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 Victoria with us. Victoria is a gold award girl scout and Miss Illinois, outstanding teen. Welcome victoria.
[00:00:24] Victoria: [00:00:24] Hi, thank you so much for having me.
[00:00:26] Sheryl: [00:00:26] I’m glad you could join us. Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:31] Victoria: [00:00:31] So I got started a little over a year ago.
[00:00:34] I’d say about a year and a half ago, brainstorming ideas for my project. I had earned my silver and my bronze, so I knew I wanted to try and go for the gold. It was a goal that I’ve had throughout all of my girls scouting years. And I’ve been a girl scout for 11 years now. But continuously through all of my awards and the projects that I do in the badges that I would earn.
[00:00:55] I always felt really drawn to the issue of female empowerment and building women up and especially the girls around me, because I feel really fortunate to have had a lot of exposure to empowering women and successful women that I’ve been able to learn from. And so I feel like I need to help my friends and my peers and the girls around me feel that as well.
[00:01:15] So I knew that I wanted to try and do that with my gold award project. We organized originally a two and a half day leadership summit, where girls were going to be able to come together, come to a hotel, spend the night together, meet women from different professions that were able to talk about their successes in the career field, but also the challenges that they may have met.
[00:01:37]But also just encourage them in any way that they can so that they can chase their dreams. Obviously it was a little bit changed because of COVID, but there’s nothing that a girl scout can overcome. So we just changed it to a two and a half day, day only event. So nobody spent the night, but that did not stop us from having fun or for meeting a lot of impressive women.
[00:02:01] We had about 20 women or 25 women from different careers. Fields that came to talk to the girl throughout those two and a half days, we had panels. We had individual speakers who gave job presentations and all of the girls were able to ask questions afterward. We also live stream them on Facebook and those videos got over 10,000 views.
[00:02:22] The last time I looked. I looked a few months ago. So I don’t, I’m sure that they have more views by now, which is fantastic. I’m so thankful that we were able to reach an audience like that. But outside of all of the, you know, dream discovering and planning for your future, we got to watch how some popsicles were made at a local ice cream shop.
[00:02:43] And we also got to go goofy golf and do some painting. It was super successful and I was so happy with how it turned out.
[00:02:50] Sheryl: [00:02:50] So besides the pandemic, what was your biggest challenge during your project? And how did you overcome it?
[00:02:55] Victoria: [00:02:55] Besides the pandemic? Oh my gosh. I don’t think there was one, besides the pandemic COVID-19 completely made me rework my gold award project.
[00:03:06] The scale that I wanted to do it on and the ways that I wanted the girls to come together and the places I wanted us to go, that all had to be reconstructed once COVID-19 came into play. So honestly, I cannot think of one that is any worse than what COVID-19 through our way. We originally had to figure out what we were going to do about the location, because as I mentioned, I wanted them to be able to spend the night and have a sleep over kind of feel out a hotel.
[00:03:34] But that wasn’t going to be an option due to safety guidelines. So I had to figure out the best way to give them that field when they were just coming during the day, which I feel like I did. I feel like all of the bonding that they have in the group conversations that kind of gave them that closeness.
[00:03:52] But I also had a hard time finding a new venue because we had planned to do a lot of the meetings and presentations and fun things in the hotel itself. And I had to go through about four or five different locations until I found one that was willing to have us for the full two and a half days. So thank you so much to Mackey’s and Maryanne for your cooperation.
[00:04:14] Without them, we would have been doing it. And a street somewhere. I don’t know, a park being very creative as girl Scouts do, but I was really proud of the way that we overcame COVID and found ways to be innovators with all the things that we were able to do.
[00:04:30] Sheryl: [00:04:30] What did you learn about the gold award process that you didn’t know beforehand, that would be helpful for others to know?
[00:04:36] Victoria: [00:04:36] When you are creating your gold award and that when you’re doing a lot of the work, because it requires hours and hours of service, you end up no longer thinking about yourself at all. It completely becomes about the other people that you will be helping.
[00:04:54] And the people that will be benefiting from whatever you’re doing, whether it’s building something or speaking somewhere, or having a leadership summit. At some point, I just completely threw myself out the window kind of, and all of my focus was on. How it could make this experience better for the women speaking for the volunteers that would be there for the girls that were attending.
[00:05:16] And I don’t know if a lot of girls realize how quickly it becomes about every single other person outside of yourself. Because all you ever hear is congratulations. This girl has
the gold award. You’re a gold award girl scout, and it’s been fantastic to get that recognition because it is something you worked so hard on, but it kind of feels weird in a way, because.
[00:05:37] You reflect back on your experience and you realize, Oh my gosh, I wasn’t really even thinking about the fact that I would be praised for this afterward. I just got so invested in, in the process and trying to make it the best project possible. Which I found was a really great thing to discover. I’m really thankful that that’s how it went for me.
[00:05:55] And that I could have that in mind while I was completing it.
[00:06:00] Sheryl: [00:06:00] As you talk about your project and the projection onto the other people, you’re referring to the recipients, but there are also other people behind the scenes. Can you tell us about your team members that helped you with your project?
[00:06:14] Victoria: [00:06:14] None of it would have been possible without the sponsors.
[00:06:16] I had the board members. I had the teen girl board members. Family friends. All of those people had a huge part in making this possible. It would not have happened without those people. So first I want to talk about the sponsors that helped with my event. Heartland, regional medical center, higher level, and Marianne Pepsi MidAmerica.
[00:06:37] Mackey’s. I’m Linda biases. They all were huge contributors to not only the financial success, I guess, of my event, because we were able to refund all of the girls money, which meant that they came to this event for free, which was only possible because of my sponsors, but they were able to allow me to purchase a lot of extra things.
[00:06:59] For the girls that could enhance their experience. So thank you so much to them. First of all. But then I have some board members which included my mom, a Carla Nelson of girl Scouts. And then I had two of my peers, Joanna and Emily, and love you guys if you’re listening. But they gave continuous input throughout the process because especially on the girl team board members part.
[00:07:21] Every time that I wanted to make a decision, or I wanted to create something new for the project. I wanted their input because like I said, I was doing this for the attendees that would be there and the benefits that they would read from this process. So I was really thankful to have them on board as well, and to have that support and that guidance from all of those wonderful people throughout the process.
[00:07:44] Sheryl: [00:07:44] As you reflect on your project, what is a favorite moment or story from your project?
[00:07:50] Victoria: [00:07:50] It was after we watched an empowerment project documentary, which is a documentary completely filmed, written, edited, produced by a team of women. And they traveled across the country, interviewing women in predominantly male careers.
[00:08:04] And after we watched that documentary, we had a conversation, a group conversation, and I had every single girl. Tell me if in your wildest dream, what job would you want to have? Some girls said, FBI agent, Dallas, Cowboys, cheerleader, professional
cheerleader in college. That was her goal. And just really awesome high level thinking, things like that.
[00:08:30] And then I said, okay, what do you think that you’re going to do? And every girl said something different. Every girl said something that wasn’t their dream job. And so. I just found that was really interesting. And it led to a really good discussion about why do we think that we can’t do our dream job?
[00:08:50] Why when we’re asked to come back down to reality, some would say, do we throw that dream out the window and painted as something that’s not possible because. Fortunately, like I’ve said, I’ve had women my whole life that have propped me up and helped me feel like I can do anything I put my mind to.
[00:09:08] So I think I was the only person in the whole group who said that their dream job was also going to be their realistic job. And how do you wanted that for every single girl in the room? And the discussion that came out of it. And even some of my friends after they left the event said they were still thinking about that and that it has influenced them in their college decisions as well.
[00:09:31] Just that one moment from my leadership summit, that one conversation I just felt like it carried a lot of weight and that it did a lot of just making girls think about what they’re truly capable of. I thought it was awesome.
[00:09:43] Sheryl: [00:09:43] Girl Scouts has also influenced your pageant life. Can you tell us what a miss America platform is and talk about your platform?
[00:09:51] Victoria: [00:09:51] We call it our social impact initiative now, and mine is called my girl agenda. So my girl agenda is a campaign that was started through girl Scouts, girls, an acronym that stands for go getter, innovator, risk taker, and leader. And that became my platform a couple of years ago because. When girl Scouts introduced this initiative, this campaign, I was immediately drawn to it.
[00:10:15] I had so much connection to it. I was able to go to camps, earn badges, go through different videos, online different programs, all retaining around this one campaign. And to help me identify how I am a G I R L and I just thought it was so much fun. It was very useful. Effective. It had a lot to do with how we can be better in the future for the women around us too.
[00:10:39] So I was able to tie that into my miss America experience. So not only do I get to experience my girl agenda through girl Scouts and being a girl scout, but now I can share it with the other half of my life, which is being involved in pageants. So I get to talk about that in interviews. I get to talk about it online through my social media pages as miss Illinois, outstanding teen.
[00:11:01] And I get to share that campaign with others who may not have been able to experience it otherwise.
[00:11:06] Sheryl: [00:11:06] You’ve been involved in the miss America organization for quite a while. Can you tell us about your history?
[00:11:11] Victoria: [00:11:11] I got involved when I was five years old. I’m 18 now. So that means for 13 years, I have been involved in this organization.
[00:11:19] It practically raised me all of the women role models that I have encountered every single year have had a role in changing me. And they’ve all been wonderful examples of the women, the woman that I want to grow up to be. So I’m first of all, very thankful for that, but I competed until I was 10 and the princess program.
[00:11:41] And then I was still around when the pre-teen program existed, which it no longer exists now, but 10 to 13, I competed there and I got. Fourth runner up and first joined her up. When I competed in miss Illinois, outstanding preteen, and then starting at age 13. And up until now, I competed in the miss Illinois outstanding teen program, which I can remember when I was a princess.
[00:12:06] I watched Isabelle Hanson who was a past miss Illinois, outstanding teen. I watched her compete. I fell in love with her talent. I loved the way that she carried herself on stage. And I remember so vividly her winning that night. Because I wanted to be her. I looked up to her so much. I was like, I want to do that, whatever she just did.
[00:12:27] I want to do that in the future. And I just think it’s really amazing that now I am doing that and I have to remind myself that now I could be. That person to another girl, I could be the Isabelle Hanson to another girl looking up to me, which is so weird to think about because I idolized her when I was little.
[00:12:48] I idolized all of the team contestants, but being involved in an organization as fantastic as this and as influential as the missile annoy program is has made me very fortunate and has. Given me a lot of confidence and strengths that I will definitely carry into the future are.
[00:13:04] Sheryl: [00:13:04] Those involved in both girl Scouts and miss America often describe their friendships as sisterhood. How do you compare the two sisterhoods?
[00:13:13] Victoria: [00:13:13] I think that they’re very similar, which is partly why I love having girl Scouts involved in my miss America life as well because the organizations are so centered around building women up and having girls connect with each other in a way that will benefit everyone around them.
[00:13:32] You know, they want you to be your best self, but then they encourage you to use those strengths that you have to build up the girls around you, whether you’re in the same troop as them and girl Scouts. Or whether you’re competing with them and this Illinois, it doesn’t matter because they just encourage you to bond together and to share in your experiences that you have as girls growing up, trying to do crazy, awesome things.
[00:13:59] And I think that that’s why so many people describe it as a sisterhood is because. You’re not encouraged to be self-serving in either of those organizations. You’re
continuously encouraged to think about everybody else that is involved with it, with you, and think about how you can experience it with them as well.
[00:14:18] Sheryl: [00:14:18] You are a very talented young lady. Talent is a component of miss America. As you mentioned that not all pageants have. What is your talent and how did you choose it?
[00:14:30] Victoria: [00:14:30] I’ve always loved being a singer. My family is extremely musical. If anyone knows them personally, they know that they can play instruments galore.
[00:14:39] We can sing happy birthday and eight part harmony. So we’re just really extra musically like that. So it was not hard for me to decide that I wanted to start performing and singing on stage through pageants. I have videos of myself from second and third grade marching around on stage with a microphone in my hand singing a song that I can remember learning because the process is always so fun and so crazy trying to memorize a song for a pageant and perform it to the best of your ability.
[00:15:08] But I just love it. I feel like there’s kind of a sparkle in my eye when I get to go on stage and I get to perform a song because it’s always very intentional, the song that you pick as well. And especially the last year that I competed, I sang bridge over troubled water. And I have this awesome gown, but the music was dramatic and it had an awesome message.
[00:15:31] And I just feel like the talent portion is a great moment for you to connect to the audience and the judges and the completely different way. And I feel like singing really helps me do that and I enjoy it every time that I get to sing in front of someone.
[00:15:44] Sheryl: [00:15:44] In addition to singing and being in choir, you’re also on the dance team and you’re in FPLA and you are the editor of your paper. How do you manage all of your different activities?
[00:15:56] Victoria: [00:15:56] I’ve always been pretty good at time management girl Scouts has always kept me busy as well. So even from second grade, I was learning how to juggle a lot of activities very quickly. But I have this conversation with my mom and sometimes my friends all the time, because people continuously remark on how busy I am and how do you do all these things?
[00:16:17] How do you not go crazy? But I just feel like every time someone asks me that I’m like, am I really that busy? I guess that I am. But when you’re doing things that you love so much, and when you. Are at home or you’re at musical practice or you’re going straight from musical practice to band. All you’re thinking is, Oh my gosh, I love what I’m doing right now.
[00:16:41] And now I know I’m tired, but I get to go do something else that I love just as equally. So even though it does keep me busy, it helps me sleep at night. Cause I’m always very worn out. But I love every activity that I’m involved in. And unfortunately, due to COVID this year, it’s been very different and very hard.
[00:16:59]It’s been a really big change to my life that has made me, you know, rework a lot of things in my head and kind of become a new person because I don’t get to continuously
do the things that I love anymore. I used to wake up at 6:00 AM in the morning and not come home until nine 30 at night. And now I have so much free time on my hands.
[00:17:19] So that’s been really hard, but I wish I was. It’s still as busy as I was because I loved it. No matter how crazy it sounded.
[00:17:27] Sheryl: [00:17:27] You have a pretty clear idea of what you want to do in the future. And you have been working towards that future goal already. Can you tell us what that goal is and what you have been doing to work towards it?
[00:17:38] Victoria: [00:17:38] Yes. So in the future, I plan to go to college and major in journalism and. I feel very fortunate to kind of already have figured out what I want to do with my life. I have known that I wanted to do something journalism related since about my sophomore year, which is the same year that I became editor of our school newspaper, which is an activity that I’m so glad that I got myself involved in because.
[00:18:04] It’s just been a continuous reminder every month that I push out an issue that I love journalism. I love what I’m doing. This is important. And so having that reminder throughout high school really helped me solidify the fact that I did want to go into journalism once I started visiting colleges and such, but I also had the opportunity to work for the Marion star last summer, which is a publication in my hometown.
[00:18:28] And because we had a lot of time on our hands. Due the COVID. They invited me to be an on-air reporter for a five night newscast on their Facebook page. So that was extremely exciting to me because I had worked with print journalism before through my newspaper at school, but I had never had the opportunity to engage myself in broadcast journalism, which I was very curious about.
[00:18:51] And I’m still planning on doing in the future. So having that job and. Getting to film things, meet new people, figure out how to get the get, as they say, and figure out a story and then edit it and splice it together. I loved all of that. It was kind of, I don’t know, I don’t want to say artistic, but when you have the opportunity to sit down and piece together, a story like that, you won’t really understand unless you’ve done it, but it’s a really fun experience.
[00:19:19] But you’re also relaying important information. That is somebody else’s story. So just all aspects of it are extremely exciting and I’m super, super pumped about the opportunities that I’m going to have in college forward as well.
[00:19:32] Sheryl: [00:19:32] What other experiences have you had that you’d like to share?
[00:19:36] Victoria: [00:19:36] Well, not immediately comes to my mind is when I was a delegate to the United nations for girl Scouts.
[00:19:43]I was there for seven days in New York with 15 other girl Scouts from across the nation. And we were there the 63rd commission on the status of women. So they have this every year. It’s a huge, two-week get together with women delegates from across the world
from nations. I did not even know existed, but are very, very influential in the conversations that we have about women at this.
[00:20:07] Event at the UN. So when I went, let me remember the topics, it was like infrastructure ensuring equal education for women across the globe and like public transport, something along those lines. But every year they pick. Important topics that they want to try and tackle and figure out how we as women that have the opportunity to be here and talk about this together, how can we leave the UN and then help the others in our community and help solve these issues?
[00:20:38] So, yeah. That experience completely changed my life. I got to go to girl scout headquarters in New York, which was the coolest office space I’ve ever seen in my life. I was telling my mom the other day, if I ever get to work there, it’s going to be so much fun because their offices are decorated so well.
[00:20:54] And everything is just. So thought out and smart because our girl Scouts, that’s what we do. But I will remember that experience for the rest of my life. And luckily, while I was there, I also kept a journal of my time. And I also made a few blogs videos to remember the experience by, but I was so thankful for the opportunity, which was given to me by girl Scouts of Southern Illinois.
[00:21:16] So I don’t know. I just, my mind gets blown every time that I think about all of the things that I got to today.
[00:21:22] Sheryl: [00:21:22] Is there anything else that you’d like to share with our audience?
[00:21:25] Victoria: [00:21:25] I get to talk a lot about the crazy things that I do and all of the exciting opportunities that I’ve had in my life. And I know that I’m extremely fortunate to be able to experience all of these things, but sometimes I feel like I am at such.
[00:21:44] A privileged level above some others, because I have been afforded these opportunities. Whereas some people can’t do them, whether it’s financially or they just don’t have the right resources to find these opportunities. But I just want to stress that even if you didn’t have the chance to go to the UN or you didn’t have the chance to be on your school’s dance team, those things shouldn’t stop you from chasing your dreams.
[00:22:09] And it doesn’t mean that you’re any less capable. Capable than the person next to you, even if they’ve done the thing already, that you’re is your current dream. You don’t have to make it no longer be your dream, just because somebody else already accomplished that. You have everything within yourself to be everything that you want to be, and you don’t have to be defined by your past or the experiences.
[00:22:31] That you’ve had or missed out on. So I just want to continuously encourage everybody to think about themselves in the best way possible and realize that they really can do anything. They put their mind to. You don’t have to be bound by anything. If you can just let it go and overcome it and continue to be strong.
[00:22:49] Sheryl: [00:22:49] How do you make your smores?
[00:22:51] Victoria: [00:22:51] Okay. My s’mores, I love chocolate and I’m not really huge on the Graham Cracker part of smores, but I know it’s important. Like you have to use it to bite into it, hold it, whatever. But I put Graham Cracker. A bar of chocolate, my lightly roasted Brown marshmallow that’s because we, on the inside, I put another bar of chocolate and then the Graham Cracker, I put double chocolate.
[00:23:16] It’s just the way I like it. I want a bunch of sweetness in my mouth when I eat my smores. And plus when I eat my girl Scouts, Moore’s that come in the cookie boxes. I warm those up to you because it makes it feel more realistic.
[00:23:29] Sheryl: [00:23:29] I’ve never tried warming up a s’more cookie.
[00:23:31] Victoria: [00:23:31] It’s so good. I highly recommend it.
[00:23:34] Sheryl: [00:23:34] Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:23:38] Victoria: [00:23:38] It was an honor.
[00:23:39] Sheryl: [00:23:39] Make sure you always click follow or subscribe so, you know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:23:52] Walter: [00:23:52] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by Off The Walter media production.
[00:23:58] Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your goal award, 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. Take care and we’ll see you next time.
