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 aria with us. Hi aria.
[00:00:18] Aria: [00:00:18] Hi!
[00:00:19] Sheryl: [00:00:19] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:22] Aria: [00:00:22] My girl scout project addressed the youth vaping epidemic, which is an epidemic that affects. The United States as a whole, but it also affected my local community of Bergen county and New Jersey.
[00:00:34] And of course the state of New Jersey as well. So it’s an epidemic that can really affect a lot of people, a lot of youth and even people older. But I wanted to address this because I felt that this was something that affected my peers. A few years ago, I went through a program with my peers in which it was called the dare program.
[00:00:53] And this program basically. It taught us not to use drugs. It talks about alcohol, especially as youth, but it kind of brought these concepts to us at a young age. And then as we grew up, as we grew as a high school, I started seeing people using these products, especially vaping devices, which are so new and so dangerous.
[00:01:13] And once I started noticing them that you can, these products, I decided to join some groups that had to do with it. Like vaping prevention and awareness. And then I decided that I can’t my girl scout gold award project to it because I was so passionate about the the cause. And specifically what I did for my gold award project was conducted presentations across my county.
[00:01:33] My local, middle and high school. And then out of a bunch of other middle and high schools throughout the county to address some of the main causes of the vaping epidemic in general. So that would be why students and youth are using these products, how it hurts them, like the health hazards, health consequences, the marketing practices of big tobacco.
[00:01:51] And. Other large tobacco companies. And of course, like peer pressure is something I touched on a lot. And then I also tried to incorporate lessons like what you can do instead of vaping. Cause a lot of times people would use these products because of stress because it gives you a like a nap. It gives you like a buzz, which is a feeling of relief.
[00:02:09] From that stress. So I tried to incorporate some lessons, like choose a natural bus to something that’s healthier into my presentation. And then besides the presentations, I actually created a short YouTube video. I wrote an article in order to kind of maximize my outreach.
[00:02:26] Sheryl: [00:02:26] What kind of feedback did you receive from your project?
[00:02:28] Aria: [00:02:28] It’s sort of a taboo topic. If people are using these products, they don’t want to be told that what they’re doing is wrong. And that was never sort of the message that I was trying to portray. We were trying to blame the company selling to you, and we’re trying to give youth the best possible resources that we have the most up-to-date information and let them make a, a well informed decision for themselves.
[00:02:50] So of course, people using these products are not too enthusiastic to hear a message coming from me, but I thought a really great part of my presentation and my project in general is that it was peer to peer. So you, I was presenting to, I was the same age as them.
[00:03:06] I knew what was trying to be. I knew what was going on and what they like and what they don’t like and was able to incorporate that into my presentation and also able to relate to that. So I think that. From the feedback I gathered, majority of it like 85 to 95% of it was really great feedback. People were understanding what I was trying to get across.
[00:03:26] People were taking the lessons and the information I shared and saying that they were going to apply it into their lives, which is obviously really great.
[00:03:34] Sheryl: [00:03:34] What’s the biggest challenge you faced during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:38] Aria: [00:03:38] People who aren’t really fond of quitting to vape or, you know, they, they are using these products.
[00:03:43] They don’t want to be told no. So. And we’re to overcome that challenge. I just try my best to connect with them and giving them resources. At the end of my project, I would always put quit resources, or I’d say like, you guys can reach out to me, reach out to the student assistance counselor at my school, or if it was a different school the student assistance counselor at their school.
[00:04:04] For resources and for help. And I also just try to make different parts and components. My presentation really tailored to the, to that group of people, as well as people who aren’t vaping. So I try my best to make it as like, it tries to reach all different audiences during my presentation. And another challenge I faced would be obviously with the COVID-19 pandemic, it was really difficult to conduct a lot of in-person presentations.
[00:04:30] So. I, I really only got to do it at my high school, the in-person ones. And I felt those were super effective because I was able to be present and also use games and utilize different strategies. But I actually think it could have been also a benefit that I was able to utilize zoom and Google meet and these other video chat like websites.
[00:04:50] Because now I was able to reach people from across the county where maybe I wouldn’t have been able to do so, had we not been in a virtual setting, I’ve always considered myself to be an outgoing person at a debate, or like I love public speaking and I love standing up for what I believe in. But as I mentioned, this is sort of a taboo topic and people I know personally are using these products.
[00:05:14] So even though I was really active with it, I did always have these sort of. Like nerves and addressing it or being super vocal about it. But through my gold award, I realized that this is not something to be, not, not necessarily afraid of, but like hesitant about being vocal about, but I should be more vocal about it.
[00:05:32] This should be something that I’m super, like, I should just utilize what I have and make, make a bigger impact with my voice. And. Through this, I was able to utilize the skills I already have, but also overcome my sort of fear and my fear of rejection from my peers. Into and turn it into something that benefited youth in my community.
[00:05:54] Sheryl: [00:05:54] You talk about working with youth in your community. You have been involved in a couple of different organizations impacting youth. Can you tell us about?
[00:06:03] Aria: [00:06:03] As I mentioned with my gold award, I have been a part of different organizations that have to do with vaping awareness and prevention. That would be incorruptible us as the New Jersey state campaign that I’m in really targets.
[00:06:15] Youth and saying, you shouldn’t be vaping. We put a bunch of social media messages out there. We do tabling events. So that’s really targeted towards youth. And then on in the county section of that as well. And then other groups I’m a part of outside of vaping prevention and all that work would be my high school robotics team.
[00:06:32] So what I do specifically there with youth is I’m the community outreach leader. So I help put on and brainstorm these different events that really. I encourage you to get involved in steam topics, which would be science, technology, engineering, arts, and math, which are of course super important and
[00:06:50] it’s so cool to learn them at a young age and it really helps them get a headstart and inspire them for maybe what they want to do later on in life. So I put on some events like that. For example, we did a steam fair with my robotics team that I helped co-found. And that was really awesome because we had like 30 different booths and we had science experiments, math games how art and science are correlated a 3d printer.
[00:07:12] We had so many cool things at that event. And I just love working with youth and really trying to. Get these awesome messages across, whether it has to do with vaping, steam debate, any of those.
[00:07:22]Sheryl: [00:07:22] What other girl scout experiences have you had?
[00:07:25] Aria: [00:07:25] I’ve been in girl Scouts in second grade. I have been in it for so long.
[00:07:29]And I’ve had just so many great experiences growing up in girl Scouts, but. I think the most memorable, memorable would definitely be completing my bronze award and my silver award. And then finally completing my gold award. It just feels like a chapter has ended and that I was able to accomplish some really great things.
[00:07:45] But yeah, the other, the other great experiences that I’ve had were the journey, the journey that I went on before my gold award, where we were able to learn about female empowerment and, you know, females and different industries and really getting confidence and like different skills before putting my gold word into action.
[00:08:00] And then as I said, my silver award.
[00:08:02] Sheryl: [00:08:02] And what were your bronze and silver ward projects?
[00:08:04] Aria: [00:08:04] My bronze award project wassomething that’s my truth, where we did like a pet day in the park. We put that on for community and it was super fun, environmentally friendly, and we encouraged people to get out and enjoy the environment. One time it was in like fifth grade.
[00:08:18] So it was a really long time ago, but my silver work project is actually, it’s not exactly the same it’s for oral cancer awareness. Because that was something that. I had seen a lot of my mom actually works in a similar field, so she had always been passionate about that. And as I did more research into it, that was something that I realized that was a huge problem, that people don’t really focus on.
[00:08:41] That there’s obviously a tons of types of cancer, but oral cancer wasn’t really focused on a lot. So I did focus on that and it’s kind of similar because one of the main causes of oral cancer would be smoking. And now I kind of transitioned my gold award and it has to do with vaping. So I found that to be.
[00:08:59] Kind of a nice segue or transition, but yeah, my silver award, I also did like I made a brochure of pamphlets handed those out and just tried to educate my community. I went to a few events and it was just an overall good experience as well.
[00:09:12]Sheryl: [00:09:12] The gold award process is a huge process besides the project itself, what did you learn about the gold war process that you think others might need to know before they start their gold awards?
[00:09:24] Aria: [00:09:24] Just get organized, have an action plan and say, this is kind of all outlined in the proposal anyways. But even before the proposal, you should have something you’re passionate about and that you want to accomplish with your gold award. You should know along the lines of what you want to do and who you want to reach and just make sure you’re organized.
[00:09:43] And if things kind of. Not fall apart, but if it’s not exactly as you imagined, it would be when you’re writing your proposal or when you’re actually implementing your gold award. That’s okay. Everyone has to pivot and it actually teaches you so much to do so, but definitely before you get started, they organized or get organized and then stay organized throughout the process.
[00:10:02] Sheryl: [00:10:02] What are your future plans?
[00:10:04] Aria: [00:10:04] I’m currently a senior in high school, so I’ll be going to college next year. I’m going to be attending the college of New Jersey. And I’m going to be a political science major on the pre-law track. And I’m really hoping to go to law school afterwards. And as a future career, hoping to either become an attorney something in the loss sphere or run for public office.
[00:10:22] Sheryl: [00:10:22] Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:10:25]Aria: [00:10:25] Make good decisions, make sure that you are looking at all the facts in front of you and that you’re being mindful of what you’re putting in your body and make sure you’re prioritizing your health with that. And when something like. I always say I’m at the end of my presentation is that we’re not trying to blame youth freezing these products.
[00:10:41] We’re trying to blame the companies and we want to make sure that you guys, and, and you’ve just remained healthy and happy and live. Yeah, the best life you can.
[00:10:51] Sheryl: [00:10:51] How do you make your s’mores?
[00:10:52] Aria: [00:10:52] I roast my marshmallow a little bit. Like I don’t like it burns, so I roasted it a little bit and then I use two pieces of chocolate on both ends.
[00:11:01] And then I use to grab records. I love chocolate.
[00:11:04] Sheryl: [00:11:04] I love chocolate too. Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:11:07] Aria: [00:11:07] Thank you so much for having me. It was such a pleasure.
[00:11:10] Sheryl: [00:11:10] Be sure to click subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are going to be released. And don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:11:22] Walter: [00:11:22] 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 gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com.
[00:11:40] 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.
