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 Therese with us.
[00:00:17] Hi Therese.
[00:00:18] Therese: [00:00:18] Hi! So nice to be here.
[00:00:21] Sheryl: [00:00:21] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:24] Therese: [00:00:24] I’m actually the creator of the world’s first comprehensive sexual assault on college campus database, which is a lot of words, but pretty much it’s a resource that organizes statistics, history and resources on every college in Illinois.
[00:00:39] And we’re currently seeking to expand it to the national level.
[00:00:42] Sheryl: [00:00:42] What prompted your project?
[00:00:43] Therese: [00:00:43] Yeah, so this project was actually inspired by a very personal experience. I knew a victim of sexual assault in middle school, and I was around them for a very long time. And it was really my first experience with the topic at all, was really directly like knowing a victim and seeing what it did to them was just really traumatic.
[00:01:04] So I’ve been really passionate about sexual assault, advocacy, and justice from a really young age. And since then, I’ve only really grown to be more passionate and strong in finding my voice in advocacy.
[00:01:15] In my high school year, we watched a documentary. called the hunting ground by Netflix, which pretty much organized a lot of really disturbing information on how many colleges would purposefully cover up sexual assault allegations on their school. It was horrifying to see like, you know, I had to leave the room a couple of times because it disturbed me immensely.
[00:01:36] And after watching that and thinking that many schools would purposely cover up student delegations, I had to find out was my. Colleges capable or were, did they do this? and at the time I was just starting the college research process. I was just thinking about what schools to apply. It was my junior year and everyone around me was either a junior or senior.
[00:01:58] We were all going to go to college soon. So after class, we actually looked up like, are the colleges we’re thinking about guilty of this? There is close to nothing online. it was really disheartening to find that all the information that we needed was buried in like hundred page documents. And even then it was only like clips of information was really hard to interpret it.
[00:02:21] And at that moment, like, Knowing from what I needed as a student, going into college soon. And what really, the whole room of people around you needed. I realized there was a need for some sort of resource that actually. combined all the available information because that really matters to students.
[00:02:37] Everyone wants to go to a college they feel safe at.
[00:02:40] Sheryl: [00:02:40] So how does your program work?
[00:02:41] Therese: [00:02:41] It’s a online database that can be accessed, off of a Weebly site called projectdandelion.weebly.com. And there’s a couple of screens of like general information that can actually be used for anyone regardless of state or school.
[00:02:57] And, a lot of like general statistics for the whole country and a lot of, good things to know about sexual assault on college campus in general. but if you navigate to the specific school section, you can actually look up individual schools within the system and. there’s more detailed information based on anything we could find online, for each college because, every school is legally required to publish their, sexual assault statistics and have provided resources for their students.
[00:03:27] It’s just really badly organized right now. So this database takes all the information that’s available publicly and legally and compiles it into one database. so for each school, there’s usually a section about reported sexual assaults on that campus, whatever resources there are, which includes like hospitals, title nine coordinators, any special initiatives they have.
[00:03:50] And then it also has a history section. you can actually look online to find which colleges were actually under investigation for possibly miss handling title nine cases. And it makes a note if that is the case, though, most of them still remain on investigated. but really, it just combines all the information available for every school.
[00:04:10] Sheryl: [00:04:10] Who did you partner with? How did you build your team for your project?
[00:04:14] Therese: [00:04:14] This was obviously initially a girl scout gold award project and the very primary emphasis on like starting out any new project is that partnership. So, I was actually inspired through the class that I watched the documentary at to try to find someone through there.
[00:04:31]so a couple of weeks earlier, we actually had guest speakers from the metropolitan family sheltering services of DuPage. And I asked my teacher like, Hey, I have this idea for a database, a database, something we could use to like, change what we’ve been learning about. Would you put me in partnership, in contact with someone from there and actually got to connect directly with one of our guest speakers?.
[00:04:56] And we talked over like the project together. And really made it our game plan for the whole thing. The initial goal was to have it national, but, start small expand later. We’re we’re getting to the expanding later and now actually it was just really exciting. But from there, we also decided that team building was really important because the database of the size.
[00:05:17] You really can’t do it alone. so I developed a team of high school students from my school. I asked, I just asked, like whoever was interested. I asked my friends, I asked them to ask their friends and we got a group of about 25 people who showed up consistently to our research parties, which is really exciting.
[00:05:36] Sheryl: [00:05:36] And what did you do at your research parties?
[00:05:38] Therese: [00:05:38] Well, it sounds like we were definitely had disco balls, but unfortunately it was, snacks, music, good environment, but it was us really sitting after school doing some research. And the thing is a lot of it. It’s like having information, but a lot of the formatting is just mostly locating, copying, pasting, putting it into like a spreadsheet where I literally turned that into like the database.
[00:06:03]so it worked out really nice. It was a good environment to be on. You knew like everyone there was really supportive of the topic and it just felt like a safe place. And it was, it was a great way to do the research for this project.
[00:06:15] Sheryl: [00:06:15] What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:06:19] Therese: [00:06:19] So the biggest challenge actually came up in the end, which was trying to figure out how to make this sustainable, because it was such an enormous project to do like even one state worth of research. Like it was, it was really daunting to even think about like maintaining it or expanding it, which was, has to be the goal in the end, like to create something that has a really long lasting impact.
[00:06:44]so I started reaching out to different companies and organizations that I could find emails for. And I got a lot of rejections. I was pretty much asking them for partnerships to, take over the database, like where I could still help out with its development. But really like the manpower to actually like keep up the momentum and like keep its growth.
[00:07:07] And it was really disheartening to mostly hear silence. And then sometimes hear, sorry, this doesn’t seem like legit. You’re just a high school student. I eventually did make a partnership with the Illinois coalition against sexual assault, which was really cool, that partnership out. So Cain per request, my mentor from family shelter service.
[00:07:28]I was asking her because we weren’t getting anywhere with just online resources. So I asked her like, who would be a good place to go see her? And she actually had a contact within them. So I reached out to him and. We actually did pass on the database to Illinois coalition against sexual assault.
[00:07:45] It’s currently listed as a statewide resource, but we are also continuing to search for a higher level partnership as well. someone who could like continue to actually like maintain and grow the database and that’s actually something we’re working on right now. I can’t mention any like company names just because nothing’s solid yet, but we’re working on like approaching national organizations with this. And it’s really cool.
[00:08:08] Sheryl: [00:08:08] I would expect that receiving the 2020 national gold award girl scout really helped you get the word out even more and perhaps connect with some of those companies that you’re talking with right now to make it national.
[00:08:24] What, what did the receiving the national gold award girl scout or, mean to you? How did it impact you?
[00:08:31] Therese: [00:08:31] It’s an incredible honor, just personally. I couldn’t even believe when I heard it. Cause that was just like my whole life. I’ve always looked up to Goldwater girl Scouts and just the idea that like I was among like, 10 of the most influential projects of the year was incredible.
[00:08:48] Like, I, I just did a happy dance all night. It was so cool. but on a bigger scale, like this really means a lot because the topic of sexual assault on college campus isn’t talked about nearly enough. And it’s just something now that we’re only beginning to pull to light, like decades and decades worth of like harm done to a community.
[00:09:09] And I think this is really an opportunity to start getting the word out more and to promote like, Sexual assault, awareness and advocacy. but for this project specifically, I was able to, recently connect within the girl Scouts of the USA, like the national organization we’re working together now to make a sales pitch, to have project dandelion go national.
[00:09:32] So we’re actually working together to approach those larger, larger organizations, which is so cool. So, golden word, national golden word. girl scout honor really gave me the resources to continue the momentum of my project, which is really cool.
[00:09:48] Sheryl: [00:09:48] Congratulations, because that really is a big achievement.
[00:09:53] Therese: [00:09:53] Thank you so much.
[00:09:54] Sheryl: [00:09:54] What do you know now about the gold award process that you wish you had known at the beginning?
[00:10:00] Therese: [00:10:00] That it’s okay to take it slow. In the beginning, like you have an idea and there’s nothing you want more to do than to just like jump right into the action. And it’s like that for any project, really.
[00:10:11]I’m an engineer now and working on different development projects and I feel the same thing every time. but the best thing you can do to set yourself up for success is just like, take it slow. It’s okay. To focus on like one thing. And if some, if something’s a really big problem and you feel it like looming over you, it’s okay to say that’s not where I am yet.
[00:10:35] And just like focus on the present because in time, things will sort themselves out pretty nicely. so just allowing yourself to focus on the present. Yeah, I was, I was worried that I was taking too long in the beginning, but I think. That really the care in really understanding the problem and building a good team is what sets you up for success in the end?
[00:10:58] Sheryl: [00:10:58] Do you have a special memory from your project you’d like to share?
[00:11:02] Therese: [00:11:02] Well, one of my favorite memories from the process was actually near the end. I gave a presentation at our local library, really announcing the project and celebrating its release and promoting, the knowledge within it. And I stood up.
[00:11:17] And gave a 50 minute presentation about campus, sexual assault, project dandelion. And I’m not a public speaker at all. It was terrifying. Like, I don’t even remember a word I said, but seeing the audience’s reaction was incredible. like everyone, there was just so supportive of it, like really believe that it had the potential to make a difference.
[00:11:40] And people just kept coming up to me afterwards and like opening their own stories to me. And like confiding in me, like incredibly personal things and like very personal connections to this topic. And just hearing that reception of this was honestly incredible and has been a big motivator for keeping me working on the project even still, that there were like 70 people in one little library room that day.
[00:12:08] It was terrifying, but it was definitely memorable and definitely an experience that. Really shaped who I am even now.
[00:12:16] Sheryl: [00:12:16] What other girl scout experiences do you have?
[00:12:19] Therese: [00:12:19] So I’ve been at girl Scouts since kindergarten and I’ve switched between two troops and then later became a Juliet. I think one of my favorite girl scout experiences, like with my first troop was our involvement in STEM learning.
[00:12:31] And that kind of set me up for the role I am now as an engineer, which is really cool. We went to camp a couple of times. which was really cool. But my favorite thing we did as a girl scout was participate in scout nanotechnology day, which sounds really cool because it is, one of the local colleges was hosting like a nanotechnology event and Scouts were allowed to create a presentation about any topic within nanotech and present it to everyone else.
[00:13:02] Once again, it was really scary. we did. we did graphene, which is a single layer of graphite stuff found in pencils. It’s really strong. And it was actually like really fascinating. I first I was like, how good? Just like a couple Adams be cool. But then at the end I was like, yeah, graphene, this is awesome.
[00:13:21]we got first place in the presentation. It was so cool. Like we beat out all the other like groups that would talk on and on, but just that like, Interest in science and like, realizing like science has a lot of potential to be really fun. You can have a lot of creativity within it. That was a big thing that made me quite am now, but it was also just really fun as a scout.
[00:13:45] Sheryl: [00:13:45] A lot of girl Scouts as they move older and lose their troops do become Juliets.
[00:13:50] Why did you choose to become a Juliet? And how did you stay connected to the larger girl scout movement while you were a Juliet?
[00:13:58] Therese: [00:13:58] Juliet was something I debated about for awhile. I had been having kind of weird experiences within my troops and I was wondering if it was worth continuing being a girl scout, but then I realized like, Maybe it’s just the style wasn’t right.
[00:14:10] For me, maybe doing it on my own could actually be like better for me to get out what I needed to get out of girl Scouts. And girl Scouts is really an opportunity to really, truly explore yourself and explore your potentials as like a leader and achiever. business woman, just anything you want to be really.
[00:14:31]and I think I realized that I hadn’t gotten out everything I wanted to get out of girl Scouts yet. And, the idea of the gold award actually was a big motivator for me to continue. I saw like why older girl Scouts had achieved and like who they become and how it like powerful and awesome they were.
[00:14:49] And I really wanted to see myself among them. so I continued with a big focus on like personal leadership. And as a solo girl scout, I mostly did like take action projects. I started with the, it might’ve just been take action projects, a journey. It was a journey. I did a journey and then that segwayed into my gold award project, which was really cool.
[00:15:10]I don’t think I’d be the leader I was today, or I am today. If I hadn’t done girl Scouts really my whole life, but I would definitely recommend for older girls to stay in girl Scouts because. There’s there’s nowhere to go. But up from here, you’re surrounded by like such, such a powerful and encouraging and supporting community of women.
[00:15:31] And we all want to see you succeed. We’re all here for you and like girl Scouts, even as you’re older by me, a little different, it’s definitely worth it.
[00:15:40] Sheryl: [00:15:40] You’ve mentioned your engineer journey and STEM quite a bit. Can you tell us about where you’re going to school and what you’re doing?
[00:15:48] Therese: [00:15:48] I am a freshman at Purdue university and I’m currently in their first year engineering program.
[00:15:54] And I plan on transitioning to aerospace engineering, which is one of the loves of my life. I’ve had a really deep passion for aviation and just building and space. And so I was. I don’t even know, like before I can remember having memories or thoughts, I liked space. I liked airplanes. They were cool.
[00:16:14]I definitely grew into it, but I’ve always had like this deepest affinity for making things and like for developing solutions to real-world problems. and that’s a lot of the process that went into the gold award as well, but I’m currently working towards a bachelor’s in aerospace. I’d also like to highlight that the engineering process.
[00:16:35] It’s pretty much the same as the process. You have to go through to get a gold award, especially when it comes to like your initial phases of like intense research team building, and then like working on developing and redeveloping a solution from there. And I’ve actually found that the skills I got from doing my gold award project are helping me now in college, as I’m doing like actual engineering projects, it’s really like the same process.
[00:17:00] Just a little bit more technical.
[00:17:01] Sheryl: [00:17:01] And you are actually a steam girl, not just a STEM girl. Can you tell us about your A activities?
[00:17:09] Therese: [00:17:09] Yeah, so I play the cello. I played the cello since middle school. It is also one of the loves of my life. and I’m working on making my own, arrangement YouTube channel, and I’d like to do some compositions in albums as well.
[00:17:23]but that’s always just been a really, really fun creative outlet for me. Music has really been a fulfilling part of my life. I can’t imagine being where I am now without like orchestra.
[00:17:35] Sheryl: [00:17:35] Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:17:37] Therese: [00:17:37] I think I’d like to highlight that the goals award project can really be about anything.
[00:17:42] You want it to be, whatever your passions are, whatever your direction in life, whatever your perspectives or beliefs, there’s a gold award for that. You have like the potential to make so much positive impact in the world. And we need to hear your voice because there’s no other voice like it, golden gold award is going to be the perfect opportunity to help you express that.
[00:18:03] And I can’t wait to see like what the future generation of golden war, girl Scouts are going to be like, because there’s just so cool. I’m still like impressed by everyone around me, like this year, like on the national level. And then just. Every golden word, girl scout I’ve ever known. It’s just so cool.
[00:18:21] So powerful and their projects make real impact in the world. And I can’t wait to see what the next generation does.
[00:18:28] Sheryl: [00:18:28] How do you make your s’mores?
[00:18:30] Therese: [00:18:30] I make my s’mores with love. I find the perfect place. In the fire. There’s just always like the perfect vent where it’s not directly on the fire, but it’s really close.
[00:18:41] Just like this oven environment. I have the perfect way of toasting the marshmallows and then I make it classic. Graham Cracker Hershey’s chocolate, marshmallow, but I find some more that are always better with a hot summer day and a lot of friends.
[00:18:56] Sheryl: [00:18:56] Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:18:58] Therese: [00:18:58] Thank you so much. It’s been great to be here.
[00:19:00] Sheryl: [00:19:00] 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.
[00:19:12] Walter: [00:19:12] 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.
[00:19:22] If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold award. Reach out and send an email to growandshare@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.
