Sheryl: [00:00:14] Welcome to hearts of gold! Today we have Srishti with us. Hi!
[00:00:20] Srishti: [00:00:20] Hi.
[00:00:21] Sheryl: [00:00:21] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:25] Srishti: [00:00:25] Sure, so for my project, I, created an improved organ donation, education, toolkit, and partnership with gift of life, Michigan. So that’s the organ procurement organization for the state of Michigan.
[00:00:40] And with this organization, I was able to create an improved toolkit that will be distributed to driver’s education schools throughout our state. And, I was able to actually make an impact on the 84,000 students that take drivers at yearly in our state by providing them with increased knowledge of organ donation.
[00:01:02] So the toolkit includes a student letter, a parent letter, a driver there’s a teacher flyer and online quiz and an informative flyer. I also was able to sign up more than 150 people on the organ donor registry at Troy high alone. And in our surrounding community, I was also able to, you know, foster effective organ donation education among the Troy high community, which was able to potentially benefit, 1,200 lives.
[00:01:35] Since one organ donor can save eight lives.
[00:01:38] No. What piece of your project is that you did a high school challenge. In order to have signups. Can you tell us about that?
[00:01:44] So my project I’d like to say that, like, it was kind of in two different parts. So like the first part was with my, the toolkit that I created, which was kind of the larger part.
[00:01:54] And then the second part was, like new reaching out and like having one on one conversations with. People in my community. And the challenge that you were just talking about is a part of that. So it’s just life, Michigan in an attempt to get more people, more younger people actually involved in organ donation, the goal of my project.
[00:02:14]they wanted to reach out to high school specifically. And, they did this, challenge in like more of a competitive environment so that it would allow students to like really. You know, want to participate because we were the, I think the prize was a pizza party and there’s a whole bunch of other things that we could get if our school won.
[00:02:34] So that was able to, you know, get a lot of people passionate about organ donation. And it, even though we out of 26 schools, we placed fourth. So even though we didn’t get the official prize, it was still really nice to see how so many people were. Really passionate about organ donation. Just as much as I was after which I can get into, like why I was passionate about it right now.
[00:02:58] So, when I was in eighth grade, my English teacher was actually waiting for, a kidney transplant for like a really long time. I think when she actually ended receiving it later on, she had been waiting for around three to four years, which was a really long time to have to change your entire schedule around this one thing in your life.
[00:03:20] And so she used to talk a lot about how hard it was to not meant to be waiting for an organ transplant for years and years, I really came to understand. Stand like how no one was really talking about this issue at all. And when I did some research on it, I found out that, over 120,000 people in our country alone are currently waiting for a life saving transplant.
[00:03:43] And then 22 people, each day pass away when an organ does not become available for them. And I realized that like, Even though nobody really knows about it, or elimination is one of those things where literally every single person has the power to change that. And it will literally take like two minutes at most to change someone’s life.
[00:04:07] It’s like something really beautiful and that like. You can literally not even do anything that significant, but you can actually make a significant change on somebody’s life. I started to really get involved in like the organ donation community. I started volunteering with gift of life, Michigan. I started a club at my school.
[00:04:28] But when like the gold or gold award started to come along, I was really like trying really hard to think of a topic for my goal to work. And it almost became kind of a struggle for me. Cause I think I was trying too hard to think of a topic. Like I would just like try to brainstorm all these ideas, which is not the idea.
[00:04:47] Ideal situation to be in. So I realized that like I already had it a really big passion for something in my community. So I decided that I would like use that as a stepping stone to even like, Make my impact, like even better. And so for that, I came to the idea of creating like a toolkit for drivers at school specifically because, when I started doing like driver’s ed classes, just for my own like license, everything I realized is that like organ donation, you talked about like adults, even in driver’s ed classes.
[00:05:24] Because after driving, I don’t know if anyone really knows this, but once you go to the secretary of state or DMV to get your license, there’s going to be a question that yes. And that’s like, would you like to be added to the organ donor registry? And that happens everywhere and not just in Michigan, it’s, you know, like Countrywide where people need to decide if they want to become an organ donor.
[00:05:46] And a lot of people check. No, because they don’t really know what it is. And there’s so many myths about it, which is a big part of my project, dispelling those myths. And so, yeah, so I realized that like, I really want, I want to target the teen demographic because that’s, the youth is like very important and targeting them just because.
[00:06:09] They have the power to change everything, or if you know, a teenager or a child who finds out about organ and knows like the truths and how you can pretty much become a hero through that, they’re more likely to talk to their parents, their grandparents. You know, so that’s really where my project came from.
[00:06:29] And along those same lines, in addition to not just talking to their parents and grandparents about becoming organ donors themselves, there is a conversation that’s important for organ donors to have. So that others know that those are their wishes. I’m sure that that was a part of your project. Can you share your thoughts about that?
[00:06:48] What I’d like to talk about sometimes when I’m talking about organ donation, is that I, what kind of viral? I guess like couple years ago, but Selena Gomez actually got an organ transplant from her best friend and that is called living donation. But the one that I was mainly focused on is after you pass away and then giving your organs to someone else who will be able to have a second chance at life.
[00:07:14] Right. So a lot of people, that’s going back to all the myths that I was talking about, about how, you know, people are like neglect to have this conversation because it’s very taboo. And another thing that I’d like that, like I’ve seen through videos of, you know, parents sharing stories of their kids being donors and things like that is that, you know, If they were put in a situation where their child or one of their loved ones.
[00:07:46] You know, unfortunately lost their life because there was no organ transplant. You know, they would be devastated there’s situations where their child passes away because of other reasons they know, they are so like, they really want to have their child to be an organ donor because they know how that works.
[00:08:06] If they were ever put in a position where. So a child lost their life because they didn’t have an organ transplant. And it’s really important when we’re having this conference about organ donation is just trying to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and thinking about like, if this were to happen to you you’d want someone to be there too.
[00:08:28] Give your loved one, a second chance at life.
[00:08:31] Sheryl: [00:08:31] What was your biggest challenge during your project?
[00:08:33] Srishti: [00:08:33] Most people really want to help you. Like they there’ll be like very where occasions where people will be like, no, I don’t want to help you. Most people want to help you and want to see you. If you’re passionate about something, then that kind of radiates outwards, like everyone else will be passionate about something.
[00:08:52] If you show passive passion for it, and you show that it’s something worth being talked about, right? The reason why that I wanted to improve the current, the toolkit that was in Jarvis at schools before is because it hadn’t been improved in like around eight to 10 years. So I was like, first of all, even though this information is still good, It’s not as recent as it should be.
[00:09:16] So I decided that, you know, it was important for, for this toolkit to be improved upon so that, you know, it would be able to target a certain demographic better. But what happened is that when I started serving. On Jarvis at schools, it was very difficult for me to get a whole bunch of responses compared to, you know, how many people that I wanted to reach.
[00:09:43] But what I learned from that is that when I first was trying to. You know, contact the drivers at schools. I was very much like writing up these emails and being like, please fill out the survey. It will be a big help for me and things like that. But what I realized is that people really want to see personal connection with your project.
[00:10:03] So. After that I decided to start calling, you know, the drivers at schools personally and saying, Hey, I’m really passionate about this. I used, I said, why I’m passionate about it? Why it’s something worth being talked about? And after that I realized that so, so many, I got like way more responses after that because people were like, you know, she’s super passionate about it.
[00:10:25] So they’re more likely to help you.
[00:10:27] Sheryl: [00:10:27] What was your favorite memory from your project?
[00:10:30] Srishti: [00:10:30] When I was, you know, one on one. With someone talking about organ donation, as much as I love how many people I was able to impact, you know, through the toolkit, I created a lot of what I was doing with the tool kit. And my main part of my project I could say is that like, it was very much, a lot of things that I was doing on my computer and like creating all these documents, making them look.
[00:10:55] You know, good and like really putting my blood, sweat and tears into like, making this amazing toolkit that I really wanted for future students to have. But the most important part, my project that was like late in my project journey, I’d say is just being able to see people’s like thoughts kind of turn when I started dispelling these myths.
[00:11:19] One of the biggest myths is that, you know, you have to be an adult. To be an organ donor, which is not true in some ways. It is true in that. Like if, if, say for example, like unfortunately there was a child who registered them. I was on the organ donor registry, windows 16, but for some reason they sadly pass away their parents, if they’re really don’t want their child to be an organ donor.
[00:11:47] Ken, you know, like almost like recent that decision and say, Hey, I’m sorry, but I don’t want my child to be an organ donor, but once you’re 18 and above, if you said, Hey, I want to be an organ donor when I pass away, no one can override that decision. Cause you were, you know, old enough to decide and things like that.
[00:12:06] But, you know, when it’s with someone under 18, One of the things is that they think that, okay, like my parents will be involved and things like that, which is true to some extent, but also I think it’s important in that age. You’re really starting to like find yourself and things like that. And a lot of people, there are some in some ways that, you know, want, they want to be themselves and have their own lives.
[00:12:28] But also they know that like, there are some things. That parents have to, you know, override. So when I was talking to these students, I was really showing them how yes, like your parents will be involved, but you also have the power yourself to change someone’s life. And, like the main, you know, of course the action that I was taking is, Hey, like when I was sitting.
[00:12:53] At these tables in the media center of my school, talking about organizing organ donation to people, I was saying like, Hey, you can sign up on the organ donor registry, make sure you talk to your parents about it though, because you know, they can still say, Hey, I don’t want my son or daughter to be an organ donor, which is totally okay because that’s their wish.
[00:13:16] And you know, as long as you. Provide people with the information. I think that’s the goal. It’s not really about like how many people are actually signing up. The goal is for people to. Take the information you give them really think about it and decide if that’s the best course of action for them. If they say no, I’m sorry, I don’t want to be an organ donor.
[00:13:39] You know, that’s still great because at least they know about organ donation. That’s the whole goal. And it’s amazing if they end up saying, Hey, I want to be an organ donor, but obviously that’s not really the goal here. The goal is to equip the public with information.
[00:13:54] Sheryl: [00:13:54] Along those lines, you are a health equity high school ambassador, can you tell us about that?
[00:14:01] Srishti: [00:14:01] When I was in my sophomore year of high school, I attended, a health equity summit. This is at the university of Michigan and essentially what they do is try to reach out to, high schools about what health equity in public health really is. And the reason why Frank with me.
[00:14:19] Is that, you know, at the same time I was still working on my gold award project and things like that, the same goal was there and that they were trying to get to students who weren’t really taught about health equity, public health, because that’s completely absent from our school curriculum. We learn about like biology.
[00:14:38] We learned about like psychology, things like that, but we never learned about. Health disparities. We don’t learn about things that a marginalized communities face every day, because I personally go to a fairly well off school district. And, you know, these things are faced by a lot of students, so they don’t really know about it.
[00:14:59] And I wanted to learn more about these things cause that’s just a personal interest of mine. And I’m so honored that I was able to be selected as an ambassador, because that means that now I can like talk to. You know, my peers about this topic, and I’m so happy that I’m able to reach out to communities and to people who don’t know about this.
[00:15:22] Sheryl: [00:15:22] What are a couple of bullets that you learned from being an ambassador that would be important to share?
[00:15:27] Srishti: [00:15:27] Telling your truth. Unfortunately, this year it was canceled because of what’s going on in our country with coronavirus and everything. But, One of the main activities of the summit was essentially where they’d ask all these questions about what, you know, marginalized community space.
[00:15:43] So some of the questions would be like, have you ever feared getting deported like really serious topics? Have, has you or your family ever been denied medical care things that people fear their daily lives, but it’s very taboo. Well, we were able to do, is that people would say yes or no to all these like really serious topics, we pass it around to someone else.
[00:16:08] So it’s like an anonymous thing where essentially someone would get the paper of someone else’s. You know, information and we’d ask the question and say, Hey, has anyone ever had serious mental illness problems or something like that? And there’d be some people who would stand up. And it was a really great way to see these issues that other people were going through without actually like outing them because it was all anonymous.
[00:16:34] And I think that was really powerful because you were really able to see these issues that, you know, so many people go through, but they, people don’t really talk. So I think that was probably like the best thing that I liked that I saw when I was there. And also it was just a lot of, learning new things.
[00:16:52] I’d say it’s very cliche, but we don’t really talk about health equity or public health in schools. And it’s only when you go to college, when you find that out. And I think it was really interesting to see that
[00:17:04] another piece of health that you’re involved in is that you go to the hospital and, or at least you used to go to hospital and play the violin for patients.
[00:17:15] Can you tell us about that?
[00:17:16] I really want to go to the medic, enter the medical field in the future. Just because one I’ve been doing with my gold award, you know, like a lot of the activities that I’ve done have really shown me that like, I love this field for a variety of different reasons, but specifically with what I’ve been doing in the hospital is through volunteering and community service in general.
[00:17:41] There’s a lot of, I guess, in our generation, there’s a lot of like, Go to a third world country and help out, or like really big, wonderful things that people are doing. And a lot of people are just saying, people are doing these great things. What can I do that will help? And with this, that, with playing violin to patients, which is what I do at the hospital, I realized that even for two minutes, helping someone it’s still feels great as much as like.
[00:18:14] As happy as you’d feel helping someone like a third world country, you still feel that. When you help someone for maybe like five minutes by plane, you know, a piece of music to them. So that’s what I’ve learned, you know, through playing my violin to patients
[00:18:31] Sheryl: [00:18:31] And another artistic involvement you have is dance. Can you tell us about your dance?
[00:18:35] Srishti: [00:18:35] Always been, I guess, a really like artistic person. I really liked, you know, playing like music and dancing. When I was about five or six, my parents put me in Indian classical dance. So that’s. Basically, like, it’s not exactly like modern Indian, like Bollywood dance that you can see, like movies and things like that.
[00:19:00] It’s very much like dancing that has traditionally been done by, you know, older generations. And even though, I guess I’m not always like the best dancer, I think. I think that was really important to me about, you know, doing birth in audio, which is what it’s called Indian classical dance, is like, I was able to really get more in touch with like my culture and where my parents are from and things like that.
[00:19:26] But also thing that I’m the most proud of is, you know, what I’ve been able to with organ donation. I think that like dancing, like it allowed me to have a stepping stone into other things that I love. And like a lot of what now was, you know, playing music and things like that. And I think starting dance so young was able to, you know, truly solidify my love for playing the violin and, you know, eventually.
[00:19:53] Joining on like my school’s on dance club and, you know, joining my school’s orchestra program. So I think that that’s like a really important part of who I am and it’s really allowed me to, you know, find other passions.
[00:20:10] Sheryl: [00:20:10] So you mentioned that you’re planning on going to medical school. Do you have a path that you’re considering right now?
[00:20:16] Srishti: [00:20:16] I’m not really sure. Like what type of doctor I want to be, but mental health maybe, or, like pediatrics. Cause I really like reaching out to children and also talking about things that are like very taboo and not really talked about. Through my gold award. So yeah, maybe somewhere around there and that like intersection, but I’m not really sure right now.
[00:20:39] Sheryl: [00:20:39] You have also earned your silver and your bronze award. What were your projects for those?
[00:20:44] Srishti: [00:20:44] So my silver award was essentially a way to get incoming middle schoolers, more immersed. I guess in the community. So something that I found when I went to middle school is that it was very hard to figure out what middle school truly was like. Or, and it’s a big change, even though like high school is an even bigger change at that time.
[00:21:11] Your, your mind is very much like focused on what’s ahead of you. And you’re like, okay, middle school is like the biggest change ever. And you’re really worried about that. And even though it seems kind of naive, it’s an app, like big problem that, you know, fifth graders face. So what I wanted to do is kind of allow these incoming sixth graders to really understand what their middle school was all about.
[00:21:39] So I created a welcome packet where I talked about like the bell schedule, the lunch schedules, you know, help with how to open lockers, which was a big deal for me in like fifth grade. So I did a lot of that kind of stuff to allow people to like, and it was a lot, a lot of it was mainly for like the students, but also it helped the parents a little, I guess, because I think that it really showed.
[00:22:06] Parents as well. What Baker? Middle school? Just the middle school. I, you know, implemented this toolkit or like pack it in and it allowed them to like, you know, their anxieties like this, like say it’s going to be okay. Like you need to know, but just like, you’ll figure it out kind of thing. That’s kind of what my goal was to show them.
[00:22:29] And now, even now, like the packets are still. Being distributed by the teachers at my elementary school, which is really nice. And then for my bronze award, this was a really long time ago. But I remember when I was in like third or fourth grade, I think it was my troop. And I were, we realized that. While walking around our playground, we want to create like a dog waste sanitation station because dog waste wasn’t being picked up.
[00:23:02] And we realized that, you know, we want to keep our playground and our school clean. And we want to make sure that everyone felt like comfortable going and playing there. And so what we did is we created a or reordered, I guess you could say. Like a dog waste sanitation station, where there was bags for dog owners to go pick up the dog waste and put it, you know, get it out in a way.
[00:23:26] And we realized that the reason why we did that is because it wasn’t that like the dog owners, I guess just didn’t want to do it. But we realized that show them that we were trying to help them with that too. So they, when they see like the bags that are already there and, you know, it makes it a lot easier for them.
[00:23:44] Say, Hey, all you have to do is pick it up and put it away. That’s it. So I think that my bronze award was kind of when I realized really young that I wanted to continue girl Scouts until like 12th grade and then eventually go for my gold award. But I think like being, being able to say that, like I finished the bronze silver and the gold award is really satisfying.
[00:24:08] So I definitely suggest like, Any really young girl Scouts to go for your bronze, because that will allow you to show that. You really love, love girl scouting. If you’re able to do a bronze award when you’re so young, you know that you have it in you to go for your bras, I mean, go for your silver and then for your gold.
[00:24:28] So yeah, I really suggest a lot of people through all three words, even though it doesn’t really happen that often. I definitely suggest it.
[00:24:36] Along those lines, how do you see that the bronze gave you skills for your silver and the silver for your gold?
[00:24:42] So I think just the way that the awards are set up, you know, it really allows you to understand what each, award specifically is like.
[00:24:52] And then what the future work would be like. Like, I know that the silver award wanted 50 hours, I believe. And then I think the bronze was like 20 hours. There’s a progression in the awards because each one requires more and more time. Each one is first starts off as like a true thing. Then it starts out with like a partner, like, or you could do it by herself, like I did.
[00:25:15] And then the gold award is like the final one. That’s just you on your own. And even though you can still do your gold award without the bronze with silver. I really think that if you use the bronze and silver. I think you’re more likely to end up going for gold because you, first of all, you’ve already done two out of the three and you already have experienced carrying out a plan.
[00:25:36] Yeah. So you kind of know what you’re doing and just in girl Scouts in general, is that a really good job of setting it up like that? And, I don’t really think that it’s that much about how hard it is or like what you need to do to get there. I think just knowing that you’ve already done the bronze or that you’ve already done silver, and then there’s only one more left.
[00:26:01] I think that’s very much. An incentive to go for the next step. Cause you’re already, almost at the finish line anyways. Right.
[00:26:07] Sheryl: [00:26:07] Is there anything else you’d like to share with our audience?
[00:26:10] Srishti: [00:26:10] A lot of people are skeptical to like go for the gold award because it’s a lot of work and, you know, I understand that, but I really think that.
[00:26:20] At this point, like if you dedicated all of this time and effort to girl scouting, I think it’s very much worth it to go for the gold for anyone. If you’ve made it this far in girl Scouts, you have it in you to go for the gold award and like ninth and 10th grade, they’re really thinking about getting you just to high school and maybe you didn’t like sports or other things.
[00:26:44] And then 11th grade it’s very much like preparing for college and like taking it. like standardized tests and then once you get to 12th grade, you’re like, Oh, I’m going to college soon. Anyways. Like, I don’t really have the time for that, but I really suggest that once you finish your Silverwater or once you’re going from a cadet to a senior, you should really start to plan or start thinking about like what you want to do for a gold award.
[00:27:11] Because if you plan early on, you’ll be done before high school gets really crazy. Like for example, right now I’m a junior. Well, I just finished my junior year. I’m going into my senior year. So I’m really glad that I was able to, we finished my gold award and my ceremony was just like a week ago and I was able to, you know, have the award and I can really like talk about it when I applied to college and it allowed me to really figure out what I wanted to do in college.
[00:27:41] Another thing that I’d like to say is don’t think of the gold award. It’s something like you just need to get done. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like that’s what a lot of people think about it. They’re like, Oh, I want to go through girl Scouts so I can just get the gold award and like get it over with.
[00:27:54] But I think that’s something that’s important about it is that the more time and energy you put into your gold awards, the more you’re going to change as a person. And the more of like a positive factor will have on who you are and how it might even like. Help you decide what you want to do with your future.
[00:28:12] So I really think that planning it out well so that you can get the most out of it is really vital.
[00:28:19] Sheryl: [00:28:19] How do you make your s’morse?
[00:28:20] Srishti: [00:28:20] I’m not really that unique in my smarts, but, you know, I just do the normal thing, but one thing that I tried recently, obviously before everything happened and I was having to be quarantine and everything, but I remember recently I tried.
[00:28:35] Smores with like the cookies and cream chocolate instead of the regular chocolate, it was like really good. So definitely suggest it.
[00:28:43] Sheryl: [00:28:43] Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:28:45] Srishti: [00:28:45] Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed it.
[00:28:48] Sheryl: [00:28:48] Please make sure to hit subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:29:01] Walter: [00:29:01] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to grow and share.
[00:29:17] At outlook.com. Be sure to listen to the newest episodes on your favorite podcast app, as well as view the full video episodes on youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. That’s youtube.com/sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.