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 Abby with us. Hi Abby. Thanks for joining us.
[00:00:20] Abby: [00:00:20] Hi. Yeah, thank you for having me.
[00:00:23] Sheryl: [00:00:23] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:26] Abby: [00:00:26] So for my project, I actually created five lessons about cyber bullying and cyber safety for about 300 students in my middle school back in Singapore.
[00:00:36] So that was pretty, I was my gold award. So I went and I made the curriculum all by myself. I typed out all the questions. I made guiding questions. I made PowerPoints activities, cahoots, a bunch of interactive activity, like ideas to get the kids involved with. So that was pretty cool.
[00:00:53] Sheryl: [00:00:53] What inspired you to do this project?
[00:00:55] Abby: [00:00:55] When I was in middle school I actually, cyberbullied a girl and like I sent her a bunch of nasty texts, which I should not have done. And then I also got cyber bullied myself. So. That was probably the inspiration for me to do this project. So yeah, I was a crazy girl in middle school.
[00:01:14] Sheryl: [00:01:14] What kind of feedback did you get from the students that you worked with?
[00:01:17] Abby: [00:01:17] I sent out a survey to students and then a survey to teachers. And the teacher says that lessons were like really well thought out that they were almost developed as like a teacher would develop them and like keeping in mind. I was only in high school at the time. So like for a high schooler to do that, It was pretty incredible.
[00:01:34]Students really liked them because I had a bunch of interactive activities in them, such as Kahoots games, videos. And it was pretty interesting. So they really enjoyed it and they learned something rather than a teacher just like stating facts on a PowerPoint.
[00:01:50] Sheryl: [00:01:50] What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
[00:01:53] Abby: [00:01:53] Definitely the school, because I would email them and then they would not respond to me. And then I would email them again and then they would still not respond to me. And so eventually. I started walking up to the middle school being like, I’m need to talk to someone. I have this project that I got approval for.
[00:02:12]And I need to accomplish it before I graduate high school because I’m running out of time. So that was probably the biggest challenge. There was also a leadership change that I was not aware of the person in charge of. Like the lesson plans and like teaching them, like, I guess they like switched roles and I was no not aware of that at all.
[00:02:35] And like, I was like, kind of like thrown off about that. So that was a bit of a challenge. Also COVID, COVID hit, I was originally supposed to do five lesson plans and I got to do only got to do one because The next day we went online for school. So that was, that was okay. But I did get to expand my projects a bit more than I envisioned by adapting it slightly to involve different girl scout levels.
[00:03:02] So I taught cadets and brownies and juniors. So that was pretty interesting.
[00:03:08] Sheryl: [00:03:08] What was your biggest personal growth that came out of your project?
[00:03:11] Abby: [00:03:11] Admitting to the audience who was watching her presentation that I saw, I believe a girl in middle school. Like that was like a huge step for me. Cause like, usually I don’t really talk about that because I was really embarrassed and ashamed that I did that, but like the world’s not perfect and I’m not perfect.
[00:03:28] So I had to admit that I made a mistake in middle school and I wanted to make it right.
[00:03:34] Sheryl: [00:03:34] You went to school in Singapore. Can you tell us about that?
[00:03:37] Abby: [00:03:37] My dad, he works for a consultant company, so he got a job opportunities to go over to Singapore. So I started high school there and I graduated there. So that was pretty interesting.
[00:03:48] I love Singapore. I wish I could go back. It was just an amazing place to live and it felt so safe. Everything was like in a little bubble. And like, when I got back to the U S I was just like, cut off. I had culture shock because I was like, wow, I’m not, you’re still living here. But like Singapore, I could be like, like, mom, I’m going to the mall, mom, I’m going to take a taxi mom, I’m going to do this.
[00:04:13] But like in the U S I’m like, mom, can you drive me? But now I have my car, obviously, so.
[00:04:18] Sheryl: [00:04:18] What was school like in Singapore as compared to the U.S?
[00:04:22] Abby: [00:04:22] It was pretty much the same because I did go to an American school. So I went to Singapore American school, so I followed the American curriculum. It was pretty it’s the same.
[00:04:32]It was a bit tougher because it was a private school in Singapore. So obviously like classes were harder. I had to work a bit harder, especially with like math and things like, and like English. So that was pretty tough. It was also pretty cool to see the different types of sports that they played over Singapore and Singapore.
[00:04:52] I got to see rugby badminton, which I’d never even heard of before I went to Singapore. So that was pretty interesting.
[00:05:00] Sheryl: [00:05:00] While you are in Singapore, you you’re in girl scout overseas. What was the transition from us girl Scouts to girl Scouts overseas, which is a part of GSA USA like?
[00:05:10] Abby: [00:05:10] In middle school I wasn’t really active in girl Scouts because we kind of had a troop and we honestly met like maybe once a semester.
[00:05:17] So there wasn’t really that much of a transition. I kind of just like joined a troop when I got to Singapore and. I met some of my closest friends there and my troop. And so there really wasn’t that much of a transition. Like the only major thing was that you really couldn’t sell cookies, which kind of was unfortunate, but that was okay in Singapore.
[00:05:39] Definitely the girl scout program. Is a lot more, they focus more on earning badges versus like when I was in girl Scouts back in the States, it was more focused on having fun and going on field trips. But in Singapore it was more like let’s earn badges and stuff.
[00:05:55] Sheryl: [00:05:55] So in your overseas trope, How many of the girls that you were in the troop with also earned their gold award?
[00:06:02] Abby: [00:06:02] Two others, my friend, Sonya and Georgia.
[00:06:05] So they earned their gold award, Georgia earned hers this year. I actually got the honor to approve it, which is pretty amazing because now that I’m on the gold ward committee for overseas, which is a huge honor that I. Am really proud of. So I guess I approved George’s, which is amazing.
[00:06:23] Sheryl: [00:06:23] Is it like being a committee member after earning the gold award?
[00:06:26] Abby: [00:06:26] It’s pretty difficult, honestly, because you can’t approve every project. So you have to tell girls like, Hey. I don’t see this working. I maybe you should just rethink it, but it’s also really amazing to help girls earn the gold award. Cause I like, I earned my gold award. I did it with no help. My mentor was like almost non-existent I think I maybe met with him like twice, but it’s like, it’s pretty amazing to like, have that help.
[00:06:52] Like to be able to help those girls. Cause like I didn’t get that help. When I was submitting my proposal, I think it got rejected about seven times, but like, but being on the committee is allowed me to help lower the amount of rejections that we’re giving girls. And. We’re just able to like help them.
[00:07:11] Cause there’s a bunch of other overseas gold award recipients that are on the committee this year. So that’s pretty awesome.
[00:07:17] Sheryl: [00:07:17] What are you doing to help reduce the number of initial proposal rejection?
[00:07:22] Abby: [00:07:22] So we’re doing this thing called power hour, which is where we will have like a topic and we’ll either talk about like, Smart goals or like budgeting or citing sources or something like that.
[00:07:34] And it’s, it’s really helpful because girls can listen and ask questions about like their proposals and they can get feedback on them. So that’s pretty amazing. So, and then we’re also. Siding. If we feel that a girl needs like help with their proposal, we’ll assign mentors to certain girls and they can help help them help make edits to their proposals.
[00:07:59] And, help them earn the award eventually.
[00:08:02] Sheryl: [00:08:02] Our council is making similar changes. That’s funny. The, the important part is, is helping girls be successful.
[00:08:09] Abby: [00:08:09] Yeah.
[00:08:09]Sheryl: [00:08:09] With girl Scouts overseas. You serve girls all around the world. How do you manage some of the logistics of working with those girls?
[00:08:18] Abby: [00:08:18] It can get a bit complicated sometimes.
[00:08:22]I think I remember when I was home from college over the break, I did have to like, go do a phone call at like four in the morning and my car, which is pretty funny, but that was okay. Normally I just make it work. Cause we only meet the committee only meets once a month, sometimes twice a month if we really need to, but we try not to none of that.
[00:08:42] I just, I will just be like, okay, I’ll just wake up at 6:00 AM, go to this meeting. And then. I’ll be up at 6:00 AM for the day, I guess. Cause I have to go to class after.
[00:08:50] So if you were to give our audience without knowing. What their background is or what their projects may be a piece of advice. What would that piece of advice be?
[00:09:01] Keep trying, like, I, my proposal got rejected like seven times. Like just keep trying, like I kept on submitting it and submitting it and submitting it. It took me about maybe seven months to get it approved. Finally. And then I had to start my whole project, so.
[00:09:18] Sheryl: [00:09:18] We run into this a lot. I’m sure you do too.
[00:09:20] That often girls and their parents are troop leaders feel like we are making it too difficult for girls to earn the gold award. And really I, every committee member that I have ever met, all they want to do is help the girls be successful, but they have to be gold award projects.
[00:09:38] Abby: [00:09:38] Yeah, but that’s like the tricky part of being on the committee is just like, do I see this being a gold war project or just being some community service projects?
[00:09:47] Sheryl: [00:09:47] Do you remember an example of a proposal that was, that was more community service and how you worked with the girl to transition it into a gold award project?
[00:09:56] There was this girl who wanted just to create like a, a club for her school. And so I helped her by like reworking the idea and making kind of doing what I did by making like lesson plans.
[00:10:11] What other girls scout experiences have you had?
[00:10:14] Abby: [00:10:14] So I got to, that’s a plan overnight camp, but it was unfortunately canceled for COVID. So that’s usually like, I’m not sure what they call it in States, but When I was in the States, we called it encampment or like camp out or something like that. So I got to plan that and then it got canceled, which was unfortunate.
[00:10:30] I also worked at camp why Lonnie two summers ago as like a CIT. So that was pretty interesting to a lot of girl scout events in Singapore. I helped with the father-daughter dance, Singapore scurry, which was like a race around Singapore. It was pretty interesting.
[00:10:45] Sheryl: [00:10:45] When you lived in Singapore, were you able to travel to some other areas outside of Singapore while you were there and what did you experience?
[00:10:53] Abby: [00:10:53] I was actually able to travel to a lot of places. I got to travel to India, which is pretty cool. I went to India with my school. We worked on building a bathroom for, for the school there for like a school in India. So that was very interesting.
[00:11:08]I went to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with my dad. Team. So that was pretty interesting. I also went to Barcelona for a Spanish language immersion. I’ve been to Thailand, VMR, China, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, and probably. Other places that I’ve forgotten.
[00:11:30] Sheryl: [00:11:30] Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:11:32] Abby: [00:11:32] Honestly, just keep trying, like, because like, for me, I thought about giving up after I got rid of rejected the third time. So it was just like, just keep on pushing and pushing. Like that’s like what helped me earn my good word eventually.
[00:11:45] Sheryl: [00:11:45] How do you make your scores?
[00:11:47] Abby: [00:11:47] Well, I mean, I make them a normal way, but I guess I make them like burning my marshmallow a bit more and then putting a lot of chocolate. So yeah.
[00:11:58] Sheryl: [00:11:58] Did you make smores while you were in Singapore?
[00:12:00] Abby: [00:12:00] I did.
[00:12:01] Sheryl: [00:12:01] Did it, did anybody look at you strange or whether you were, or were you with your troop?
[00:12:05] Abby: [00:12:05] I was just with my troop.
[00:12:06] Sheryl: [00:12:06] I’m guessing that they may eat, we may think that they eat some strange things, but I’m guessing that that might be something that they think is strange that we eat.
[00:12:12] Abby: [00:12:12] Yeah.
[00:12:13] Sheryl: [00:12:13] Should make sure to click, follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:12:25] Walter: [00:12:25] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do.
[00:12:35] 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, it was on youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care and we’ll see you next time.
