[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.
[00:00:11] Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today we have Isabel with us. Hi, Isabel.
[00:00:16] Isabel: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:19] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?
[00:00:22] Isabel: My Girl Scout Gold Award, it was such a journey.
[00:00:25] It was amazing to complete, but you know, ups and down. It all started with in October 2019, my grandfather got diagnosed with breast cancer. And so… It was a shock to all of us, obviously, dealing with a cancer diagnosis. It’s hard in a family but also it was a shock to us because We didn’t know men could also get breast cancer.
[00:00:52] Then I started to do research and look more into it. And most breast cancer campaigns are directed only to women. And when I looked at the statistic, it says that 1% of the cancer diagnosis are in men, which May seem like little, but it’s not like 1%. It’s thousands of lives because of how much breast cancer diagnosis there are every year.
[00:01:17] And it’s important to highlight that 1% that is often forgotten because men are often diagnosed at a later stage. They also often feel ashamed and not say anything that happened to my grandfather. He stayed quiet for quite a few months because he didn’t feel he would, he found a community that he could relate with.
[00:01:39] Some people also give into stereotypes that Men shouldn’t have breast cancer. So it’s hard. And if there’s a lack of education, if there’s a lack of support for the patients and the family, and that’s what I wanted to start tackling. I wanted to make sure that everyone is included in this awareness campaign of breast cancer.
[00:02:02] So I want to let everyone know that no matter your sex, you should always, always, go to the doctor. You have any unusual sign or symptom of your breast. You should have regular checkups. Cancer diagnosis are increasing every year, every year. So that 1% continues to become bigger and bigger. And so I started my gold award.
[00:02:28] For called the 1% a human race breast cancer awareness. I started creating social media pages. I run Instagram and Facebook, where I put educational information about my grandfather about breast cancer. I also have entered. Viewed other breast cancer survivors. And so I put out their stories and make a platform so that anyone can share their experiences as a man being diagnosed with breast cancer.
[00:02:56] I also collaborated with organizations with breast cancer organizations, especially during the month of October, giving speeches, participating in their campaigns and making sure that everyone is included. One of the biggest things that I did with my project was that as we know October being the breast cancer awareness month, I decided to declare the second Friday of October.
[00:03:24] As as male breast cancer Awareness Day in Puerto Rico, and so I love it at the Senate has a representative governor of Puerto Rico, and so we made that it’s called law 15 2021, which raises the voice for male breast cancer to reach the early detection and the support needed. And so on that day, we’re supposed to highlight that 1% that’s often forgotten during last year that I did that day I participated with American Breast Cancer Awareness with American Cancer Society, sorry on, a campaign that they had, like giving a speech.
[00:04:09] And then I went on a Facebook live with Susan G Common also. So it’s all just like, increase the awareness and make everyone know that, hey, like, you’re not exempt. Like we, I don’t want to say that it’s always breast cancer, because it’s not always breast cancer. Like we can’t just live in fear, obviously, just make sure that if you feel something unusual, just go to the doctor just to prevent and make sure that It is breast cancer, which I hope not you caught it on time, which is one of the biggest things when going on your journey to recovery.
[00:04:48] Sheryl: I appreciated what I learned from your campaign in that not only is this not as well known, but there is a lot of stigma associated with that. And one of the gentlemen that you interviewed shared a personal story about that. Can you share that with the audience?
[00:05:05] Isabel: Yeah, one of the gentlemen that most, most like shocked me when learning his story, he said that in his family, he struggled a lot when getting the breast cancer diagnosis because a lot of them gave into the stereotypes.
[00:05:22] His father didn’t talk to him for seven years because he thought he wasn’t manly enough. because he got breast cancer. Like those are stereotypes that shouldn’t, like that shouldn’t happen. Like that’s not okay. When you’re going on a journey to recover from breast cancer diagnosis, family support is such, such an important part.
[00:05:46] Optimism throughout all of it is such an important part. So having those stereotypes that stop that support or that make a person feel bad because they got their diagnosis. It’s not their fault. It’s not the person’s fault. So those are one of the big things that I want to combat. I want to make it. Like it’s okay if you got breast cancer, like it’s okay for your man and you have breast cancer.
[00:06:14] Like men have breasts too, you know, like that is normal. They have breasts too and they can also get that and it’s not their fault. You just got to deal with it and go to your journey. Try to recover and try to keep optimism positive throughout all of it.
[00:06:29] Sheryl: You mentioned that you had the law passed in Puerto Rico.
[00:06:32] What was that process like and who did, who supported you in it?
[00:06:35] Isabel: It started with me proposing the idea to the Senate of Puerto Rico. I sent an email and I called, I gave my first idea, then they called me into the office of the Senate President of Puerto Rico. And so I explained to him the idea and rapidly he signed it as Senate Bill 151.
[00:06:55] And so then that went to a vote on the Senate and it passed anonymously. And then that went to the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico. They called me again. I went to their office. I had a meeting with them and I explained my idea. And then when it went to vote, it passed unanimously again. And then it went to the governor.
[00:07:18] This was all a process of like months. I think like nine months it was because the government takes its time. And then I went to the governor’s house, La Fortaleza it’s called. And so there The governor came and I was with my mom, my dad, my grandpa, and my grandma, and he signed the Senate bill as law 50 2021.
[00:07:43] And now we know the second Friday of October of every year in Puerto Rico, it’s no breast cancer awareness day.
[00:07:51] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:07:55] Isabel: Well, there were many challenges. And so with that journey of me creating the law, it was a lot of like trying to email trying to call people, you know, sometimes people wouldn’t answer the email.
[00:08:08] Sometimes people wouldn’t answer the call. And so I had to persist. I had to be patient. I had to send as many emails as I could. But until I finally reach the right person, I had to, if someone finally like answer me and offered me help, I had to continue, you know, continue that relationship with that person, continue the relationship so I can go in my project when You know, sometimes people didn’t even have emails out like on the public.
[00:08:39] I would just be like, okay, this is the organization. This is kind of like their common format for email. So let me just, this is the name. This is the last name. Let me just put it together and hope it works. And sometimes it worked and I reached the person. So, you know, I learned to think outside of the box.
[00:08:57] And I learned to, I learned also that, you know, the person that wants it is Is me like if I want to like I have to go for it. So like I had to continue like persisting and continue like you know, like having that perseverance. And also one of the biggest challenges was obviously the topic that I’m talking about.
[00:09:17] It’s a very sensible topic. So when posting about my grandfather story, I would have to be careful. What words am I going to use? I would always send him the post and the picture before posting so I could make sure that he was okay with what I was posting, you know, topics such as alopecia, they’re sensitive to a patient when putting out like any information I would have to like, think, double check what I was posting to make sure I was Going through the right message.
[00:09:52] You know, I talk about all this. You have to be optimism in the journey, but it’s not always positive. It’s not always optimism. Like, it’s okay to cry. It’s okay to be sad. It’s okay to be frustrated. So I have to also had to show that in my page. Like, hey, this is a sensible topic. This is a topic that also brings crying and mad and sad feelings.
[00:10:13] And that is Okay, when interviewing the survivors that I was interviewing, I had to be careful with the questions that I was asking them. I had to make sure that they wanted to share their story and that everything they shared with me, they wanted the world to know so we could create more awareness. So that was also one of my biggest challenges.
[00:10:38] And then when I started my project. The pandemic hit like when I was like thinking of my project, we obviously the pandemic hit my grandfather. He actually had his operation the week that everything closed down. It was like a few days before everything closed down. So he was one of the last persons to be operated.
[00:10:57] He had a vasectomy on his chest. So he got really lucky there to do it before the pandemic because I know many people’s treatment got delayed, which Kind of worsen the condition a lot and so with that I couldn’t go in person anywhere and it created challenges to how was I going to share my message?
[00:11:19] I was going to develop my project, but then I hold on to the power of social media since the pandemic hit pandemic, social media became even more powerful. And so I just hold on to that and I started doing like the videos. Captions that like videos post everything started to post like as often as I could to hold on to that.
[00:11:44] And when I was communicating with an organization, you know, we could have met in person, but we could have a zoom meeting. And so we would just communicate through zoom meetings. We maybe couldn’t give a speech at an event, but we could record a video and then post the video or like, send it out to people.
[00:12:01] So we started doing that as a way to. Go with what the pandemic have brought upon us.
[00:12:09] Sheryl: What was your favorite part of your project?
[00:12:12] Isabel: I love that I got to grow professionally. Like I learned so many new skills. I learned so much about myself. I have. Then, you know, I learned that I have patience and I have perseverance.
[00:12:26] I learned that I have good time management. When managing everything like school responsibilities my Gold Award project, I would use like any time I had available to work on my Gold Award project where, like, I was in virtual school and we had 10 minutes between it. Yeah. Yeah. Every class to like hop on from one swim to another.
[00:12:46] So I would use those 10 minutes to work on something from my goal, the word. And then after school, if I had an hour before I had to do my work, then I would use that to use my goal, the word to do my the stuff on my goal, the word. So it kind of taught me a lot of time management, which. As one of my favorite parts, like, yeah, it’s like it is one of my favorite parts because now that I’m in college, those skills that I gained through that, it helps me so much now that I’m in college.
[00:13:14] So that was definitely one of my favorite parts, like everything that I learned through my project. I also learned that I love advocating about an issue that I. care about. And so it kind of light up that passion of mine. And so I’m really grateful for that. And I also love that I got to touch many lives.
[00:13:38] I also love that. Now many people are aware that men get breast cancer too. I get so many messages like telling me feedback about my project and that just Yes. That just makes my day makes my month and makes everything like if my favorite part is when people tell me the feedback about what I’m doing.
[00:13:59] And I’m like, wow, it’s actually making an impact. It actually matters. It’s kind of like what lights my fire to continue making this project. I’ve been with this since, like, 2020 and it’s already 2023 and I’m still, like, going with it. So those feedback that I get, it’s just what makes me continue. My grandfather, he’s always so happy.
[00:14:19] Every time I have something with my project, he always, like, calls me to check up on, How is it? How is it going? Like, every time I tell him, Hey, I got this. I got this gig. I got this other gig. He’s always so, so happy and Kind of like making him happy after everything he went through with his breast cancer diagnosis, at least something that can be, well, like good out of that diagnosis.
[00:14:46] So that also was one of my favorite parts, seeing him happy every time we would have something. good come out from the project.
[00:14:55] Sheryl: Along those lines, something really good was announced recently. You are, you are one of the National Gold Award scholarship awardees. So congratulations on that. How did, how does that feel?
[00:15:08] Isabel: It feels great. I still can’t believe it. Like when I got the when I got the news, I was like, Like I couldn’t, I could not believe it. I could not believe it, but I’m so honored. I’m so grateful. I’m so happy has been a very like challenging road, but I’m so happy that I ended up doing my gold award. I’m Ralph.
[00:15:28] I’m so thankful for. Girl Scouts for Caribbean Girl Scout for choosing my project. Thank you so, so, so much. That really is gonna help me out throughout my college career. Like, I’m so thankful I can finally, like, get my education, you know, with way less financial worry. Like, that’s gonna help a lot. So I’m so grateful.
[00:15:50] I’m so honored. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[00:15:53] Sheryl: Well, congratulations. It’s well deserved. You’ve talked a lot about the skills and talents that you built during the Gold Award process. What, what did you learn about with either the paperwork or the proposal or the final report, the actual process itself that you didn’t realize that might be helpful to future Gold Award Girl Scouts?
[00:16:13] Isabel: Like when I first got the idea, like it was a very rough idea. There were, there wasn’t like, there was a lot of things that I didn’t really think about. And so when I was doing the proposal, you know, if you enter Go Gold, it tells you a lot of steps that you have to follow. And some of them at the beginning, some of them are optional and then it goes to you filling out like don’t like don’t skip those options do them because it’s going to help you then do the actual obligatory like proposal that you have to do.
[00:16:43] So just brainstorming more about what you want out of your idea. And there’s just a lot of things you don’t think of like you have to think like. Not only, okay, this is your idea, but how are you actually going to do it? That’s measurable. Like, how are you actually going to measure that? How is it actually going to be long lasting?
[00:17:03] Like, those are really big thing, being measurable and being long lasting. That was a thing that it took me a while to figure out how exactly I was going to do it. So definitely just I would just follow every single steps that it says, because it’s going to help you a lot. Also just getting feedback from, from people.
[00:17:21] I would brainstorm my ideas with my family, my mom, my dad, my grandfather, my grandmother, my aunt. I have a big close family. And so just brainstorming things with people helps you create more ideas and it helps you like jumps out more things that you could do with your project. And also. When doing your proposal, just make sure you have a topic that you’re passionate about, that you’re really, really passionate about.
[00:17:49] Because if you think, if you’re doing your proposal and you’re like, Oh, why do I have to like, keep on doing this? Like, Like, I don’t want to continue writing this, then it’s not like the passion topic, because this is something that you’re going to have to work with a lot. So just make sure that you’re really passionate about it.
[00:18:07] When I was doing my Gold Award, I didn’t really think of it as like, My gold award. It was just kind of like a life project that I wanted to do and I wanted to continue it. So that’s certainly something that’s helped me go above and beyond what a gold award is supposed to be. So first, just make sure it’s something you’re really passionate about.
[00:18:25] If it’s not, just change your topic and try to look for something that’s in your community. And also, don’t really stick to what You said in the proposal, like if something else comes or you’re like, oh, never mind, that doesn’t work, I should do this instead, like, do it, like, just as long as like, it reaches your goal, then don’t be afraid to change your plans a little bit.
[00:18:49] I know my plans certainly changed, like I, like my proposal and my final, there were a lot of things that I hadn’t even thought of in my proposal and ended up being in my final, or a lot of things that I have put forward. One way in my proposal, but they ended up being another way in my final. So don’t be afraid to like change your mind.
[00:19:07] Road a little bit and when you’re doing the proposal, also just try to think of more than 1 way that you can reach your goal. Like, when you’re doing, it’s going to be measurable in this way. Try to think of like, many ways that it can be measurable. Try to think of many ways that it can be long lasting sort of it so that if something doesn’t work out, you have a backup plan already thought of.
[00:19:32] Sheryl: You have described that you improved your time management skills because of working on your goal of the road project, all your activities with school. One thing that you haven’t mentioned that was also going on at the same time was the G team, which was a group of Girl Scouts that were initially put together to help plan the 2020 convention.
[00:19:55] We all know what happened there. And the G team then pivoted and did some other amazing. work. Can you tell us about that G team experience and how that all folded into all these other things that you were doing at the same time?
[00:20:08] Isabel: I love the G team. It was one of the best experiences I’ve had with Girl Scouts and like, everything.
[00:20:15] Yeah, so with good time management, actually, when I first started Like applying for G team, I would do the application. There were a lot like a few questions we had to answer and then you had to make a video and submit it. And so I would do the questions when I was in the car right to school. My school was like, have an hour.
[00:20:35] I kind of like have an hour to an hour away from my house. So I would do it on the car ride. So that about good time management with Girl Scout, it’s always helped me because having a lot of things, it kind of forced me to do it on the car, right? Because that was the only time I’ve had. So I would use every little time that I had.
[00:20:54] So G Team, like since the beginning, it also helped me to create good time management. And so anyways, then I got it. I was so happy when I first started working with it. It was so exciting just like meeting the other girls. Like we were 25 girls from like, United States, like the different states and councils.
[00:21:10] And then there was one girl from Italy, one from Mexico and me from Puerto Rico. And so it was just amazing to meet the other girls that were so aspiring. Like, I don’t know what the word is, but how ambitious, like girls that are so ambitious and like all of their projects, they all had their little things like some of them also did their gold awards and just hearing about their passion with those projects like it was just amazing and whenever we would work on projects like hearing all these girls say so many ideas like they just they were so open minded and outspoken like I was like wow like it just pushed me to be like better to be more open minded.
[00:21:48] Think more outside of the box to have my own ideas, my own projects, my own passions. You know, we kind of like challenged each other to come out like better versions of ourselves. So with the G team, I know we first started
[00:22:02] planning the convention, which I was so excited about, like, I was so excited to go to the convention.
[00:22:06] I was part of the global team. So my team was composed of like me, they go from Italy and Mexico. We were kind of like the global team for the G team. And so we were planning. The kinda like global part of the convention. It was a little event that was a little like to the side of the girl convention and so I was so excited to get to meet.
[00:22:27] It was like 150 countries and there were gonna be two representatives from every country. I was so excited to be able to meet all of them and to be able to like talk to them and engage with them. And then obviously pandemic hit and plans change. But still we got to do so much even though pandemic hit and we ended up doing virtually we got to do so much still with the global scene.
[00:22:51] We ended up doing an event, virtually, with those representatives that were going to go to the convention. So though it wasn’t the same experience I still got to meet some of them and I still got to have a cultural celebration. So we just adopted and we just continued with this billions, you know, and one of the other big projects that I had mentioned about the team was the TV talk show.
[00:23:17] And so one of my favorite parts of the G team. Like totally one of my favorite parts. It was the first Girl Scout talk show that Girl Scout has. Yeah. And so we made 10 episodes. They’re all on YouTube. They’re all on YouTube and Instagram. So go watch them. You’re definitely going to love them. It was about.
[00:23:39] Every episode was different topics. It was kind of about health, sustainability, well being, different things relating to what youth, like young girls, teenage girls want to talk about and want to learn about. And so doing that YouTube TV talk show. It was like we did the whole process first coming up with the idea like we had nothing we started from scratch from zero.
[00:24:05] And so just coming up with the idea. Okay, we want to do a talk show about what what do you want to do a talk show about Girl Scouts. Okay, but Girl Scouts is everything like we talk about everything Girl Scouts, what do you want to focus on? And so coming up with the idea. Okay, we have three goals you want to focus on.
[00:24:21] Like, do you want to make it funny and conversational and we want to bring guests and professional woman can actually talk about what they’re going through and giving a professional and like serious point of view about the topic and then coming up with the name. We brainstormed many ideas and then you seem to be on one.
[00:24:43] coming up with how many episodes do we want to do? What length do we want to do the the show about? What sections do we want to have on the show? Do we want to have like an introduction? The, the end? Like, how long do we want to make the interview? Do we want to have sections of many different things? Just everything.
[00:25:04] Just. Looking up, brainstorming from other talk shows that we had seen, kinda like what talk show do we wanna gain ideas from? What role does everyone wanna do? I ended up wanting to be one of the hosts ’cause I love talking and I love public speaking and everything. And so I wanted to be one of the hosts.
[00:25:22] So my job was working on the beginning, the transition between sections and the end. We even came up with. A little like theme song that we have and little slogans that we have. So just those little things that we come up to were everything. So yeah, that was one of the best experience.
[00:25:42] Definitely. You should watch it.
[00:25:44] Sheryl: I’ve watched all the episodes so.
[00:25:47] Isabel: I’m so happy. I hope you enjoyed them.
[00:25:51] Sheryl: Absolutely. I really loved seeing the G team as. high school Girl Scouts, really taking ownership of that project, you could tell that you guys were the ones putting it together and planning it and doing all of the things that it wasn’t an adult saying, here, this is what you’re going to do.
[00:26:07] And you guys were just the face, you guys were truly involved in the project. And that was clear and appreciative. Has the G team ever been able to meet in person?
[00:26:16] Isabel: Oh, yeah, definitely. At the beginning, we had planned out like three meetings that we were going to meet in person, but obviously with the pandemic we couldn’t do them all, but we did get to do the first one.
[00:26:27] It was in Orlando, Orlando, Florida, yeah, where the convention was supposed to be at. We actually went to the convention center and everything. And so all of that we met in many conferences room and brainstorm more of what we wanted the convention to be, what kind of activities, events, goals, what we wanted the girls to get out of the convention with, what knowledge do we wanted to let the girls with, and so that was amazing, like getting to meet them.
[00:26:57] You know, you meet them virtually, but it’s never the same. Like, you never get the essence of the person with whom you’re talking. As much virtually as you do in person, and so that was just an amazing experience. Getting to be with all of them at the same time together, getting to see the huge convention center that we were going to do the convention at getting to meet our mentors.
[00:27:19] We had incredible mentors, and so getting to meet them, getting to talk with them, not only about business stuff, but just about life stuff, like just about our personal lives, what we like to do, what we don’t like to do, our hobbies. What do we like? What do we dislike? Like, I just got to make them my friends, you know, like after the G Team ended, I would FaceTime some of them that I bonded most with.
[00:27:45] And we just talk about our lives, about how special school is going, how is our curricular going, how is our application of college going? And so I got to meet them not just professionally, but also just in a friendly matter and just keep on that relationship with them. I still have them all on Instagram.
[00:28:04] So I see their life updates all the time where they’re going to college or like where they passions every time, you know.
[00:28:15] Sheryl: In addition to the G team, you’ve also had another amazing National Girl Scout experience. Can you tell us about that experience?
[00:28:24] Isabel: Yes. I still can’t believe it’s this point. Yeah, so I was chosen to interview Michelle Obama at an event launching her new badge becoming me for Girl Scouts.
[00:28:40] Amazing. Breathtaking. Still can’t believe it. Shaking the whole time. Yeah. So because of the connections that I had made in team TV, they knew who I was. And so they sent me an email that was like, Hey, we have an opportunity. Like, do you want to apply? And so I didn’t know what it was. And so I just answer a few questions in my bios and a video.
[00:29:03] I was like, it’s Girl Scout. I’m down, of course. And so after they’re like, hey, you’re selected as one of six girls to interview Michelle Obama. And I was like, what? What? Michelle Obama? There is no way you have to be kidding. They’re like, no, no, like for real. And so obviously I heard about her book Becoming, it’s for Reddit All, amazing.
[00:29:28] I’m fascinated by her stories, everything she stands for, like one of my icons, like I’m so inspired by her. And so I got to interview her for the event that we had, like Any Girl’s Talk could tune in to watch. And so we all six girls kind of like ask questions and had a conversation with her.
[00:29:52] Although I say I was like shaking the whole time because I was really nervous. She really made it feel a safe place that I can. Talk about anything. I really started to calm down by the middle of the interview because she just makes it seem friendly. Like she’s like, she’s just another person just friendly, just kind, just open that we can talk about literally anything.
[00:30:17] So that’s what we did. We just talked about anything. All of the lessons that she had in her book, anything that could that other Girl Scouts would want to hear all of her, her famous slogans and her famous, like, lessons that she had. And it was just like, amazing experience. I’m really glad that I got that.
[00:30:36] It’s one of the great things that Girl Scouts, I couldn’t ever imagine that Girl Scouts would give me the opportunity to do. And I learned so much from that conversation. I had read her book. It’s different talking to her than just reading her book. So I learned so much, like, what she says about.
[00:30:51] Becoming like you never stop growing. You’re always becoming. You’re always like growing, learning different things, changing.
[00:31:00] Sheryl: Amazingly enough. You also have been staff at Girl Scout camp. Yeah. Can you tell us about being staff at Girl Scout camp?
[00:31:08] Isabel: So I’ve been a Girl Scout since I was a Daisy so I was sent from Daisy to Ambassador.
[00:31:14] And so since I was a Daisy, I would always go to Girl Scout camp. It was amazing. I loved it. Like, that was the highlight of my summer. And so when I went to ninth grade, then I was a senior, I obviously wanted to become a staff. I obviously wanted to do, what is the background like? What is the behind the scenes like?
[00:31:32] And so I became a staff, and it was just. Even better than when I was I got to I was given like the badges and I was, I had to like make the activities for the girls for them to complete their badges. And then I had to create the activities for lunch, for dinner, everything. It was just. It was so much fun.
[00:31:54] We, I would sing like the Girl Scout songs. Like we always have like the Girl Scout songs. I would remember when I was little, I was shy. Like I did not want to sing the Girl Scout songs. Like not at all. Like I was just do the movements really small and I wouldn’t scream because I didn’t want anyone to hear my voice.
[00:32:11] I wouldn’t mess up. The lyrics or anything. And so when I became a staff, that whole thing changed, like it all changed. I was the one that would scream the loudest, the song, I would make the movements, the loudest. I would exaggerate. I would embarrass myself. Like it wouldn’t even matter. And so it helped me get out of my comfort zone.
[00:32:30] I came out of my shell. They was just. It was great. It was always so much fun. I cried at my last camp. Like I was so sad that it was going to be because I’m going to my second year of college, so I’m not going to camp anymore. And so it was such a great experience that I just, I didn’t want to leave.
[00:32:47] Sheryl: What was your camp name and what’s its story?
[00:32:50] Isabel: Harmony. And the story, it’s cause for my 15th birthday I celebrate my quinceañera. And so for my quinceañera, I went to a, to a cruise with a few of my best friends and it was Harmony of the Seas. And so I just have to have memory. So I just, I made myself harmony. And so we had a movement. And so that was like my movement.
[00:33:15] Yeah. And so, yeah, that’s the story behind it. The little girls would call me harmony, harmony, like Ben Paca, like, come, like, come here, come here. And I just love that because I’d be like, they know my god. I love when I got the little kids like the Daisies because they will always play with you and no matter what you gave them, like they will always be happy and they would call me like Harmony all the time.
[00:33:42] You know, the big girls, sometimes they don’t call you Harmony, but like the small girls, like they always do that. And so it was so much fun. That’s fine. Camp Staffording.
[00:33:52] Sheryl: So that’s a lot of Girl Scout experiences. Is there anything else that you’ve done that we haven’t mentioned?
[00:33:59] Isabel: I feel like Girl Scouts shaped my life.
[00:34:01] Like, I don’t know who would I be without Girl Scouts. You know, I’ve done so many stuff with Girl Scouts. With my troop, I started with my troop the first day that my troop started. I also started, so I was kind of like one of the OGs of my troop. So it’s always really great. I stayed in the same troop my whole life, and I made that connection with the leaders.
[00:34:22] My mom was the leader too, and with all the other girls. We ran adventurous. I know many Girl Scouts, they just do crafts or like play or just color books. And I know we kind of like have that like people see us as that when my troop was not like that, my troop was not like doing crafts or like painting books.
[00:34:45] So like, of course we did a few times, like I love painting, but it wasn’t all that, like we were more of an. Ventures to we would go camping all the time. We would have various campings throughout the year and we would just go on nature activities and we’d go hiking or like zip lining or like to the beach.
[00:35:09] And then when we were go camping, it wasn’t like. glamping, like it wasn’t just like doing makeup and stuff, like no, we were actually like getting wood, making our own firework, sleeping in the camping tent that we would have to build ourselves. We even had one where we had to like build a camping tent out of like wood and like leaves and like sleep outside for the night just to get the whole like Girl Scout experience.
[00:35:41] So we’re definitely a more adventurous, extreme adrenaline nature y troop, which represents me. I am a very nature y adrenaline person. So I definitely got the best troop I could get.
[00:35:56] Sheryl: I have been a Girl Scout leader. For daisies all the way through ambassadors and my, my passion is with the, the high school girls, the seniors and the ambassadors, what would you say to somebody who hasn’t been in Girl Scouts and maybe is in middle school or especially high school about joining Girl Scouts and what even joining at that later stage in their school experience, what the, that can still give them and why they should join?
[00:36:24] Isabel: Many people join Girl Scouts when they’re little and then they leave when they get older because they’re like, oh, I’m too old for Girl Scouts, but for me, my best experiences of the Girl Scouts were when I was in high school. I had so much more freedom and so much more space to be the leader instead of like, just being told what to do.
[00:36:46] I had the freedom to. Be the leader in that time. So it’s never too late. And it’s kind of just a great time to start because you get to get that experience that leadership experience. You get to break out of your chow with the selling cookies. Like, obviously, it’s not just selling cookies. It’s Developing business skills.
[00:37:07] So even if you’re not little, like, I know you don’t have that cute face anymore. You know that anyone will buy a girl, a Girl Scout cookie from a first grader. But hey, like, you can have your own ideas to sell cookies. Whenever I would sell cookies, even when I was in high school, I would I would be the one like screaming, like Girl Scout cookies.
[00:37:26] Girl scout cookies. And so that was my way of bringing people in and people would bring in. So just you can get that leadership skills to develop business ideas. With me being a staff like that was my best experiences in camp when I was a staff. So when you’re older Yeah. You didn’t have that experience as a kid.
[00:37:44] being in camp, but you can get the better experience, which is you being a staff, you being the one developing videos. You get to not be afraid to sing the camp songs. You get to not be afraid to embarrass yourself. You get to be the one that makes the fogata. How do you say it? campfire. Yes, you get the one to to make the campfire and to burn the to burn the marshmallows and everything.
[00:38:14] And so there’s still a lot of things you can gain. You get to do your silver award and your gold award, which is also a great thing. And those you do when you’re a senior ambassador cadet. So still getting to do that is going to be an amazing experience. It’s going to look great for college. You know, if you’re interested in that, obviously it looks great for college.
[00:38:37] So and that’s another thing that allows you to do it. Yeah.
[00:38:41] Sheryl: Speaking of college, as you mentioned, you’re at college. Can you tell us where you’re going and what your plans are for the future?
[00:38:48] Isabel: I go to The Ohio State University. I’m going to my second year now. I am double majoring in communications and environmental policy and decision making.
[00:39:01] So my aspirations, I want to be an advocate for environmental and social issues. I love television, so I want to do it through that, through media, through public speaking, maybe through non governmental organizations or through policy sheets. Through policy changes, like I still don’t know exactly what road I’m gonna go into with environmental communication but I know I want to advocate for environment issues, being a Girl Scout since I was little, I’ve always been in touch with nature, and so like, definitely helped me develop my passion for caring for a planet, for caring for trees and everything, and so I want to be able to be part of saving our planet.
[00:39:48] Sheryl: That means you’re far from your family. And as you mentioned earlier, you you you have a very close knit, extended family. What is that transition been like?
[00:39:59] Isabel: It’s definitely been hard. But one of the things that’s Made it easier. It’s that I faced on my family every day. Like some people when I told them at the Ohio State, I’m like, yeah, I faced on my parents every day.
[00:40:14] And then I faced on my aunt, my grandfather, my grandmother, then my grandfather and my grandmother from my dad’s side and my aunt and my brother like weekly. They’re like, you face on your aunt, both of your grandmothers and both of your grandfathers and your brother weekly. And I’m like, yeah, weekly. And then my parents every day.
[00:40:33] Like I do have that close knit relationship with them and I just tell them about how my classes went. Hey, I just turned an essay in or hey, I just went to this club and my grandmother’s like, Oh my God, how is salsa club going? I do have a relationship with them and I just face them all the time and I get to come home for Winner and for summer.
[00:40:57] So I’m home right now in Puerto Rico for the summer. And so yeah, it’s been hard, but they prepared me also. Being a Girl Scout, I’ve always learned a lot of independence. And my father and my mother, they’ve always been close to me, but they’ve always encouraged my independence. My mom was a troop leader, so she would go to camp with me when I was little.
[00:41:17] But when I was older, she wouldn’t go to camp with me anymore. So I’ve gained a lot of. Independence. With that, even when I was on the G team that I traveled to Orlando, that was me, that was me alone. So it was the first time I flew alone. And so that also helped me gain a lot of independence that now that I’m in college, I feel prepared to manage my own business and manage my own time and my own food and my own money and everything.
[00:41:45] There, cause I know, I know they’re always. here when I come back home for winter and summer. I know they’re always here waiting for me.
[00:41:52] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:41:55] Isabel: If you’re thinking of maybe doing your Gold Award, like you should do it. Like if there’s just a slight thing in your brain that’s telling you, Oh, hey, maybe I should do it.
[00:42:06] Give in to that. Like just, Do it like just do it. It doesn’t have to be such a huge thing. Like it doesn’t have to be a huge topic or a huge problem. Like it can just be a small problem in your small community, but nothing it’s Actually small, like it’s actually going to help. So I would just encourage any girl to do their Gold Award.
[00:42:32] Any girl, if they think they want to join Girl Scout, like just do it, just join Girl Scout, like don’t think you’re old to join that. So yeah, I would just encourage any girl to do their Gold Award and to learn from other Gold Awards, just to be open to see other girls, what their Gold Award is, what their Girl Scout experience is, and just kind of learn from them to make sure you’re prepared to what you’re getting into.
[00:43:01] So, yeah, and to always take advantage of any opportunity when I was applying to the G team also, like, that was just a message that I received through shot through my staff shot. That was like, 100 stops from, like, cutting the council and they just sent 1 message and I saw it and I was like, you know, why?
[00:43:20] Like. Why not? Like, why not? Like, I should apply and I know many girls that saw that and they just like didn’t apply just because like they forgot about it. Just take advantage of any opportunity that you can get, like, even like most if you’re in high school, like, if you’re in high school, like, that is the moment to accept.
[00:43:40] experiment with anything. Just take advantage of any opportunity they can get. Even with the interview of Michelle Obama, like I didn’t, like they didn’t tell me it was Michelle Obama. Like I didn’t know that. It was just like, Oh, we have a national opportunity. And so I just said yes, without even knowing what I was going into.
[00:43:58] So even if you’re not sure what you’re going into, or you don’t know, or you’re afraid, like just do it. Like you never know what might come out like. I got to meet Michelle Obama. That is an amazing thing. And so yeah, just say yes and just do it.
[00:44:14] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:44:16] Isabel: I just want to say that I made s’mores yesterday at home.
[00:44:19] I was missing camp, but what I do is just so I put the marshmallow. On the little string and I put them and I like them gold. I like them when I don’t like them burn. I don’t like them burn, but I like them when they’re gold. So they’re rough on the outside, but melting on the inside. That is perfect.
[00:44:43] That is perfect. And I need to have the chocolate and I need to have the graham cookies. Like it has to be everything. And if I can get two marshmallows and once more, I think that is even better. I think the more marshmallow, the better. So that’s how I used to make them at camp and then I miss them so much that yesterday I bought marshmallows from the supermarket and I just turned off my stove and I did the same.
[00:45:07] I put it with a fork and I made them like golden with the crusty on the outside and I had the cookies and the chocolate and I just ate marshmallows just for the memory. Like s’mores just for the memories.
[00:45:19] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us.
[00:45:22] Isabel: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. I had so much fun having this conversation.
[00:45:27] Sheryl: Well, I really appreciate your time. Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released. Power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:45:39] Walter: Thank you for listening. 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.
[00:45:49] Isabel: Be sure to catch up on our previous shows on any of your favorite podcasting platforms, as well as view the full video versions youtube.com/SherylMrobinson. Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next time.