[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.
[00:00:10] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Piya with us. Hi
[00:00:16] Piya: Hi, thanks for having me.
[00:00:17] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?
[00:00:20] Piya: I earned my Girl Scout Gold Award during my junior year of high school.
[00:00:25] And the focus of it was to increase education and awareness on neurodiversity advocacy. And for those who haven’t heard the term, neurodiversity, Neurodiversity refers to normal variation in the human brain. This presents autism, ADHD, Tourette syndrome, and in many other ways. And initially as a freshman, I founded my school’s very first neurodiversity affinity group.
[00:00:50] Just as a safe space for neurodivergent youth, and a big piece of feedback I heard in my club was that teachers in our school didn’t have the most updated education on neurodiversity, and that’s what really inspired my gold award. So from there, I started hosting. I started hosting workshops and assemblies for my school hosted assemblies for my peers and then professional development workshops for teachers and staff at my school, just doing kind of basic neurodiversity training and having panel presentations, and I then expanded that to the whole DMV and teachers across those three states.
[00:01:28] And then most recently I created. A toolkit with resources, so kind of like a how to guide on how to start your own affinity group and have workshops in your community. And I was able to distribute that nationally. So, in order to reach across the country, have the tools that they need to thrive in and out of the classroom and to help their peers out.
[00:01:50] Sheryl: Wow, that project sounds like it needed a lot of research. Who helped you with that research and how did you create the curriculums?
[00:01:58] Piya: I was really lucky to be able to work alongside my school’s learning support team. So the same advisors that I went to when I had questions about my accommodations or my neurodiversity and how that presented in the classroom.
[00:02:14] They’re really excited that I had come to them wanting to do this project, so they were able to help me a lot. I had to do a good amount of research for my presentations with reading books, looking on websites. I got a lot of resources from. from my advisor herself, and she was actually my project advisor for the gold award, too.
[00:02:34] And after that, I was able to connect with neurodivergent students from other schools, not just from my school. So I could get their feedback as well on what the presentations were missing and what else I could add to it. One really important part of the training is student panels. So I have a panel of five to six students and we ask them questions about neurodiversity in schools and what changes they want to see, maybe like specific instances they’ve had in classroom settings.
[00:03:05] And I think just having that eye perspective is very powerful and teachers are really able to learn from them and ask them questions directly. So I would say the support I’ve gotten from students also really helped with my project as well.
[00:03:18] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:22] Piya: It was a challenge in the beginning, just initially implementing that neurodiversity training into my school. The current rule for neurodiversity training is that teachers must be trained every 10 years. However, that training isn’t really updated regularly and 10 years is a long time to go without updated training.
[00:03:44] So I had to have many meetings with the head of diversity at my school. I met with my school administration, the principal, as well multiple advisors, and we talked about why it’s important to have this training, what it would look like in our school’s community, when we would have it. We actually decided to have it during the summer, during our professional development workshops.
[00:04:05] So just kind of getting onto the schedule and getting started. Kind of letting the administration know that this was an important thing that really would help a lot of students was quite difficult in the beginning, but I think once we got started, we heard so much positive feedback from teachers and from students.
[00:04:22] So they were really excited to kind of go forward from then and make it a yearly thing with that positive feedback. Is there a special memory that you have from your project? Yeah, I definitely love just talking to students. I think so many kids feel underrepresented with their neurodiversity. They don’t really hear it being used in the classroom a lot.
[00:04:43] Growing up neurodiverse, I went to a really small school and I didn’t really understand what the word neurodiversity even meant. I didn’t know if my peers had it, my teachers didn’t use those words, so then going to high school and being a resource for other students, especially for younger students, has been very rewarding.
[00:05:02] Just knowing that I’m able to change kids experiences an experience that I wish that I could have had has been very rewarding.
[00:05:10] Sheryl: I am on my council’s highest awards committee and a question that we are often asked is what accommodations do you give Girl Scouts as they’re working on their highest awards?
[00:05:22] Did you require any accommodations for your gold award project?
[00:05:27] Piya: I didn’t require any accommodations for my gold award projects, but that’s actually really interesting that you bring that up. I didn’t even know that Girl Scouts did that. I think that’s an amazing resource. I’ve been really honored to serve on the girl advisory board for the nation’s capital for the past three years.
[00:05:42] Where I get to work directly with the CEO. And this past year, we’ve done a lot of work with the head of diversity, equity, and inclusion. And I know that they’ve been doing so much work, making sure that everyone is accommodated for, especially doing their goal, their gold award, which takes so much time and resources.
[00:05:58] So I think that’s a really amazing thing that they’re doing.
[00:06:01] Sheryl: Do you have some examples of the work that you’ve done that has been implemented by your council, whether it’s for highest awards or other programs?
[00:06:09] Piya: I was able to kind of share my, my story and my neurodiversity work with people across the nation’s capital, which was really great to see my resources being spread.
[00:06:21] So I was able to spread my toolkit and some recordings of my workshops just to youth and to parents and troop leaders. In Girl Scouts across the B and B. So that was really great. I was asked to give a presentation to the Women’s Advisory Board for the nation’s capital of Girl Scouts. So that was also a really amazing opportunity to do.
[00:06:43] So definitely I’d say through the Girl Advisory Board, I’ve had those kind of unique opportunities. But I think it’s just really amazing to see how Girl Scouts is kind of prioritizing having this training. And I’ve been working alongside the head of DI this past year. Just kind of bringing your diversity more into the conversation and including it as a term when we’re talking about diversity in general.
[00:07:05] Sheryl: What other experiences have you had as a member of that girl advisory board for your council?
[00:07:10] Piya: I would say the kind of most special thing is just getting to meet other Girl Scouts from across the nation’s capital. The nation’s capital is actually The biggest council. So we have so many Girl Scouts and just meeting girls from states away has been so amazing.
[00:07:29] Something about Girl Scouts that I’ve always loved is the sisterhood of it and just being surrounded by girls who are are passionate, but they’re also very dedicated. I think that’s very empowering, just having that similar experiences. So just getting to hear from these girls and meet with them every other month and see what they did with their gold awards.
[00:07:51] I think it’s so cool. And it definitely pushes me to work even harder.
[00:07:56] Sheryl: In addition to being involved in Girl Scouts, you’re also involved in another female empowerment program. The Miss America organization. Can you tell us how you’re involved in that organization?
[00:08:09] Piya: Of course. So I’ve been competing in pageantry for the past four or five years now, and it’s been an amazing opportunity.
[00:08:17] Most recently I’ve been involved with the Miss America opportunity, which is a national scholarship organization. I’m from Maryland. So I can be in the Miss Maryland Scholarship Organization. I proudly serve as your Miss Montgomery County’s teen currently. So I was crowned Miss Montgomery County’s teen back in December and I competed in phases like a private interview.
[00:08:41] onstage question, talent, fitness, and evening gown. And with the Miss America opportunity, all contestants or delegates have their own community service initiative or CSI. And actually, my CSI is very similar to my gold award. And doing my gold award is really what inspired me to start my CSI. So I’ve really been able to take my neurodiversity advocacy to the next level.
[00:09:06] through M. A. O. I’ve been able to have a social media presence and I’ve been able to do appearances in Montgomery County and all across the state of Maryland. I recently competed at the Miss Maryland’s team competition where I was very honored to have placed fourth runner up to the title of Miss Maryland’s team.
[00:09:24] Thank you. And I’m excited to continue my journey with M. A. O. I would say it’s very similar to Girl Scouts in that community service, leadership, and sisterhood, which are kind of the pillars of the crown of MAO or service style sisterhood and success, which I would say are perfect indicators of Girl Scouts.
[00:09:47] And I think my foundations as a Girl Scout just learning how to serve my community how to lead through service, how to, you know, build bonds with these girls has really served me well in the Miss America opportunity. So I definitely. I urge all Girl Scouts to try out a local competition in their area because it’s an amazing experience.
[00:10:08] Sheryl: My Gold Award Girl Scout daughter is currently she competed in MAO and is currently on the board of one of our locals. So I, I have, I have a kinship with MAO also. One thing that I often talk to Girl Scouts about They’re in high school, they’re super busy, and they’re like, I just can’t do another thing.
[00:10:28] The Gold Award just can’t fit on my plate. Especially using your platform at MAO and the Gold Award, how can you encourage Girl Scouts to do their Gold Award and understand that you can complement other activities that you’re in?
[00:10:44] Piya: I had already started my school’s affinity group before I had even thought about doing my gold award.
[00:10:51] So it kind of just really went along well for me. And when deciding what to do with my gold award, it’s definitely a daunting task. When you haven’t even started it, just going in and writing your proposal. But I really sat down and Thought of all the things I was passionate about, all the things I was already involved in and then kind of issues I saw in my community that I wanted to be someone who could fix those or help make those better.
[00:11:16] So I really just had to kind of sit down and think, and I realized pretty quickly that neurodiversity advocacy was my passion and it’s something I wanted to continue doing. I think that all Girl Scouts. I think that Girl Scouts is a really great platform for kind of figuring out what you love doing.
[00:11:34] So I think I’d already kind of developed my passion for neurodiversity advocacy. So I did my silver award and my bronze awards so many years ago, but I could already kind of see my passions forming from there. So I would just look back to maybe your favorite patches that you did or, you know, Your silver and bronze awards that you did and see what you did there and see how you can build upon that.
[00:11:56] But I was just very lucky that I’ve been able to kind of have a 4 or 5 year impact on my project, even though I really only submitted like that 1, my 1 junior year for my project. So I would say that just kind of going back and looking it’s definitely looks like a big task, but I think that it’s.
[00:12:15] Something that’s really worthwhile in being a Girl Scout Gold Award. Just there’s so many amazing opportunities to meet the other girls and to apply for scholarship. So it’s very rewarding. So I would definitely urge girls to just at least try it out. If they want to.
[00:12:30] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout memories do you have to share?
[00:12:32] Piya: I always loved selling cookies when I was a little girl. I just love doing that. I love to cook and bake. I’m always in the kitchen when I’m not, you know, preparing for a pageant. And so I just loved that. I’ve always been very entrepreneurial. I’ll be heading to college in the fall. Fall at UNC Chapel Hill, and I plan to major in business and entrepreneurship, and I truly believe that my passion for entrepreneurship started when I was selling cookies and having to just learn how to market and have a business pitch has definitely served me well.
[00:13:08] I think It’s something that everyone needs to know in their life, no matter what they’re doing. So I have so many fond memories of that.
[00:13:16] Sheryl: How did MAO help you with your Gold Award project?
[00:13:21] Piya: MAO, I think, really pushed me on my Gold Award project when I was initially starting my journey with MAO and starting my community service initiative, although I had already Starting Minor Diversity Advocacy, I believe that MAO really, I really took it to the next level with that, so I feel that really impacted my Gold Award.
[00:13:45] I was able to have a national impact. I was able to have an impact on social media, on the Miss Maryland stage. I think that pageantry is such a diverse audience. So getting to go to the pageant and meet all the judges and all the girls and then spread my gold award, spread my neurodiversity advocacy with them has been really great.
[00:14:07] I think that the Miss America opportunity just presents so many opportunities in itself. I was able to give public comments at a Maryland State Board of Education meeting as Miss Montgomery County’s teen, where I talked about my neurodiversity advocacy. I was able to receive a proclamation from Governor Wes Moore.
[00:14:25] And I partnered with the Montgomery County Public Library Systems. I love to say that the MAO crown is a crown of opportunities and it’s really never ending. And I think that alongside my gold award has just been such an amazing combination and my gold award has just gone so much farther into the next level because of MAO.
[00:14:44] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:14:47] Piya: Yeah, I just would love to urge all girls to try out MAO to try out their gold award. I think that’s something that’s really served me well just in my life is going to college already knowing my passions, what I want to major in that has been so helpful through this whole process.
[00:15:05] And I really credit that to my Kind of upbringing in my childhood in Girl Scouts. So just get out in your communities and try new things. Try out all the different patches. Just go for your gold award. You never know you might do a project that could turn into something bigger than you’ve ever thought of.
[00:15:24] So, I mean, just try new things. I think that the Miss America opportunity has really opened up my eyes to so many new experiences. So, I’ve really learned to just take every opportunity to always reach out to people. Just email them and you never know, they might email you back. So, I’ve just had, I’ve been blessed to have many amazing opportunities because of this network.
[00:15:47] So, I would just love to see other girls also get helped by it too.
[00:15:51] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:15:53] Piya: I make my s’mores. So I remember going to a Girl Scout camp when I was a kid and we made s’mores with Girl Scout cookies in them and they were so, so good. So whenever it’s Girl Scout cookie season, I love to kind of try out that combination.
[00:16:07] I feel like you could use any of the cookies. I think it works out. But yeah.
[00:16:11] Sheryl: Well, thank you for joining us today.
[00:16:13] Piya: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:16:15] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released. Power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:16:25] Walter: Thank you for listening.
[00:16:26] If you’d like to be on the show to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com. Be sure to catch up on our previous shows on any of your favorite podcasting platforms, as well as view the full video versions at youtube.com/SherylMRobinson.
[00:16:48] Thanks again for listening. And we’ll see you next time.