Local Girl Scouts Achieve ‘Girl Scout Gold’
L exington Girl Scouts is proud to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of several young women who have recently achieved the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor within the Girl Scouts of the USA. These exceptional individuals have demonstrated leadership, dedication, and a passion for making a positive, sustainable impact in their communities.
The Girl Scout Gold Award represents the pinnacle of achievement in the Girl Scout program, requiring countless hours of commitment, planning, and execution. It challenges scouts to tackle pressing issues, develop innovative solutions, and inspire lasting change. Each Gold Award project is unique, addressing a specific need or challenge identified by the scout herself.
The recipients of this esteemed award are Sarah Baskin, Jessica Laman (LHS ‘22), Ellie Caro, Harshini Pathivada, Shruti Pokharna and Helen Mager (LHS ‘23). These inspiring young women embody the values of Girl Scouting, exhibiting courage, confidence, and character throughout their remarkable journeys.
Sarah Baskin of Troop 71775 through her project titled Stories from the Pandemic: Personal Accounts of Teens in the Time of Coronavirus. Sarah was inspired to create a catalog of information for teens to use as primary sources when studying the COVID-19 pandemic in the future. In Sarah’s own studies, she noticed a lack of youth-focused narratives in academic contexts, which left her unable to identify with the history lessons she was consuming. With the help of English educators and local librarians, Sarah gathered data from fellow Lexington youths that documented pandemic and post-pandemic experiences in an approachable way through writing.
Jessica Laman of Troop 63054 an advocate for environmental conservation, undertook a project titled Local Conservation Advocacy Through Art. Jessica recognized the struggles of native plants and wildlife competing with land development and human-led introduction of invasive or non-native plants that cannot sustain local habitats. Through her Gold Award project, Jessica aimed to break down barriers between “human spaces” and “nature spaces” by combining art with advocacy through a mural placed in a high traffic area for high school students and through outreach activities for younger children. By creating a piece of art in a popular community space, Jessica was able to increase awareness about native plant/wildlife conservation and spread her advocacy throughout her town, generating conversations for many years to come.
Ellie Caro of Troop 65411 in her project entitled Shining a Light on Queer Voices, dedicated her time and energy to create something that her fellow LGBTQ+ youth could identify with, so she released an album across all streaming platforms about her experiences as an LGBTQ+ teenager. Additionally, Ellie organized a presentation and performance at LHS, where she educated her peers about LGBTQ+ artists in the industry. At her performance, Ellie had the opportunity to share her music with others and gave other queer students the chance to do the same. The performance was such a hit, that it will be sustained as a yearly event going forward.
Harshini Pathivada of Troop 65411 decided to bringing culture, tradition, and education together through her Gold Award project South Asian Festival. As a proud young woman of South Asian descent, Harshini was disappointed by the lack of South Asian representation in her community and in Asian American Pacific Islander events. The festival included eight craft booths, information booths for the eight regions of South Asia, clothing and jewelry boutique vendors, authors, and food from a favorite local restaurant. Harshini was able to host 80 attendees and educate other interested individuals via social media while the festival was going on. To sustain her efforts beyond the event, Harshini donated 15 books about South Asia to the LHS library that represented each of the eight regions and are a mix of fiction and nonfiction.
Shruti Pokharna of Troop 65411 received her Gold Award the year prior for her project Speak Up! Shruti’s project was dedicated to enhancing the public speaking capabilities of students internationally. Through online and in person camps, workshops, and classes, she led global teams of teachers in creating / teaching robust curricular for an international audience to develop public speaking, confidence, and argumentation abilities. Classes covered topics such as an introduction to debate, persuasion tactics, opinion-based writing, and speech delivery, and reached over 150 students, from primary underprivileged backgrounds.
Helen Mager of Troop 65411 recently finished her project Opening the door to Literacy. Helen’s project revolved around supporting children with language-based learning disabilities by building a Little Free Library at the Elementary school that she had attended. She succeeded to make books more accessible for students during school vacations to fight reading regression. Helen also connected with the students at a school event while hosting a quiet space / reading nook, where kids could read or where she offered to read to them.
These remarkable young women are shining examples of the Girl Scout mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Their Gold Award achievements not only demonstrate their leadership skills but also highlight their unwavering commitment to effecting positive change in our community.
Lexington Girl Scouts commend these outstanding individuals and encourage everyone to recognize and celebrate their accomplishments. Their projects serve as an inspiration to other young women, encouraging them to pursue their own passions, make a difference, and leave a lasting impact on society. We extend our heartfelt congratulations to these incredible Girl Scouts for their achievements and thank them for embodying the Girl Scout spirit. They are true role models and agents of positive change in our community, and we eagerly anticipate witnessing the impact they will continue to make in the future.