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News provided by South Pasadena Girl Scout Service Unit
Nationwide only about 6% of all eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award, which is the highest achievement that can be earned by a Girl Scout. The Gold Award requires at least 80 hours of planning and implementation on a challenging project that is innovative, engages others, and has a lasting impact on its targeted community.
Solana Cordon: Troop 4661
Solana Cordon’s Gold Award aimed to both highlight and celebrate the wonderful contributions and lives of the Latinx community in South Pasadena and to stress that cultural representation matters. For her project, Gracias a la Vida: Latina Voices of South Pasadena, Solana recorded interviews with prominent local Latinas so she could share their oral histories. She organized a photographic exhibit and gallery reception at Team Friday to showcase the biographical narratives of these amazing Latinas. The South Pasadena Library also displayed her project during Women’s History Month. Ultimately, Solana wanted to celebrate and empower the Latinx community in South Pasadena and she disseminated her project through a website, which is being accessed by local high school teachers to highlight the stories of Latinas in Los Angeles. For her Gold Award, Solana partnered with Vecinos de South Pasadena and The East Side Cafe Collective, two neighborhood organizations that support the Latinx community. Solano started in Girl Scouts as a Daisy at Arroyo Vista Elementary School.
Allison Lee – Troop 3141
As a student-athlete constantly struggling to find a balance between prioritizing academic and athletic responsibilities, Allison Lee realized that her mental health was suffering. She created her Gold Award Project, Train Your Brain: Ending Mental Health Stigmas for Student Athletes, to provide anonymous, accessible mental health resources, primarily for student athletes. She developed a user-friendly website for individuals of all ages and provided free, local resources that could be accessed through the scanning a QR code on flyers. The website features pre-recorded seminars covering various strategies for approaching a mental health crisis, interactive media sources for teens, and an anonymous tip line for those experiencing or witnessing a mental health crisis. Allison hopes her project will inspire a future generation of Girl Scouts to fight for causes that they are passionate about and to change the world one step at a time. Allison cherishes the multitude of opportunities and memories of her thirteen years as a Girl Scout.
Lia Meza – Troop 16751
A Girl Scout for thirteen years, Lia Meza’s interest in science inspired her passion for environmental sustainability. For her Gold Award, the Environmental Protection Project, she wanted to spread awareness about the state of the environment and ways to help combat the environmental crisis. Lia partnered with Monterey Hills Elementary School to encourage young students to learn about environmental sustainability. With the help of friends and family, she designed and painted a mural on the school campus to inspire students and remind them to take care of the environment. Lia also made gardening kits allowing students to grow sunflowers in egg cartons to promote recycling, and she set up a website hosting information about the environment and ways to be sustainable. She hopes that her project will bring attention to the poor environmental practices happening in the world and promote future generations to live sustainably.
