[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.
[00:00:13] Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today we have Kennedy with us. Hi Kennedy.
[00:00:18] Kennedy: Hello. Hi.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?
[00:00:23] Kennedy: Hi, my name is Kennedy Watkins and my Gold Award Project Lets Code Together teaches beginners how to code using a program called Scratch. Now, scratch uses block code to make the coding instructions easier to understand.
[00:00:38] And for my project, I created online lesson plans and tutorial videos that I hosted on a. . And while talking to the students, I also taught them about new STEM careers that they could be interested in.
[00:00:50] Sheryl: What kind of feedback did you get from the students that you worked with?
[00:00:53] Kennedy: So the students were around like fourth grade and fifth grade, so most of the feedback was about the games that I helped them create.
[00:01:01] They were really into the game. They didn’t, couldn’t wait to show it to me, and they were really excited that they created something such a short amount of time. Using something, a platform that they had no idea, you know, beforehand, my classes when I zoomed in with the students were about an hour long, and so I had an intro of like who I was.
[00:01:22] I went into the lesson and then I told them about other careers. A lot of them were interested in like, what is like a computer scientist. When I told them that was my major. They were interested in like what does a coder do? Like how do you, like, how can I be a coder now? And I told them today, congratulations, you’re all coders.
[00:01:42] And just to see the smiles on their on their faces was amazing.
[00:01:45] Sheryl: What prompted you to choose this for your Gold Award project?
[00:01:49] Kennedy: So during high school, I really wanted to share my love of coding. I started getting into coding and stem when I was nine. I went to my first coding camp when I was nine years old, and I created an app that made like, no, it was like a game that made like nail polish paint on fingernails, and that was really fun for me.
[00:02:06] So in high school I got into this extracurricular class called One Laptop for Child, and in this class it was about a group of 10. And we used scratched and we watched tutorials on how to make lesson plans and we made our own lesson plans. Now, at the end of the year, we took the lesson plans we created during this class, and we were able to travel to Barbados.
[00:02:31] And there we were able to teach elementary students how to use Scratch, and we shared our lesson plans with their teachers and it was a really, really cool experience. I had never been to Barbados beforehand, so it was an amazing trip. And so when I came back to the states, , I wanted to teach the children in my area how to code using those lesson plans and basically kind of take what we did in Vibratos and bring it over here to the Columbus City School District.
[00:03:04] And that’s what got me into my go to world project.
[00:03:08] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:12] Kennedy: The bulk of my gold award was actually done during covid. So what I was going to do for my project before all of the Covid stuff was go into schools. Kind of get into like at least three classrooms and in person, teach them the same way we did for the students in Barbados and go through lessons and give them a PowerPoint presentation and, you know, it was going to be, you know, very more interactive.
[00:03:38] They’re actually gonna see me. I was gonna meet with the students and it was gonna be, you know better in person. Because I couldn’t do that. I had, I ended up needing to. Do zoom calls with all of the teachers, and I understand My mother is a teacher, so I understood that their schedules were already very hectic trying to have some students in person and some students online.
[00:04:01] So a lot of the teachers didn’t really want to kind of mess up their schedule to have me in for an hour. So it was really hard. Trying to get teachers who were okay with me taking over for an hour in their class to teach a little coding lesson. I had a great mentor and she was able to, she was a retired teacher, so she was able to talk with teachers and I was able to gain some connections with teachers and be able to get into enough classrooms to make it a lasting impact for myself.
[00:04:31] I was able to get into at least a couple classrooms which, I wouldn’t have been able to get into had it not been for my mentor. So how did you connect with your mentor? She was a family friend. My mom had been a teacher at multiple schools and they had taught together in the past. So I, my mom was kind of, Had this person, she was like, well, I have a friend.
[00:04:52] She used to be a teacher and she might want be able to mentor you. And so I, you know, sent her an email and I got in contact with her and she was more than happy to help me with my Go Goal award. Who else was on your team? I also had a couple of teachers in the buildings who. . Once I taught with them, they, you know, kind of told other teachers in the building, oh hey, I have this girl.
[00:05:15] She’s working on her Golden Awards for Girl Scouts and if you could just have like an hour, we should come in. So I kind of made them, you know, my my team members. In the moment when they really helped me get into more classrooms. I also had someone to edit my videos, because I had to have a place for the videos to go.
[00:05:35] Students could look at them afterwards, or even when my project was over, I still have the videos, you know, somewhere. So I had someone help me edit those and keep my time management all together. So those were a couple of my team members.
[00:05:49] Sheryl: What did you learn about yourself during your project?
[00:05:52] Kennedy: I really value communication.
[00:05:54] It was a really stepped for me to be in contact with so many people doing so many tasks all at the same time. In order to get this project done, like before, you know, the deadline, I really had to be able to communicate with my mentor, communicate with the teachers, communicate with the students, communicate with my editor to make sure that she understood how I wanted the videos to look, how I wanted the sound to be.
[00:06:19] And beforehand I really kind of did. On my own. If I wanted to get something done, I did it and I just kinda relied on my skillset. So having to rely on someone else was a big step outta my comfort zone. And it taught me a lot about communication.
[00:06:35] Sheryl: What did you learn about the Gold Award while you were working on it that you didn’t know and might be helpful for others?
[00:06:40] Kennedy: The gold award kind of makes you take a step back and it makes you have to understand what are your strengths in order to know what your weaknesses are, and then you have to build a team around your weaknesses. So that they can, you know, help make those, the strengths for the project. Like I said, it taught me a lot about communication and the value of teamwork.
[00:07:07] Beforehand, I was mostly, I mostly did things on my own and relied on myself. So the go word kind of helped me. Learned that it was okay to rely on someone else, and it was okay to have a team and kind of delegate this task to them and totally trust them to do the task in the way that I wanted it.
[00:07:26] Sheryl: How has the Gold Award continued to impact you?
[00:07:29] Kennedy: My mom had the idea that I should upload something about my project to my social media just to get the word out there. And it did. A lot of teachers from other states come, came and like started DMing me and was like, oh, hey, I saw this, this, like how, how many lessons do you have? Like how big is this?
[00:07:47] Could you send me like any of the files? And it really, really shocked me on how big my impact could really reach. I kind of. That I wasn’t just helping the people, you know, in my city I was kind of like helping, you know, the nation. I was helping like more states and the children. Kids. I was helping more kids be interested in the STEM field and it really gave me a new perspective on how big my impact was and how, you know, far it could last, which was, which is really nice.
[00:08:14] Sheryl: As you finish your gold award, you have continued to. Focus on the STEM field and you have expanded your outreach, and what has that been like?
[00:08:25] Kennedy: Great. Because of my go to world, I really wanted to focus on trying to teach people about the STEM world from a minority’s perspective. And because I wanted more of an audience, I started a business is called Gilded Teas, and it is a loose leaf tea company and where I make my own recipes and I sell my own tea blends. While I sell these blends, I’m giving the 10% of my profits, two organizations that help children learn how to code. When I was first getting into coding, Around the age of nine, I began going to camps, like STEM camps, like techie, corpse, and hackathons.
[00:09:08] So I’m giving back to those organizations using the profits from my business, which is really great.
[00:09:14] Sheryl: How did you choose loose leaf tea as the focus of your business?
[00:09:18] Kennedy: My family has a a nonprofit, it’s a a garden club project called The Garden Club Project, where we were doing a lot of gardening and, and a being a lot in nature.
[00:09:29] And so as I was. Getting used to gardening, I realized that growing like spices and and growing herbs was really interesting for me. So I started using a little bit of the herbs from gardening into teas. I created. Currently I am working on making a tea farm and Florida, I have a couple acres there that I’m gonna start growing on in a couple years in the future.
[00:09:54] So that’s been really fun. Trying to get that all together. But it really started with me already gardening and then I kind of got into herbs and then I kind of got into how herbs help people and that’s why I got into tea.
[00:10:06] Sheryl: How do you come up with your tea mixtures?
[00:10:08] Kennedy: Social media, I kind of like scroll through and I see new flavors or new blends.
[00:10:14] Even some of my own customers, I over the summer I was able to go to farmer’s markets, so I was kind of like in person with my customers as they were purchasing and talking about the teas that they were buying from me. They would also talk about the teas that they kind of have at home and what they already drink.
[00:10:29] And so I kind of used my customers as a sounding board really to make more blends, which has been really fun. Makes a really fun community as well.
[00:10:39] Sheryl: What are some of your popular flavors?
[00:10:41] Kennedy: Currently my top two popular flavors are a hibiscus and berry. So it’s a green tea base and then it’s dried hibiscus leaves, and a berry blend using elderberry and some other ingredients.
[00:10:56] And it’s really good for, in the, in the morning time, I drink it a lot in the morning as I’m getting ready for school. And it’s really refreshing. It’s good hot and it’s really good cold. I mostly like it as an iced tea, but my mom likes it when it’s warm. I also have a lavender and butterfly pea, a blend, so it’s a green tea base, and then it has butterfly pea, which is a flour.
[00:11:22] That makes it blue, which is really fun for Instagram when I’m making, you know, posts. So that’s in lavender, which I love lavender, so I just kinda, I had to put that in one of the T blends, so I’m really glad that my customers like it and that it’s one of the favorites.
[00:11:37] Sheryl: What are your plans for the future?
[00:11:38] Kennedy: With my business is to continue growing. I wanna be able to grow all of my ingredients and. , you know, use them and put them in a facility so that I can package it all by myself, which I think just be really cool. And I also am giving back, I wanna give more to organizations that are helping kids get into the stem fields.
[00:12:00] And I also wanna start giving to organizations that are helping minorities like myself get into agriculture. Because I realized as I’m trying to start my own farm, . There’s not a lot of African Americans and a lot of females in agriculture, so I also wanna start giving back to those kind of organizations.
[00:12:19] Sheryl: You say, you know, there is a very small population of women and minorities in agriculture. How do you find people to network with?
[00:12:27] Kennedy: Social media again, has been a big help. Growing a community and finding new people on social media and DMing and just kind of just asking questions. I, when I first got into social media for business wise, I really was.
[00:12:42] Afraid of kind of just like reaching out to strangers, perfect strangers, and asking them. But I’ve, I’ve understood, I understand now that they wanna help and they want to, they want their community to grow as well. And so just asking questions and finding new friends and new mentors using social media.
[00:13:01] Older mentors who have already, already have their. And already in, you know business and I have been in business for years and years and just asking them, you know, for any sort of help and guidance has been amazing.
[00:13:14] Sheryl: In your mind, what is the connection between STEM and agriculture?
[00:13:18] Kennedy: STEM can be used to make agriculture.
[00:13:22] More impactful I feel as one of the gardens here in my city is using a, a robot to like water the plants and to like water the garden , which is really cool to me. And I never, I never thought about it, you know, that way that’s a, a very like, literal way for stem to be in agriculture that I didn’t really thought of until I saw it.
[00:13:44] Which was really cool. But yeah, I j I just think that. And all of the engineering, engineering new ways to make you know, agriculture more impactful to get agriculture to more rural areas that don’t have, you know, as mu as as like a water supply. So you, you’re able to use engineering to get water to places that don’t really have it.
[00:14:05] You’re able to use stem to get food to places that are food deserts in the city. So I think that’s, , really great way that they intertwine.
[00:14:14] Sheryl: How else has Girl Scouts impacted your life?
[00:14:17] Kennedy: I’ve always said that it kind of helped me become a leader. Back when you’re getting into Girl Scouts, the first thing you learn about is cookies, and yeah, how to sell those cookies.
[00:14:27] So I was very, very shy. I’m way more on the reserve side, so, Out of my comfort zone to ask people in my school and to ask friends and family members, oh, buy my cookies, it’s cookie season. Really helped me get, get out of my own shell. And it still has, I now speak and I do interviews, which is something a couple years ago I wouldn’t even think about doing.
[00:14:51] And girl Scouts really gave me the background and the skillset to be able to grow and do things like this. So it’s been really amazing. .
[00:14:57] Sheryl: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:15:00] Kennedy: For any girl trying to get her goal to word keep going. You’re going to. Blocks in the road where you’re just going to feel like, okay, this is too hard.
[00:15:09] Th there’s, there’s too many hours. It’s, it’s going to be, you know, too much. Really try and get your team to really be behind you and really fight for you. There is a lot of times where my team encouraged me to keep going, where I was just like, okay, COVID is just making this too difficult. I’m not gonna be able to complete this.
[00:15:28] I’m, I’m, I’m done. And my team really pushed me and really said, you know, that you want. You know that you are gonna, you know, pat yourself on the back when this is all done. And you know, so push yourself. And I really think that that was extremely helpful. And so for any girl out there trying to get this award, just make sure that your team is with you and that you really do believe in your mission of your gold award.
[00:15:51] And that is something that’s like a passion for you. Because when it really gets hard, because it’s your passion, you’re gonna wanna see it through. And that’s, that’s really important.
[00:16:00] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:16:02] Kennedy: I am a very picky eater, so my marshmallow has to be golden brown. It cannot be black. It’s has to be golden brown
[00:16:13] And and then I have my, my two graham crackers and Hershey chocolate milk chocolate. I’m not a fan of white chocolate. So Hershey milk chocolate onto graham cracker with a golden brown marshmallow is the perfect way to eat us more.
[00:16:27] Sheryl: Thank you so much for joining us today!
[00:16:29] Kennedy: And thank you for having me.
[00:16:31] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are gonna be released, and power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:16:43] Walter: 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.
[00:16:52] If you want to share your story of how you earned your goal, 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.
[00:17:15] Take care and we’ll see you next time.