence through accomplishment.” Meghan’s program is now available through the Northlake Nature Center’s Children’s Activities page on their website.

Throughout the two-year process, Meghan had to communicate her concept to adults to receive initial approval for the project, advocate for support throughout the community, enlist the Nature Center to allow her to utilize the facility, fundraise for operating capital and then be able to communicate and interact on a level younger children could understand and absorb. Add to that the complications brought on by COVID restrictions and she was doing a lot of thinking on her feet. “I feel like I learned to communicate with adults in ways I couldn’t before,” she says. “I had to build professional relationships and reach out to experts and higherups in companies in my community to get my goals accomplished. Then I had to assemble and lead my team and solicit feedback and advice as I needed it. It was hard and a little frustrating when I couldn’t meet face-to-face with my team and had to reply on emails and texts. The most successful aspect of my project, I think, was seeing kids excited about a project I’d created with my own brain and the help of others. I absolutely loved seeing their reactions and watching them build their own confidence with the things I’d spent so much time and effort creating.”

In June of this year, Meghan joined an elite 5 percent of Girl Scouts as she accepted her Gold Award at a ceremony at the governor’s mansion. Since that time, she’s received letters of congratulation from state senators and representatives and the mayor of her hometown of Covington. This fall, she’ll be putting all that scholarship money to good use at Louisiana Tech, where she plans to study kinesiology with a minor in education. She’s waiting to hear whether she’ll be awarded a Girl Scout Cookies to College scholarship. And her years in scouting are far from over. “If I’m home during cookie season, I’m sure I’ll be shuttling cookies, and I hope to lead my own troop one day,” she says. “I’ve been around it so long, I can’t imagine my life without Girl Scouts.”

Not Your Mama’s Girl Scouts

When it was established in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, Girl Scouts of America concentrated on teaching young girls home arts such as cooking and sewing. But the organization has evolved over its 108-year history and is now teaching 3.7 million girls about sports, business, car maintenance, woodworking, politics, money management, first aid, robotics, camping, fitness, fine and performing arts, entrepreneurism and more.

Who’s That Girl Scout?

One of the stated goals of the Girl Scouts of America is to “support girls as they develop into leaders of today and tomorrow.” Many movers and shakers in our world today once sported the iconic green vest. Former scouts you might know include singers such as Taylor Swift, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Sheryl Crow and Queen Latifah. Actors Mary Tyler Moore, Lucille Ball, Bette Davis, Dakota Fanning and Carrie Fisher were all once scouts. In fact, Fisher’s mom, Debbie Reynolds, said she hoped to one day be “the world’s oldest living Girl Scout,” having been one for more than 70 years. Gwyneth Paltrow and Blythe Danner are another mother/daughter Girl Scout team.

Peggy Fleming, Dorothy Hamill, and Jackie Joyner-Kersee were earning Girl Scout badges before Olympic metals. Former scouts who have made their mark in our political and judicial system include Secretaries of State Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright; Attorney General Janet Reno; Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor; and in supporting (but no doubt vital) roles, Nancy Reagan and Laura Bush. Astronaut Sally Ride is a proud Girl Scout alumna, as are Martha Stewart, Katie Couric and Barbara Walters.

Misty Hellmers came to Northshore Technical Community College in 2015 as a Hi-SET student. Soon after she completed the program in 2016 where she was encouraged to consider a career in welding. After some slight hesitation, Misty enrolled in the Welding Program at NTCC, taking most of her classes at Fontainebleau and Pearl River High Schools as the Lacombe STEM Campus had not yet opened. She completed her Technical Diploma in 2018 and worked briefly for the City of Slidell, then returned to NTCC to work with Owen Brown as an assistant in the Welding Program. Since then, Misty has worked her way up to a position as Adjunct Faculty. She’s back at Fontainebleau High School, this time as the Instructor for the Reboot Louisiana “Women in Welding” program. Alyssa James and her mother, Jeanine Paul, both graduated from the Hi-Set program, Alyssa graduated in April 2021 and Jeanine in September 2020. Both received scholarships from the Slidell Women’s Civic Club. Alyssa immediately registered for our Women in Welding program to see what it was all about, while Jeanine continued her career as a St. Tammany Parish bus driver and creating her own cake business. Alyssa is not sure if she wants to pursue a career in welding, yet she believes in “taking a risk and try everything new”. She graduated from the program in June of 2021 and plans to continue her education at NTCC in the Fall in the Information Technology Program. Alyssa said she tends to be quiet, but with the encouragement from her instructor Misty Hellmers she started to express herself more and has continued to build her own clothing line.