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 Nadia with us. Hi, Nadia.
[00:00:19] Nadia: [00:00:19] Hello.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: [00:00:20] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:24] Nadia: [00:00:24] Yes. So for my gold award project, I was focusing on the issue. How the celebration of fiesta in San Antonio was not really accessible to people with disabilities and those who cannot go out and celebrate.
[00:00:37] So in San Antonio Fiesta is a 10 day celebration where we celebrate the battle of the Alamo and develops, and has seen to where we want our independence from Mexico. And during this 10 days celebration, there’s a ton of events that take place downtown. And so I noticed that the children in the downtown San Antonio hospital cannot go out and celebrate guests, even though it was basically in the backyard.
[00:01:04] So to address this issue, I wrote an illustrated, a children’s book called Yana. Guan is just a fun for everyone in which Anna wanted the little Kenyatta. He goes on a tour through Fiesta through San Antonio in the 10 days. Celebration of Augusta, additionally in the little Fiesta kits that I donated, I included a Loteria game and Loteria is just, it’s sort of like bingo, but it’s has like a more cultural significance and I modified it to include cards that are related to Fiesta.
[00:01:42] And the last thing that I included in the Fiesta kits that I donated was a little plushie iana-guana toy.
[00:01:48] Sheryl: [00:01:48] And what is Iana-guana where did that come from?
[00:01:51] Nadia: [00:01:51] So Yana Guana is what the San Antonio region was originally called before, you know, it was colonized.
[00:01:59] Sheryl: [00:01:59] And the little toy. It looks like either a horse or a Lama or some combination thereof.
[00:02:06] Is that a pretty good description or would you describe it differently?
[00:02:09] Nadia: [00:02:09] Yana guana is supposed to be like a little pinata and traditionally pinatas are usually have donkeys. So it’s a donkey.
[00:02:18]Sheryl: [00:02:18] A donkey. Okay. It’s very colorful.
[00:02:21] Nadia: [00:02:21] Yes.
[00:02:22] Sheryl: [00:02:22] What are some of the themes in the game that you created to give us an idea of some of the cultural references for the festival?
[00:02:31]Nadia: [00:02:31] It’s basically like we know, but there’s no BI NGO top and it’s a card like six by six, I think. But mine’s different because I had a modified suspension and there’s like a collar and the collar just picks up random cards. So traditionally the lottery cards include like the rows. I dunno if I can say it, the boracho like the drunk.
[00:02:59] But I modified it to, you know, be more oriented towards gesta. So I included things like the carnival flower crown, because there’s like paper, mushy flower crowns that people wear. During Fiesta, the day parade, the bowel flowers brain, that’s the debrief, the night parade Fiesta Flambeau and just everything that’s orient towards Fiesta.
[00:03:22] Sheryl: [00:03:22] You also created an Instagram to support your project, and I love your Instagram. It is so bright and colorful. Can you tell us about that?
[00:03:30] Nadia: [00:03:30] I’ve been posting stuff to promote my book, which is on sale on Amazon or in my FC. And I provided the links on my link tree, but I’ve also been creating like some original drawings for my Instagram, just to.
[00:03:45]Continue to promote other holidays. So I, I did a Halloween and a day of the dead. Y’all had a drawing and I also did one for the 20, 20 election promoting people to go vote. So I just kind of wanted to continue Yana, Kwan, his love for other holidays as well. Well promoting my own book.
[00:04:06] Sheryl: [00:04:06] And so you did the illustrations and created the book. Can you tell us about that process?
[00:04:11] Nadia: [00:04:11] I really took advantage of the corn team COVID period. So before it started, I had gotten my project approved and I was doing research, but then when the quarantine hit, I just started drawing pictures and writing every single day. And so I drew like over. I want to say about like 30, it was patients and to do so.
[00:04:35] I would just reference pictures that I had previously taken out of San Antonio. And so I would draw that looking at the picture and then I would go back and watercolor paint it. And for the story I did research and then I wrote kind of what I wanted. So at first, I didn’t know how I wanted to do the story, but I figured that a tour type storyline would make the most sense because there are so many events in Fiesta.
[00:05:04] So that’s how I went about that. And my advisor, Ms. Grenada, she’s my, she was my English teacher in high school and she was the one who really helped me make sure that I had all the grammar in check. And then my story made sense.
[00:05:20] Sheryl: [00:05:20] How did you go about publishing?
[00:05:22] Nadia: [00:05:22] I looked into many different ways for publishing.
[00:05:24] I was actually kind of nervous about this part because I didn’t learn how to no clue how to do. I contacted a local author. I believe his name is David and he had published like a little picture book and I saw it. Yeah. In a local library at the Pearl in San Antonio. And so after reaching out to him, he told me about Amazon self publishing.
[00:05:46] And so I looked into that and I found it to be kind of like the most accessible way to publish my book because it was. A little easy and it wasn’t going to be too expensive to do it. So I just did it that way.
[00:06:00] Sheryl: [00:06:00] And of course the goal wasn’t to make money. It was to get the word out and share the information, right?
[00:06:06] Nadia: [00:06:06] Yes.
[00:06:07] So my book is on Amazon and Etsy for purchase, and I wanted to put it there so that everyone can have access to the information about Fiesta San Antonio. And just get educated on the celebration and by putting it on Amazon and Etsy, I’m receiving, you know, profits that are going to go back into the project to make it sustainable for the next few years to come.
[00:06:30] Sheryl: [00:06:30] And on Etsy, you’re selling the Fiesta kit. So you get the book, the game, and one of the little animals too.
[00:06:38] Nadia: [00:06:38] Yes. So on Etsy, I have, I have two listings. I’m about to have a third one because I’m going to try to, so little picture prints. I have one here I could see on camera is of, espara.
[00:06:52] Sheryl: [00:06:52] Oh, that’s beautiful.
[00:06:54] Nadia: [00:06:54] Thank you. And so I’m just trying to sell as much as I can so I can donate some more kids for next year on Etsy. I have the Fiesta kit in which you get the, I signed the copy of the book on Etsy and the Loteria game and the piano go on as well.
[00:07:12] Sheryl: [00:07:12] What is your favorite part of your project?
[00:07:15] Nadia: [00:07:15] The book, because I just had such a fun time illustrating all the little pictures.
[00:07:20]Before illustrating the book. I hadn’t really done much art. I had taken like two art classes in high school. The last class we took was my sophomore year, but I guess to kind of prepare for it, I got into those Instagram live paint parties, and that’s, I guess was my starting point for illustrating the book.
[00:07:39] Sheryl: [00:07:39] What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
[00:07:42] Nadia: [00:07:42] Probably getting it published. I. Pretty much in the dark about book publishing. I had no clue how to do it. So to overcome the obstacle, I reached out to how I said the local author and the publishing process was a little bit challenging because I hadn’t looked.
[00:08:00] Before I had all my illustrations done before doing it. So I noticed that Amazon only has certain sizes. So I had to like with the help of my mom reformat a lot of my pictures because of the. Dimension restrictions.
[00:08:16] Sheryl: [00:08:16] What other girl scout experiences have you had?
[00:08:18]Nadia: [00:08:18] So I’ve been a girl scout for 13 years, so I’m pretty much almost done it all.
[00:08:25] I did my little bronze award. I actually didn’t do my silver, but I did my bronze and I kept it with the gold and I went to girl scout camp day, camp camp, Metro. And I would say someone I fond is girl scout. Memories were just like in the troop meetings getting to interact with a lot of my friends and, you know, younger girls Scouts, sisters doing like little fun crafts and helping out.
[00:08:51] Sheryl: [00:08:51] Can you tell us about your high school experiences?
[00:08:54] Nadia: [00:08:54] I attended young women’s leadership academy and it’s an all girls public school. So it was a little bit different from the traditional high school experience. We all were required to take more rigorous AP classes. And so I really like put my full focus towards school and in school, some of my favorite extracurriculars or robotics and transportation you, because they really helped Me pick my major, which is physics.
[00:09:24] And it was kind of random for my project, but I just really loved science and math. I recently graduated and I was salutatorian, so I got to give my graduation speech in front of the room. And what are your future plans? Will this fall? I’m attending the university of Texas at Austin, and I plan on majoring in physics and what I want to do with my physics degree.
[00:09:46] Probably go into research, but also still maybe do more community stuff, inspiring younger girls to also pursue stem careers.
[00:09:57] Sheryl: [00:09:57] Is there anything I haven’t asked that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:10:01] Nadia: [00:10:01] This gold award project was an amazing experience and I would recommend it for all of the other, you know, More older girls Scouts out there who want to make a difference.
[00:10:12] And, you know, I just know that in this process of doing this product, I learned so much about myself and it really helped me in those college applications, just standing out and having that drive to pursue, you know, all these great things.
[00:10:27] Sheryl: [00:10:27] How do you make your smores?
[00:10:28] Nadia: [00:10:28] So I make my smores two different ways, the first way is
[00:10:33] kind of the traditional, you know, campfire, marshmallow chocolate in between the two Graham crackers. But sometimes I don’t feel like going outside to do the, or over a or to do the, you know, Whole process. I just want to quick smores snacks. So I’ve actually discovered this little hack for quick smore during quarantine.
[00:10:56] And that was making us more in the microwaves. I just put the marshmallow on the chocolate on the Graham cracker and I put it in the microwave for like 20 seconds. And I had an instance more so I know that’s not like encouraged camping, you know, girls got traditionals smores but it’s a quick way just to have a fun, smores snack.
[00:11:16] Sheryl: [00:11:16] Actually have been making microwave smores too, because we have an electric stove, not a gas, so I don’t have a fire to toast my marshmallows. And I’ve been doing marsh microwave smarts too. And I love it because the chocolate really gets melty then.
[00:11:28] Nadia: [00:11:28] Yes. I like to see the marshmallow pub pop up in the microwave too!
[00:11:34] Sheryl: [00:11:34] Have you had one explode yet?
[00:11:36] Nadia: [00:11:36] No.
[00:11:37] Sheryl: [00:11:37] That’s good. It’s messy. Well, thanks for joining.
[00:11:41] Nadia: [00:11:41] Thank you for having me.
[00:11:43] Sheryl: [00:11:43] 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.
[00:11:56] Walter: [00:11:56] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media. 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
[00:12:19] youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care and we’ll see you next time.
