[00:00:00] Walter: [00:00:00] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: [00:00:14] Welcome to hearts of gold. Today. We have Marie with us. Hi, Marie.
[00:00:19] Marie: [00:00:19] Hello.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: [00:00:20] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:24] Marie: [00:00:24] This year, I’m a senior and I earned my gold award as a freshman. So I was the youngest girl at my gold award ceremony to earn it as a freshmen earning my gold award. It was really nice because I didn’t have the stress of having to complete it at a certain time.
[00:00:40] I would definitely recommend doing your gold board earlier, rather than later, as I’ve had several girls in my troop and in my family procrastinate on their gold award, which is not a fun experience senior year with all the homework, college applications, but also earning your gold award for my gold award.
[00:00:57] I worked with the society of women [00:01:00] engineers, also known as sweet. I worked with further Sween next program. That’s getting middle and high school girls interested in STEM. At the time I was interested in a STEM career, but I was also very interested in media and communications. So I worked with them in growing their media and promotional content to get more girls in their STEM program called
[00:01:25] These are starting clubs within girl scout troops. First robotics clubs are just a general high school club. These have scholarships and different countries. Titian’s that? I made video content for promotional content, that suite chapters, which are at different colleges of girls who want to be engineers.
[00:01:47] That they can make different events to promote the program and to get more involved in their community and to get more girls interested in STEM, but especially engineering. I worked with Sweeney for [00:02:00] a long time, even after the program. That’s what I enjoyed about. Doing it as a freshman, I’m part of their suite X advisory board currently, where I help them grow their suite X program and become the best they can.
[00:02:13] But I also go to different yeah. Vets being their swing next reporter. Where I report on different events. I interview people. And that was a lot of fun during their big sweet event in Austin, Texas, where I’m from, where I interviewed some of the winners and interviewed someone from Nigeria who was a competition winner that she did.
[00:02:40] And he was able to be featured in a comic book. So that was probably one of my favorites interviews. I made a lot of friends doing that and I was even able to go to girl 2017 and I worked the boats we booth and the national parks booth [00:03:00] both during that trip. So that was a very busy trip for me because I was a girl scout.
[00:03:05] But I was also working too, before that I have done my gold and stuff, silver award with which was a great opportunity. And I got to meet girls from around the country. And I think just at that event alone, we got to 200 new girls enrolled in the program. And because of my promotional material, we doubled the amount of clubs around the country and even got some international clubs to be a part of the Sween next program.
[00:03:34] So we really grew Sween acts as a. Program. And it was so great working with SWE because they are a national program. And I won in my gold award to be national. I wanted it to be a big deal and I wanted it to be something that I was passionate about. And even now I don’t want to go into a STEM career.
[00:03:53] I’m still very passionate in STEM and wanting girls to get involved in STEM because you [00:04:00] learn more than just science, technology, engineering, and math. You learn about how to solve skills, how to problem solve, how to adapt to new things. And as technology grows in the next years, you know, there are so many jobs out there that aren’t going to be here and jobs that are going to be completely new.
[00:04:22] So I think it’s important to know that and for these girls to be interested in STEM, even if they don’t want to go into a career, body is important for any job for us.
[00:04:34] Sheryl: [00:04:34] So how do you to go about connecting up with sweet when you decided to do them for your gold award project?
[00:04:41] Marie: [00:04:41] At the time, I was part of a first robotics team with my girl scout council, and we had seen Sweeney at several of the different first events that I had gone to.
[00:04:52] Off the top of my head. I can’t remember exactly how acted with sweep, but I believe, [00:05:00] um, And they were interested in me and my story. And I believe I emailed them asking if I could work with them on their sweet program and especially their Sween next program. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if I wanted to do this as my gold award, but I was a hundred percent sure that I wanted to work with them and help grow their program.
[00:05:20] And when I saw how much they wanted to use me, how much they were excited to have a girl who’s interested in it and to be a girl scout, I decided to make that my gold word. And I said, in my proposal, I got accepted and I got to work.
[00:05:35] Sheryl: [00:05:35] How much impacted the fact that they were excited about having you on their team and your interest in helping promote them contribute to the success of your project?
[00:05:46] Marie: [00:05:46] It contributed everything. If you’re excited and passionate and they are excited to have you, it’s going to make all the difference. I went even went to Tulsa, Oklahoma to one of their other programs where I [00:06:00] interviewed more girls and got more girls interested in engineering. And I worked with Ariel Biggs.
[00:06:05] Who’s a race car driver. And also who works on race cars. She’s an amazing role model. And I loved working with her and I went to both of these events with her and got to interview her and see her. And it was just, she was so excited for me to be there. She was the master of ceremonies and the lead of part of their engineering program.
[00:06:29] And wow, that just, it was me so much effort that they were able to have a STEM role model, but also a peer who wanted them to learn STEM as much. Yeah. We next wanted them to, so seeing a peer seen somebody in STEM and awesome career and then being part of a whole suite next program, I think that’s what really put it all together to getting these girls.
[00:06:57] In Sweeney, next program, [00:07:00] interested in STEM and it was really a full package deal.
[00:07:03] Sheryl: [00:07:03] What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:07:07] Marie: [00:07:07] Probably time. I am very busy and I like to keep myself busy, but I also knew that this was a lot of. Big project and a lot of time. So I knew that I had to get to work and I had to complete it when I could, because especially during the summer, when I am super busy with other things like girl scout travel, and I even do some, sometimes I do summer classes.
[00:07:33] I knew that I was going to be busy. So this was a fast program. I did almost all my spare time on this. I didn’t have a lot of. Social activities. I really did school and my gold word for about a month working on this program because I wanted to get it fast and get it ready for their big sweet program in Austin, Texas back then, and we were ready.
[00:07:56] We were off the ground, me and my mom. Even had to [00:08:00] plan out how we were going to get there. Cause it was a downtown at the convention center and we had to, I think we took it train there because that was just the fastest way because of traffic. And there were other conventions going, we don’t at the time.
[00:08:14] And we women from around the world came and it was an incredible. Opportunity to be there and go to some of the workshops and programs they had and to go to all the booths, it was just so such a fun trip that I got to go on. And I was so glad that I was in Austin, Texas, because I just, I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else other than my hometown during this, and being able to.
[00:08:42] Invite engineers that I knew from Austin to come to this event, which they enjoyed. There were a lot of girl Scouts there. That is something that I was most proud of. It was a lot of work during that week. They were there. I was nonstop. So I’m making the time to [00:09:00] do all of this and. All of that was a definite challenge, but since I was passionate about it, I was able to overcome that challenge pretty easily.
[00:09:09] Sheryl: [00:09:09] What kind of connections did you make at the convention that are still strong today?
[00:09:13] Marie: [00:09:13] So a lot of the friends that I made, like Ariel begs, I still communicate with we, I still work with regularly and as part of their advisory group, but. In this convention as general, I made a lot of, you know, I connected on LinkedIn made Facebook friends, and I know that I we’ll have engineers there for me whenever I need them.
[00:09:37] I also became very close to my girl scout council. That is something that I was very happy with is my girl scout council was there to support me. A ton of girls were there, came to the event and a lot of girls from my trip, which I will make lasting friendships with and will forever know them. So those were the main networks I made at the convention.
[00:09:58] Yep. There is anything that [00:10:00] looking back, you would have changed about how you went through your project or a struggle, what would it be and what
[00:10:07] would you do differently? See, I encourage girls to do the cold war early, but part of me, if I had done it differently, I probably would have waited to do my project.
[00:10:18] I loved doing it as a freshmen, but my interests have changed a lot in there. My, what I want to do in the future has changed so much in the four years that I have done my project or three years that I did have done my project. And part of me wishes, I had waited and had done something that I’ve wanted to do in the future, but.
[00:10:42] Overall the project made such a lasting difference that it doesn’t really matter if the, I don’t really, exactly want to go into STEM anymore because it was such a big program that got all their girls interested in STEM. That I’m just so happy that I did it because I did exactly what I wanted to do. I got girls [00:11:00] interested in something that is not exactly something that they’re just.
[00:11:04] Going to fall into STEM is not a career that girls are going to look at a math board and be like, Oh, I want to do that when I’m older, because they’re not always encouraged to. And I think because of that, it made it worth doing it early. And even if it’s not exactly what I want to go into, I wasn’t given the opportunity to do it again.
[00:11:24] First, I would have done it a little later, probably as more of a sophomore to a junior and I would have made sure I kept all of these connections and I knew more than just one person in the organization because I knew my main contact left suite, and I wasn’t really given a good contact to. Continue my work after she had left.
[00:11:50] So it was really hard for me to get back in contact with Swede, to do similar stuff that I did during my gold award. But I am still working with sweet as they’re part of their [00:12:00] advisory board, and part of helping them improve the organization.
[00:12:04] Sheryl: [00:12:04] What is your favorite memory from doing your project?
[00:12:07] Marie: [00:12:07] There was a lot of memories during that part of the memories for just, just running around interviewing people, but my favorite.
[00:12:14] Memory would probably interviewing, uh, Ariel bigs, the master of ceremonies in Austin. She’s an amazing race car driver. And it was so much fun to be able to interview her. And I felt so proud of myself because I answered, I asked good questions. I was able to. Go off of her energy follow up calls. It was just a great opportunity to do that.
[00:12:41] All of the interviews I did, I was very proud of myself for doing, but I was very proud of that one because more than just I answered and did the questions really well, but I had a lot of fun doing it. And then I think that’s when I really realized that I wanted to go into more media and communications, which is [00:13:00] what I’m trying to do now.
[00:13:01] Then if I had not done that, Gold award. So that is my favorite memory.
[00:13:06] Sheryl: [00:13:06] And so you mentioned your new interest in media and communications. Can you tell us more about that?
[00:13:11] Marie: [00:13:11] So right now I am, my dream job would be to work for Disney Disney. I’ve wanted to work for Disney since I was eight years old. And I went to the 100th year girl scout anniversary in Orlando, Florida at Disney world.
[00:13:29] And I got to do a lunch with an Imagineer. That was a great opportunity. I learned about all the jobs that he did and I was like, I want to work for Disney. And I was eight since then I have changed careers, but I’m not really changed where I’ve wanted to work. Pardon me has always wanted to work for Disney in some way.
[00:13:52] Over the last couple of years, I’ve loved doing girl scout, cookie selling. I am a huge cookie seller even helped me. My [00:14:00] friend sell 10,000 boxes of girl scout cookies. She is now going to the university of Texas and the McCombs school of business, which is incredible. But after helping her market and get good in her cookies and after selling cookies myself, I realized my favorite part of cookies selling was the communications between people.
[00:14:23] So girl scout, cookie boots, door to door, talking to real estate and business about buying my cookies. Those that was my favorite part. This summer, I took a communications class and I fell in love with it. I really liked learning about communications, how to communicate with people, but I also know that using communications as a career, and I think everyone should, like, because of this, I was able to, well to really look back in my past and see what exactly kind of things I wanted to do because of this.
[00:14:57] During COVID. I had a lot of time on my [00:15:00] hands. And as I’ve kind of told in the past, during this interview, I love to keep myself busy. So I started volunteering, hearing for reinvented magazine. I joined as a marketing member because I knew that I wanted to go into marketing. Their magazine is the first women in STEM magazine by women in STEM.
[00:15:22] They all women in STEM write the articles about them. And it’s an incredible magazine. I suggest everyone to go look them up, get one of their newest issues. Issue six is about to go out and I am so excited. My job. Originally, it was working with thirst steam dreamers panel, which is a live event that they do every month.
[00:15:47] Uh, I think it was the second day that I started volunteering for them. They asked who wants to be a part of this, and they’re like, Marie, you just joined. You want to be a part of this. And I’m like, sure. I had no clue what I was getting myself into [00:16:00] because it was an amazing event. And I was so glad that I got to, I was editing videos.
[00:16:06] I was going through and making sure I got the photo releases from everyone. I was making social media posts about it. It was a great opportunity to me, for me to get involved in marketing at such a high level. After doing steam, dreamers, they had a organizational change where they were making new positions that were more spread out.
[00:16:31] One of the new positions was a campaign director reading through this. I was like, this is exactly what I want to do. So I applied and I became reinvented magazine’s first campaign director as a campaign director. Anything that happens. In reinvented Maxine. If it’s an event, a new merchandise item, dropping a new issue coming in, I write out a campaign on how we’re going to market this.
[00:16:58] I write it out and then I make sure it [00:17:00] happens making the social media posts, making sure that they get done, but I also go through and. Figure out other ways that we can market this either a newsletter blast posting in Facebook groups. So we can get parents interested in it as well. And not just the high school and college girls that we market towards and figuring out you need to ways to market and be.
[00:17:24] Come up with ideas. I was really just a brain for them. I was just coming up with so many ideas that I was just trying to see. Some of the ideas were a little ridiculous. So I was like, okay, this is a cool idea, but it’s not going to work. Especially with COVID setting limits on ways we can market. And that has been a.
[00:17:42] Big obstacle that I’ve had to overcome this summer and this year in general, but lot it happened because I became part of this amazing organization that I’m now one of their marketing directors. And I am so glad to be their campaign director. And I kind of now know that [00:18:00] this is something that I want to do in the future.
[00:18:02] Sheryl: [00:18:02] So taking a step back, you also earned your silver award and did some pretty amazing things with that project. Can you share?
[00:18:09] Marie: [00:18:09] I was actually part of my counsel’s first prestigious metal award, which is our named broke the bronze, silver and gold award. And if I can find it on my best, it looks like this it’s a star that has bronze, silver, and gold.
[00:18:26] And then the middle, it says GSCT DX, which is girl Scouts of central Texas. So I was very proud about earning all three of my awards and for my silver award, this was a big project. This project could have been a gold award. If I was the right age, my silver award was working with Waco, mammoth, national park and Waco, Texas, which is about, it was about an hour North of me.
[00:18:54] So whenever I had to go there, I had to drive early in the morning so I could get there on time. [00:19:00] That was. Probably my favorite project that I’ve done for girl Scouts with the national parks, I wrote their junior ranger program. So if you’re not familiar with the junior ranger program, the national park service has over 400 parks around the country.
[00:19:17] Some of these parks have things called junior ranger programs. It’s this little booklet that you’ve opened and you can guide it. Go around the park. There’s bingos, there’s answering, there’s learning. It’s a fun way to get kids involved, especially some of these are historical places like. Some of the battlegrounds are like Lincoln’s birthplace, which is my favorite national park.
[00:19:43] These places had great junior ranger programs. And that’s probably why I liked them so much. I actually learned in a fun environment and not just walking around and reading the. Plaques actually had a program and activities to do so much fun. [00:20:00] I have earned over 150 of these junior Rangers and I’ve actually met.
[00:20:06] Some amazing seen friends who have been to all of the parks and who have earned all of the junior ranger programs, which is incredible now doing all of this, um, Waco, mammoth was a very new national monument, meaning it was made by the precedent. And at the time that was president Barack Obama, this was a very new park and didn’t have a junior ranger program.
[00:20:31] So I reached out about writing it. And they were very interested in having me since they didn’t really have, at the time I was working mostly with the people who worked at Waco mammoth before it was a national monument. So working with the people who worked for the city and they have. Great artists there.
[00:20:52] So I wrote the content. I came up with the activities they did, and since they had an amazing artist [00:21:00] named David Butler, she did all of the drawings and drawing the activities and kind of putting it together as I was writing the content. And I remembered doing it during cookie season part of it, because I remember being at cookie booths and when it was slow, my mom having her computer out and being like, Hey, what do you want to add here?
[00:21:19] What do you want to add here? I remember working a cookie booth, which helped funded this project and writing my project at the same time. As I was trying to get the most out of my time. So I, because of my silver award, I got several news places. I was on the news. I was an a magazine. I had so much sharing because the national parks is another thing that I’m very passionate about.
[00:21:48] Just like STEM. The national parks is a place that preserves different places in America. And it is important that we cherish the plate, these places, and we go to them, we learn [00:22:00] history is my favorite subject. And I think history is important so we can learn about the past. So we don’t make similar mistakes in the future.
[00:22:09] And I also think the past is important so we can learn where we’ve come from, how much we’ve evolved and knowing that change is inevitable. And it’s important to embrace this change and to make it the best change possible. So we change for the better. Working with this national parks caught some really nice perks at the time president Barack Obama had, um, the secretary of interior was Sally Juul and she is an incredible woman.
[00:22:42] And. At the time of that project, I was, um, the silver wards in my council. We’re not having a ceremony. So there was only the gold award ceremony. So silver awards didn’t have any pinning ceremony, nose kind of special recognition because of this, we [00:23:00] try to figure out a way we could do this because GSU is say, was interested in sharing my story.
[00:23:05] So I was invited to go meet the national parks service director and he pinned my silver award and we had a GSE USA member there who took pictures, who wrote about it. And while this was an incredible experience to go to Washington, D C my favorite city, I love it there. And to meet him. And then I had three questions for him.
[00:23:32] So if you’ve ever been to a national park, you know that the Rangers have these hands Mmm Hmm. Kind of similar to a cowboy hat. It’s flat all the way around and an interesting top to it. And it is very hard to travel with those. He was a national park. Um, ranger before he was the director. So I asked him how he traveled with it.
[00:23:54] And he told me about this thing called a turtle. And it’s this black case that you put it in and you [00:24:00] can’t close it and you can carry it around. And ever since then I got it. And whenever we go to any national park or we fly, that is my carry on it. So I put it above me and it’s everyone asks me what’s in that.
[00:24:14] What is that? And it’s a great conversation starter to kind of share my story about national parks and about the national park service. Now I said, good question I asked is if I could meet Sally Juul, they made some phone calls and I was actually able to meet her after our talk, which was an incredible experience.
[00:24:33] They said I was going to have to wait like about an hour, which was fine. We actually did a tour around the building, but I think it was only. 15 minutes after they were like, okay, she’s ready to see you. And wow, her office was unclear. and I got to share with her, I brought my booklet and I got to show it to her.
[00:24:53] And I got to show her my hat and all my junior ranger badges. I loved that trip. [00:25:00] And then my third question was if I could get a tour of the white house, I know big question, but it was actually surely well worth it because I, I think it was a couple months later, I went back to DC for my Washington DC white house tour.
[00:25:18] And that was my favorite trip to DC. Both of those trips were at my favorite area because the first trip I got to meet them. But the second trip I got to go into the white house. I also got to go to the top of the Washington monument. So how do you go to the top is you go in early in the morning and you get tickets.
[00:25:38] Me and my family didn’t know this. What about, we are very familiar with a lot of the Rangers who work at Washington DC because of my hat. My hat is a ranger hat that I got at Carlsbad caverns before they were taken over by the national parks service shop. And that was the only place that sold those [00:26:00] hats and band that said, NPS are.
[00:26:05] She J R so it said national park service, junior ranger, instead of ranger, which is what everyone else had. This had is very unique. I am probably one of the only junior Rangers who have this hat and everyone knew me by the girl with the hat. So, uh, cause I was very good friends with a ranger out of Fort Cedar.
[00:26:27] One of my other favorite national parks would just interesting. My favorite parks are where Lincoln was born and where Lincoln was assassinated. But. It was an incredible opportunity because I went midday to the national monument kind of to take photos because I am a photographer and we kind of asked like, Hey, how do we go up there?
[00:26:50] And it was me and my mom and my dad. And. Saw my hat and he recognized me from talk. So all the Rangers in D C they, they go all, they do all the [00:27:00] parks. They don’t just stay in one park for too long. They traveled to all the different parks and they had been talking about me and he kind of went to one of the guys to see if there was enough room.
[00:27:10] And they’re like, yeah, you guys can do it now. And we’re like, really? So we were in the back of this line. Um, at that time, people were asking about my hat because the line was kind of small. Not a lot of people go up in the day. And they were like, uh, very, very like, wow, your best is so full. Your hat looks so cool.
[00:27:32] And it’s because of that fast and that hat that got me a lot of these opportunities for my silver award, my silver award was over. A hundred hours writing this booklet traveling. I did tours at this place. I, during their opening, their national monument opening because there were a park before they were a national monument.
[00:27:56] And what’s special about Waco mammoth. It is. First [00:28:00] wooly mammoth, not Willy mammoth, Colombian mammoth. So first Colombian, mammoth heard and United yeah. States. And I think while I haven’t been there in so long and I have over 20 Colombian mammoths there, which is very interesting because usually they find male Colombian mammoths that are just singular, but we found a herd of female Colombia.
[00:28:26] Ma’am. If you knew mammoths are cool because the pack is led by the eldest female mammoth. And as soon as one of the male mammoths turned 13 out of the pack and we found. Outside. You see a ditch where you see where you hear a story about how the original mammoth packed or was two packs found in this area.
[00:28:54] One where all the female mammoths were in a circle and the babies were in the middle. [00:29:00] Like they were protecting them from the bones. They kind of, there were several theories, a predator, a flood, several things. Mammoth are big animals and it was a ditch and they were by two big reppers. So if there is a flood and it is very hard for them to get out.
[00:29:21] And then inside this controlled, um, climate controlled building are more Colombian, mammoth fossils that all have their own different stories and every different and that several different levels, meaning they looked at different times. And it’s incredible. During that time, I wanted to be a paleontologist.
[00:29:41] As you see, my career has changed several times and it was incredible learning these stories of how these animals ended up this way. More information about the animals. Like maybe one was pregnant, right. And how you can tell that from their bones. And I inspired so many little girls and [00:30:00] little kids through that junior ranger program.
[00:30:03] And that was one of my favorite projects that I’ve done with girl Scouts.
[00:30:09] Sheryl: [00:30:09] So you talked a little bit about. Traveling to DC. I understand that you have done other traveling with girl Scouts. Can you tell us about that?
[00:30:17] Marie: [00:30:17] I have traveled to different countries and to several different States with my girl scout troop.
[00:30:23] So my favorite trip that I have ever done with girl Scouts was my, a service unit in South Austin was doing a trip to Cyprus. Not Cypress, Texas Cyprus, the Island off the coast of Turkey. And this is an interesting Island because the Disney divided Island, half of it is Greek and half of it is Turkish.
[00:30:47] The Greek side have some amazing girl guides and girl guide camps that I spent two weeks there. We spent a couple of days in the Trados mountains, where they have a camp [00:31:00] with platform tents and big building. It was very different than girl scout camp. It was girl guiding camp use, girl guides were amazing and teaching us their ways.
[00:31:11] We learned some Greek. We even had a Texas night where we made stuff like sweet tea and case. So to introduce to the girls there, and it was. Great sharing girl Scouts and girl guides, cause they are different and learning about a different, a whole different culture because Greek Greek is even different than Cypriot Greek.
[00:31:33] And it was interesting learning about differences and about other things in Cyprus for two weeks, this was my favorite place because they were very welcoming. We went to there. Um, camp in the mountains there camped by the beach. And we learned and made friends for lifetimes and learned so much about their culture, their history, the cities, [00:32:00] and about their girl guide history.
[00:32:03] Other than that, um, the other trip was last year. We’re the same, some of these same things and girl guides and some new girl guides came to Texas. So that was, it’s an incredible experience because I got to see some of my greatest friends and I got to make some new. Great friends as well through this trip where we got to show them some of the camps in Texas and how girl scouting in America works, which was a little different.
[00:32:33] And it was great to see their faces. It made me. Experience what they had felt when we went there and then we got to experience it and it was great being part of both trips. I was one of four girls who were able to do both the trip to Cyprus and this triple five, one of the girls had graduated. So she decided to come for a couple of nights in Texas to see everybody.
[00:32:58] Yep. And [00:33:00] wow. The memories are endless during those trips, but some of the other trips that I’ve gotten to do with my true is I’ve been to Costa Rica with my troop. I was, we went to Washington, D C actually, during a girl scout trip, which was so much fun. We went to Savannah, Georgia, one of my favorite places in the whole wide world where our girl scout founder was born.
[00:33:26] And we, I love Savannah other than the ghost tours. I love, sorry. I am. Terrified of ghosts and the ghost tour was scary, but those are just some of the places that I’ve been able to go with. Girl Scouts. Um, sadly, uh, last. Summer. Well, this summer, actually, I was supposed to go to Croatia through a girl scout destination program.
[00:33:54] I was, and I had all the funding and I was ready to go. And because of [00:34:00] COVID, I had that trip got canceled our postponed to next year. And because of this next year was supposed to be the. Second time that girl Scouts went to Cyprus and I was so excited because every two years we either go to Cyprus. So they come here because of COVID they had changed that trip.
[00:34:20] And now the girl Scouts are going to London and we will not be able to see the Cypress girls. So I’m probably not going on that trip, which is very sad. Cause I was very excited for that. And. Hmm, the other trip that I’ve supposed to do next summer, that we’re not a hundred percent. If we’re going nice senior trip trip, there were four of us who were graduating and all four of us wanted to go to Japan.
[00:34:46] So that is still where we would like to go. And if it is safe to travel to Japan next year, that is where me and my trip will be going. So, those are just some of the amazing places that I’ve been able to go with my troop and I love to [00:35:00] travel and I travel with my family, but I also love to travel with girl Scouts.
[00:35:04] I know that not just you, but your entire family bleeds green. Can you tell us your family’s history with girl Scouts?
[00:35:12] I can. So I’m a fourth generation girl scout girl guide.
[00:35:19] Yes. My mom was a girl scout in Ohio where she earned her, um, higher award as well. My sister was a girl scout who orange, her bronze, silver and gold award. My grandma, um, on my mom’s side. So my mom, um, she was a trip leader, but she was also a girl scout herself with her. She has four other sisters and they were all girl Scouts and it was incredible to hear that.
[00:35:48] But how, what makes me a fourth generation girl scout slash girl guide is my grandfather. His mother, mom was a girl guide in Canada. [00:36:00] And she was, um, she is incredible to learn about because she’s a girl guiding Canada, but she was also a female entrepreneur and owned, um, a couple of convenience stores in Canada.
[00:36:13] And it was great to see how she came from a girl scout or a girl guide at the time and became a business entrepreneur. And. I love learning about my family’s history and continuing to learn about them. So that’s what makes me a fourth generation girl scout girl guide. But it’s, it’s great because my whole family was girl Scouts.
[00:36:36] Everyone. Who’s a female and my girl scout and my family was a girl scout, my two cousins, my other two cousins, me and my sister, my mom. All the, all my aunts for, and it’s just, just incredible to see how girl Scouts has impacted us. My aunt, her $2 graduated, but for years after she was the troop leader [00:37:00] for us, I’m the older girl troop leader, because my troop is a unique troupe of over 60 girls, K through 12.
[00:37:08] And. I am the only founding member of that trip that is left. And it is great to see how we went from a troop where a lot of the girls were getting busy to being one of the biggest trips in our council. And. Because of that really brought my family together because that’s where my aunt Lisa she’s the, um, brownie and she’s, well, now she’s the junior trip leader.
[00:37:35] And my mom is the older girl chip leader, which used to be my aunt’s job before her two daughters graduated. And she ended up retiring from being a girl scout trip leader. And my two cousins are a part of it. And it’s great. Whenever my sister or my other older cousins who’ve graduated, come to help with different girl scout activities.
[00:37:59] And it’s [00:38:00] really become a big family deal of being a girl scout. And we’ve been girl Scouts for years. And. It’s great to come from a family of fourth gender operation, because there’s not a lot of fourth generation. And as a fourth generation girl scout girl guide, I even have some girl guide in my background, which was great to tell some of the girl guides that I have met in the future.
[00:38:26] So. And that is a bit, that is my girl scout history, and I love my girl scout history. I love how my, um, other GRA great grandma who wasn’t a girl scout made sure that her four daughters were girl Scouts and raised them through Scouts. And, um, my grandma didn’t earn her older award, but her sister, one of her sisters did.
[00:38:51] And it was great just having all of that in my family history and being able to share that with little girl Scouts, who they’re like, Oh, I [00:39:00] want my. Daughters to be girl Scouts and my grandma daughters to be girl Scouts, because I feel like my legacy is helping create future and help inspire other girls to create their own legacy.
[00:39:12] Sheryl: [00:39:12] Another leadership role that you have is your Instagram is hot pink Ninja. Can you give us the background on that?
[00:39:19] Marie: [00:39:19] The story doesn’t always have the best light to it. So I was part of an all girl group and because of that, I’m part of middle school and high school girls. And I was a homeschooled girl who was very skinny.
[00:39:34] I had a very fast metabolism and I ate. Everything in sight still. And that was probably, most of my family were as a kid, very skinny. But the problem with that is because of how old I was, lots of girls just assumed that I had an eating disorder and I was often bullied for not eating food, which is they thought I did, even though I spent so much money at the vending machines everywhere, [00:40:00] but, um, And the position I wanted to do a certain club.
[00:40:08] I had to be able to lift a certain amount. And because of this, I knew that I was going to have to get some muscle. Cause that’s what I was missing. I was, I wouldn’t call myself a nerd, but I didn’t do any, any sports for so long. I was very involved. And invested in girl Scouts in STEM, in, in school. I was a huge school.
[00:40:38] I am straight a student. I never wanted to let that down. So I didn’t spend any time doing sports. And because of that, I was incredibly skinny and I started rock climbing. That was the first sport that I started to do after I realized that I had to get stronger. [00:41:00] And I could tell that I was starting to dress differently.
[00:41:03] Baggy clothes, trying for people not to see that my arm was the same length all the way. And that I had like no legs and no hips. Like I was a late bloomer. So a lot of the girls and I never wore my makeup. I didn’t have a phone until I was 13 and I was homeschooled. So a lot of the girls are like, you’re weird and other mean things at the time.
[00:41:26] So my, I set my goal to be, get, get stronger and that had done a rock climbing camp in the past because, because I am a monkey, I like to climb everything. And because I didn’t do any sports doesn’t mean that I wasn’t active. I just never really tried to like build muscle. So I was climbing five days a week and I loved climbing and that’s why I was doing it so much.
[00:41:51] And I was eating the right foods. I was learning to drink and eat more protein, really loving my vegetables because I was a very [00:42:00] picky eater, even though I ate a lot. I was like, Oh, onions in there. You don’t got to pick that out. It was very picky eater, but I learned to love meat and really get the protein that I needed, but also learning the amount of carbs I needed the amount of fat.
[00:42:20] And I just gained a lot of muscle. And soon enough, I ended up quitting that group that was bullying me and I became an athlete and that’s what I call myself. Now. I have been not summer. Um, I don’t know if you have seen the show American Ninja warrior and as a reality TV show, that is a sports show where they do obstacle course.
[00:42:46] Racing similar to other things like Spartan are any kind of obstacle course racing that you might see on TV, the or other places. And wow, this place was fun. [00:43:00] When I started training, there was no gyms around that did obstacle course racing, but about six months into my training. Two gyms opened up and I was like, Oh yay.
[00:43:12] And a year after that, another gym opened up. So I was getting a ton of training in. And it took me a while to kind of take the idea that I was an athlete, because for so long that I was just, I was a straight a student. I kind of stayed with the kind of nerd feeling that people might have called me. And I didn’t see that as bullying.
[00:43:37] I loved it, but I realized that my thoughts had gone elsewhere. And I was starting to do girl scout events. I actually did do, um, several girls scout events at these obstacle course racing places. And girls got to earn the only sports batch. There’s only one sports badge per age level. This is something that I’ve been [00:44:00] trying to get girls Scouts of the USA to get more of because.
[00:44:03] Stan batches. Great. But athletics will make you live 10 years longer on average. So that is something that I’ve been trying to grow, because that is something that is a problem. The amount of health problems that I see my friends go through and the amount of, um, mental health issues that could be, um, Salt with just some pudding activity into their life.
[00:44:31] This is something that I really advocate for and I’ve actually started my own business recently called stronger play, which is I’ve started writing a blog and it started making some products that help and encourage athletes, especially ninjas. To take care of their selves to take care of their hands.
[00:44:52] You might see my hands. They look very rough and ugly and that’s because I worked with them and, [00:45:00] um, I’ve had. Um, been I’ve been in relationships and they’re like, wow, your hands are so rough. And they don’t always look at that as a good thing. And I always look at it as a good thing. So I’m like, Oh, that’s a good thing.
[00:45:13] My hands need to be rough for the sport I do. And because of this, I have this slag. Where I want kids to be active, but safe while being active. And I’m kind of honestly regret that I didn’t start sports earlier. I did swim team every summer. I did the occasional camp. I did gymnasts sticks for like a year when I was very little and just that wasn’t really enough for me.
[00:45:43] Um, yeah, I was born the year of the monkey. So this was the perfect sport for me. I love swinging on things. I love flying through the air and some of the obstacles that I’ve been able to accomplish people look at it and they’re just like, wow. And it’s great to go [00:46:00] from a person that people would look at you and be like, Oh, I don’t want to be like, you are bullying you to being someone that people are like, wow, I want to be like you, I want to do what you do.
[00:46:10] And going through that, like transition. Personally, I’ve been mentally healthy my whole life, but I have close friends and family that have not had that luxury of being mentally healthy and having to struggle with your mental illnesses. And it’s something that personally I’ve never experienced that trouble.
[00:46:31] And I’ve. Really wanting to learn from other people because especially in athletes, mental illness is terrible. I’ve learned that like I hit puberty and stuff started training around the same time, which means I have, um, a lot of stretch marks. My body is nowhere. So the perfect luck. Yes. I have a very tiny waist and big thighs, which is not a good thing because no pants fit into that.
[00:46:59] So I [00:47:00] don’t know why people think that they want it cause it’s terrible. And it’s, it’s set up that I like that, that I’ve learned from too. Become, uh, uh, to become my own role model and to become other girls model was to really help them learn that doing sports and looking a certain way won’t affect getting you won’t affect your future.
[00:47:25] I’m sorry, but it won’t. No, one’s looking at your photo. Of your whole Bonnie and being like, Oh, she’s not going to get a job ever. And it’s something that I want to encourage girls that if you don’t like how your body looked. Cause I didn’t personally like how my body looked when I was super skinny that you can change it, but you can change it in a healthy way without having to damage your body and making decisions that you’re going to regret.
[00:47:52] In the future because you only got one body and you’ve got to respect it. And there’s going to be damages that you’re going to [00:48:00] make lasting, which is not good, not healthy. So. I’ve really become somebody who I am proud of. And I’ve always been very confident in myself. And I love to brag about myself, which is something that I want everybody to learn, how to love and learn how to, and I know that I wouldn’t be anywhere close to, um, knowing.
[00:48:27] Being good about myself, learning to love myself and learning to become my own role model and other people’s role models. If it wasn’t for girl Scouts, I had so many girl scout role models growing up. One of my biggest role models was, is Alexis Jones who was on a GT team, TV interview. She was a girl scout and she’s from my hometown of Austin.
[00:48:51] And. I think just getting that full circle of like, she’s been a role model for me for a couple of years now, um, being on [00:49:00] survivor and going, being a girl scout. And it’s just incredible to see my role models and how similar I am to them. So I can be somebody else’s role model. And I love being other girls from models.
[00:49:16] I love doing girl scout events where I’m in my vest. So, I don’t know if you could see it, but I have a lot of, a lot of badges and pins and everything. I just, I love girl Scouts and I always swell and I know that I’m okay. I want to be a DC trip leader as soon as I turn 18, because that’s just, what I’ve wanted to do is start a troop, just like my troop and make it a legacy trip because my troop is getting daisies.
[00:49:42] It’s every year, which means I hope that trips is going to be around forever and become a legacy trip. And I want to start more and get these girls passionate about everything. I am passionate. I am passionate about women’s rights. I’m passionate about being active and passionate about the national parks [00:50:00] about STEM.
[00:50:01] And I’m also very passionate about learning about my government and my civic rights as a citizen of the United States. So, and I wouldn’t be passionate about. Any of these things, if it wasn’t for girl Scouts. And I think putting that caveat on that, like, I wouldn’t be myself if it wasn’t for girl Scouts is so true.
[00:50:21] And I hope that more girls join girl Scouts because I know that older girls. They usually leave girl Scouts. And as you see, I’ve been a girl scout since I was a Daisy first-year Daisy. And honestly, my first year as a Daisy, I didn’t really do much. I was part of a trip that wasn’t very active, but the second year I was a Daisy, we started.
[00:50:44] My troop 1587, which is now the troop that has over 60 girls. And that is getting daisies every year. And we have, we had last year, we had over 30 older girls, which meant [00:51:00] that most of our troop was older girls, which was great because that’s where we lose a lot of girl Scouts, which is sad because when you’re an older girl, you start traveling.
[00:51:09] Can you start to earn these higher awards, which look amazing on resumes, but also you learn so much, like I am ready for any college job application ever because the Micheal award, the amount of paperwork for a gold word might seem daunting for someone who hasn’t done a college application yet, but man, does it help?
[00:51:31] And I’m so glad that I was able to be on this to kind of share my story and to share my experiences, especially for higher awards, because I am an advisory member for my County. And my biggest passions for the last couple of years have been outdoors, have been STEM and this year. What I want to help more girls do is I want to help girls become higher ward earners because only [00:52:00] 1% of girl Scouts have older girls.
[00:52:02] Earn their gold award. That’s a problem for me because if it wasn’t for my gold award, I wouldn’t know what I wanted to do in the future. I wouldn’t know what I’m passionate about. I wouldn’t be able to fill out good document. I wouldn’t be able to do so much, and I wouldn’t have the connections that I do today.
[00:52:21] And I think earning your gold, your silver and your bronze is an incredible achievement that every girl scout should have the opportunity to earn. And to earn it and to go through with it. Cause I know it’s easy to procrastinate on stuff like that, but to finding the time and to become passionate about it.
[00:52:41] Is something that will last for, with you forever.
[00:52:45] Sheryl: [00:52:45] So we’ve, we’ve learned a lot of history about you. What does your future look like right now?
[00:52:51] Marie: [00:52:51] I am currently living in both Austin, Texas, and in Orlando, Florida, because I want to go to college here in Orlando [00:53:00] because my dream is to work for Disney. It has been my dream for a while and I hope to go to, um, Do the Disney college program currently I’m 16.
[00:53:12] So I can’t work at Disney and my dream would be to be even either in marketing communications are to be a tour guide for Disney. I also want to continue my work with girl Scouts. So what my future looks like is somebody who hopefully works at Disney, who has started their own troop, who is inspiring more girls.
[00:53:34] Who is still an athlete. And hopefully when I’m 19, I can compete on American Ninja warrior are I can, they are starting in a new Olympic sport for obstacle course racing, which is another option that I have looked into both of these and. I have applied for a program. I am called semester at sea for [00:54:00] spring of 2022, which is sending four months on a cruise ship where you take four college classes and you travel the world.
[00:54:10] On a boat and part of me on a ship and pardon me, have wanted to also work on the Disney cruise line ships. So this is an opportunity for me to learn cultures from around the world, because I want to be culturally aware of different cultures from. But everything from black culture to culture and a whole different country, and this is something that I’m excited about, but I also want to encourage every girl out there to travel, because you’re going to learn so much about yourself and about others when you travel.
[00:54:48] So hopefully I travel a lot more of my future because right now not traveling is really hard for me and having to like, stay at home and stay in my city. [00:55:00] Is hard and very difficult, but I know we’ll get through this together and I just can’t wait for us to move past this so we can become ourselves again, because I know a lot of people are having troubles staying at home.
[00:55:18] And I understand I took six college classes the summer because I did not. Want to be not busy. I wanted to be busy.
[00:55:29] Sheryl: [00:55:29] Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our audience?
[00:55:32] Marie: [00:55:32] I know it’s cheesy, but to just follow your dreams, there were points in times where I didn’t want to follow my dreams are wasn’t sure what my dreams were and that’s okay.
[00:55:41] I think something that has kept me mentally healthy, my whole life is. Being able to set goals for yourself, even if they’re very little goals and being able to achieve them. And knowing when to give up on a goal is something that I’ve cherished and [00:56:00] learned throughout the years. Yes. My goal, since I was eight, was to work for Disney.
[00:56:04] I have a big goal and I’ve had it for a long time and that has kept me moving and that has helped me make decisions, but I’ve also changed. Like there was a summer where I wanted to be the president of the United States. Don’t want to do that anymore, but yeah, you know, your thoughts and your careers are going to change, but as long as you have a dream or a goal to get an a in the class or a goal to go to a certain college, our goal to get a dog someday or something, just setting those goals and working towards and making decisions for that goal is going to help with.
[00:56:41] Everything. And that is one piece of advice that I want to leave every girl out there.
[00:56:46] Sheryl: [00:56:46] How do you make your smores?
[00:56:48] Marie: [00:56:48] There’re several different ways. I make my spore, but when there were thanks a lot, I loved roasting my smart, which when I was little, um, if it had a black spot on it, I gave it to [00:57:00] somebody else, but now I completely burn it because I liked the crunchiness and the smell of.
[00:57:06] Nice roasted fire makes me really feel like I’m at girl scout camp and banner. I put Hershey’s chocolate, no other chocolate will work. Has to be her she’s chocolate. When we made smores and Cyprus, they don’t have Hershey’s chocolate and they don’t really have Graham crackers there. So that was very difficult.
[00:57:26] We made that out of cookies and this chocolate that didn’t melt very well. So now making s’mores. I make sure I have my Graham crackers, my Hershey chocolate. I really love jumbo smores, really get the jumbo marshmallows, really get the goo out of there right now. How I make a smart is I put my marshmallow in the microwave five seconds, and then I put the chocolate on top.
[00:57:53] And then I do it for five seconds and then I kind of scoop it with my two Graham crackers and that’s how I [00:58:00] make my quarantine smaller.
[00:58:01] Sheryl: [00:58:01] Well, thank you so much for joining us.
[00:58:04] Marie: [00:58:04] Thank you for having me.
[00:58:06] Sheryl: [00:58:06] Make sure to click subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released. And don’t forget to power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:58:18] Walter: [00:58:18] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share 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 goal award. Reach out and send an email to grow ndshare@outlook.com.
[00:58:36] Be sure to listen to the newest episodes on your favorite podcast app, as well as view the full video episodes on youtube.com/Sheryl M. Robinson that’s youtube.com/cheryl the letter M Robinson take care and we’ll see you next.
