[00:00:00] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Rachel with us. Hi, Rachel.
[00:00:18] Rachel: Hi, thank you for having me.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Well, thank you for joining us. Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:25] Rachel: I created a business called black girls new business. It’s a virtual summer program, which is geared towards black high school girls all over the U S that are interested in business or want help developing their career.
[00:00:35] My program offers them mentoring from business professionals, workshops to inspire and help them develop their skills as well as resources and networking opportunities.
[00:00:45] Sheryl: What inspired you to create this?
[00:00:47] Rachel: I’m in a business program at my school, and I was competing in a series on a competition called world series of innovation and the district rides, CT innovation challenge.
[00:00:58] And I had an idea that won me first place at the ladder competition to start a program called funds for females, which I basically provided grants to female entrepreneurs. So when I was starting my gold award, I wanted to build upon this project that I had already created, or that I had already had in mind.
[00:01:15] And my mom was actually the one who gave me the idea to do mentoring. So initially it was just going to be a website that connected business professionals with young students it just all students, not black girls initially. But then I wanted to make it more tangible and more personal. So I thought about myself and my goals.
[00:01:35] And since I’m a black girl, that’s interested in business and I know that there’s definitely barriers ahead of me in that field. I wanted to make it specific to black girls and because black women have to deal with both sexism and racism in the workplace. So I wanted to make sure that I was helping them.
[00:01:51] And that’s how I decided to gear the program towards black high school girls. And I just kept expanding it and adding programs, adding workshops. And that’s how it is, what it is now.
[00:02:02] Sheryl: How did you find the mentors for your program?
[00:02:05] Rachel: I reached out to my mentors via email. I would reach out to businesses and see if they had anyone that were willing to participate.
[00:02:12] I actually, I actually worked with score to help me get most of my mentors. I reached out to them to see if anyone was interested and they actually helped promote my program to people in their business. Also, my dad shared my program on his LinkedIn, which helped me get in contact with a lot of business professionals from his network.
[00:02:30] Sheryl: You also created an Instagram account. What kind of feedback have you had via instagram?
[00:02:34] Rachel: I’ve gotten a lot of really great feedback and that’s actually where I’ve been able to get connections from mentors and speakers. The feedback on Instagram is incredible. I’ve had lots of support and lots of people that helped me promote my project on there.
[00:02:50] Sheryl: Do you design the posts for your Instagram, cause they’re very beautiful?
[00:02:54] Rachel: Thank you so much. Yes. I design all my Instagram posts on canva but now I have a few volunteers that are helping me with that as well.
[00:03:02] Sheryl: Where do you see this program going in the future?
[00:03:04] Rachel: I definitely want to continue expanding the program.
[00:03:07] For example, this year I am adding more workshops and more content to my program. I want to make it. Available to more students. So I’m continuing to promote more so that I can get students from outside of my community. I also want to make it an official non-profit and have some sort of income so that I can make it more tangible, I guess.
[00:03:30] So I can have. And headquarters. So I can have an official zoom account things like that which would take a while for me to achieve those goals. But that’s where I want to be headed in the future.
[00:03:41] Sheryl: What was a challenge you faced during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:45] Rachel: When I was drafting my project in early 2020, I had planned for it to be in person and held at my school or a local business.
[00:03:53] And I kind of naively assumed that the pandemic would be over. Summer. So I didn’t really have a backup plan. But the end of December of 2019 or 2020 was when I realized that the program couldn’t happen in person. So I quickly shifted gears and made all the workshops on zoom and had all of the mentoring take place via email, which worked out really well because it meant that I can expand the program outside of the bay area, because I didn’t have to worry with people commuting.
[00:04:22] I also had to deal with a lot of unexpected changes and had to think on my feet quite a bit. I had a few mentors and speakers that had to drop out last minute because the personal reasons, which was understandable, but it was a challenge to, switch up pairings and the workshops like that so quickly.
[00:04:39] But again, it worked out really well. All the mentors that could step in last minute and the speakers that have stepped in last minute were more than what I had imagined. So it all turned out really well.
[00:04:49] Sheryl: How did you go about transitioning the plans that you had for your in-person events into those virtual events?
[00:04:55] Rachel: It was actually pretty simple to transfer everything from in-person to zoom. I was still in my drafting phase for the workshops at that point. So I didn’t have speakers that were committed to driving in yet and doing it virtually was actually much more convenient when I was reaching out to them. The content that I had, I put on a slide show that I could share my screen on zoom.
[00:05:19] So it actually ended up being pretty simple.
[00:05:22] Sheryl: What’s a favorite memory from your project?
[00:05:24] Rachel: Definitely the college workshops that I did with the UC school is because that was at a time when I was working on my college applications. And so were a lot of the other girls and it was really cool to see all of them come with questions and everyone was so excited to share their questions, their feedback, and the schools were so helpful for that workshop.
[00:05:47] Sheryl: I’d love to get a taste of what some of the sessions were. What was one of your favorite sessions and why?
[00:05:54] Rachel: Our interviews and applying to jobs workshop, where we had a speaker, Amanda, who was, she came and she discussed interviews, job applications, LinkedIn resumes. We even did mock zoom interviews in breakout rooms with the girls and their mentors.
[00:06:12] And they got to practice interviewing and they all said it was very helpful and something that they enjoyed a lot. So that was definitely my favorite. And I think that was one of the more valuable ones.
[00:06:22] Sheryl: The gold award process is a long learning experience. What was something that you didn’t know about the gold award process before you started that you think that other girls going through the process, it would be valuable.
[00:06:38] Rachel: I didn’t realize how long it takes to do the initial report as well as the final report. So that was something that really surprised me. So for other girl Scouts that are interested in getting their gold award, I’d recommend starting as soon as possible just in case. And if you run into any challenges, then you’ll have time to adapt.
[00:06:58] So you want to have time to do the initial report, complete your actual project, and then do your final report. But something that could help with this is to make sure that your project proposal is as specific as possible during the first time around. Otherwise you’ll have to go through loops of feedback to get it finalized.
[00:07:17] Sheryl: I often encourage girls to have somebody that knows nothing about the project, read the proposal and then have them, that person tell you what you think your project is. Cause it really identifies weaknesses.
[00:07:28] Rachel: Definitely.
[00:07:29] Sheryl: Do you have a tip for somebody on the proposal part and ways to improve your opportunities before your presentation?
[00:07:37] Rachel: Ask for help. If you need it bounce your ideas off of a friend or family member, even your girl scout mentor is there to help you make sure that every detail of your project is accounted for. Even if it’s something that you might have to change down the road, make sure you have plans in place just in case.
[00:07:55] Sheryl: What other girl scout activities have you been involved in?
[00:07:58] Rachel: I’ve been a girl scout since Daisy. So I’ve been part of the group for 12 years and I’ve done all sorts of projects, including I’ve done camping. I also got my bronze and silver award, my silver award I did with my sister Brianna. We did a project called art cart where we put together a cart of art supplies and coloring books, and we took it to our local hospital for kids.
[00:08:23] Sheryl: What are your future plans?
[00:08:25] Rachel: Continuing working with this program. I definitely want to stay with it for the foreseeable future and continue to run it. I’m a senior in high school right now, so I’ve just finished my college applications and I’m waiting to hear back, but I definitely want to attend a four year university.
[00:08:41] I’m also an artistic swimmer. So in the future, I’m going to be continuing. To travel and compete with them for my last year. And yeah, that’s th at’s what my future looks like right now. Definitely excited, but nervous for college and everything that comes with that.
[00:08:58] Sheryl: How did you get into artistic swimming?
[00:09:00] Rachel: Through a friend who did a summer camp and I joined the Santa Clara Aquamaids through their recreational program and I eventually joined the competitive team where I’ve been ever since.
[00:09:12] Sheryl: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:09:15] Rachel: I just announced my 2022 program for black girls mean business. And if anyone is interested in joining the program, mentoring with the program, being a speaker or a volunteer, you can find the information on my Instagram, which is black girls meet business program.
[00:09:32] And if you have any questions, you can email me at blackgirlsnewbusinessprogram@gmail.com.
[00:09:38] Sheryl: How do you make your smores?
[00:09:40] Rachel: I try to make my smores golden brown, so like the long rotation over the fire to make them perfect. But I usually get impatient and ended up just burning them.
[00:09:51] Sheryl: Well, thank you for joining me today.
[00:09:54] Rachel: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:09:55] Sheryl: Make sure to click, subscribe or follow so you always know when new episodes are released. And don’t forget to power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:10:09] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:10:15] 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.
[00:10:26] 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.