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 Madalyn with us. Hi, Madalyn can you tell us about your girl scout gold or project?
[00:00:23] Madalyn: [00:00:23] Oh, I’ll be happy to. So I’ve been doing robotics and I’ve been a really big, I guess, advocate and enthusiast of stem for the last few years. I started in robotics in sixth grade.
[00:00:32]And I’ve been continuing through it so far and I definitely want to become an engineer in the future. And that’s why I decided to do my gold award project on specifically stem and more specifically empowering more women to go into stem. It’s been a pretty controversial. Topic in the past few years, especially with seven becoming such a big topic.
[00:00:48] And I think it’s really unfortunate, the huge gender gap of within stem. So it was really, my primary goal is to help inspire more girls to pursue stem, especially at a young, younger age and specifically for the underrepresented and underserved. So my golden ward project basically was the whole goal was bridging the stem gender gap and it was a multi-phased project to benefit all the local communities here in San Diego, as well as being.
[00:01:13] Students globally, who I’ve been working with for the past, I guess, few months. So I started off basically by organizing multiple events with my robotics team and my sweet next clubs. My sweet club is basically the society of women engineers, and we organized multiple events would kind of, I guess, help to inspire local girls.
[00:01:29] And for example, one of them was called the girls in the inspiration day, where we impacted over 100 girls and their parents by having work on different engineering projects, teaching them entering college. And being able to have the chance to do like hands-on experiments and projects, which was really cool.
[00:01:44] And then we hosted multiple first Lego league, junior, junior expos. I organize them and we also did multiple first Lego league, actual competitions and mentors. So that was really exciting. And then actually one of, I guess the main aspects of my go to work project was actually traveling down to Paraguay, which is a country in south America where I was able to meet one of the first Lego league teams.
[00:02:04] I had been mentoring and actually hosts a first Lego league or first tech challenge scrimmage down there, which is really incredible. And yeah, so I also did some work some political work. We went up to Sacramento with me and my mom, and we talked to some politicians about multiple different stem bills and rights and stuff, which is really.
[00:02:21] And I guess that sums up my entire gold award project.
[00:02:24] Sheryl: [00:02:24] For those who aren’t familiar, what is first robotics?
[00:02:27] Madalyn: [00:02:27] So first basically is a youth stem organization, which has multiple levels of competition from students or for students from pre-K all the way up to high school. And even after high school. And it basically just allows you to, into, to create robotics teams.
[00:02:40] Sheryl: [00:02:40] How did you make the connection to Paraguay and what was it like traveling down there and implementing first robotics down there?
[00:02:47] Madalyn: [00:02:47] In today’s day and age I think basically everyone’s on social media you know, on Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and actually I was just browsing through social media and. I found a team called tomorrow, which is actually in Texas, their first tech challenge team.
[00:03:02] And we saw that they were working with this first Lego league team down in Paraguay. And I was really interested. So I, you know, I reached out to them, talk to them and they needed a mentor or they needed some advice. So I decided, Hey, why don’t I, how about this team? I have a few years of experience under my belt.
[00:03:15] And I guess the rest is history. I’ve been working them with, well, I’ve been working with them for about two years now, a little more than two years. Okay. It was really great being able to travel and see them. We traveled. In 2019 during Thanksgiving break. And we went down the paragraph, we were there for almost a week and we were able to spend time with the team and actually also do some like tourist attractions.
[00:03:37] We saw like, well, has he falls and stuff, but it was really great being able to meet them and physically see them in person and talk to them about their team, about what they’re learning and actually start, we’re trying to start a society of women engineers club down in Paraguay, which is really incredible.
[00:03:50] Sheryl: [00:03:50] Society of women engineers. You also were able to be the keynote for their large national conference. Is it national or international conference? What was that experience like?
[00:04:02] Madalyn: [00:04:02] So I’ve been multiple different events with sweet next, and I guess one of the most memorable. Memorable ones was when I was the keynote speaker for a sweet local event for all of San Diego.
[00:04:12] And we had like over like 400 people there. And I was able to talk about my experience growing up and wanting to pursue stem and talking about like mentorships, my role models. Any hardships I face, which obviously I do believe I have faced multiple hardships, I guess, growing up and having, you know, Being in a male dominated field, which was really crazy.
[00:04:32]But yeah, so that was pretty cool. And I also got a chance to speak about first robotics at their international conference, which was called we 20 and Britisher, but it’s really great.
[00:04:42] Sheryl: [00:04:42] So worked with a school in San Diego that has very low income students. Can you tell us about that?
[00:04:49] Madalyn: [00:04:49] I worked with a school called Wilson middle school and they’re part of the inner cities
[00:04:53]fundraising and not a lot of resources that most schools have, and it’s actually the way that we made the connection. It was really cool. My mom actually went to that school when she was younger back in the day. And it was just really cool being able to go to the school and reach out and try to help them.
[00:05:07] So I was able to start there. First robotics program there. And it started off with like maybe seven or eight boys who came to the class and we should check it out. And we were able to start a team with a couple of kids, and it’s been what, a little bit more than two and a half years now. And the program has tripled in size and a third of the students are participating are actually female, which is really encouraging.
[00:05:30]And they’re basically the say self-sustaining now, which is they’re able to do their own fundraising. They don’t really need as much mentorship anymore and they’re just constantly growing. So it’s really great to see the progression over the last few months and I help they continue and to keep growing.
[00:05:43] Sheryl: [00:05:43] And just like women are a minority in the engineering fields.
[00:05:47] Those students at that school wouldn’t have had the opportunities either. If you hadn’t been able to help them get their thinking back on your goal to word project. What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
[00:05:58] Madalyn: [00:05:58] There’s really no like instructions or guidelines to doing any of this. You kind of just got to jump head in and just be confident and really just try your best and give it your all a lot of events that I had to organize and basically lead.
[00:06:09] I really, it was my first experience, like, you know, leading events and like working with large groups of people and a bunch of different people from different, I guess, groups and communities. You know, I was working with students who mostly spoke Spanish and I maybe have like two years of high school Spanish under my belt.
[00:06:23] So it was little bit difficult. And even in Paraguay, I was working with students who spoke very, very little English. So there’s a lot of hardships and a lot of setbacks, but I think just being able to be determined and. I guess be confident in what you’re working in and know that you’re heading towards a higher goal is really important.
[00:06:39] And if I were to give advice to anyone who’s starting to, I guess, starting to go to ward of just really have a lot of determination because. Hit roadblocks. And it’s just important to focus on your main goal and just keep working on it. Cause every, every little step makes a big difference.
[00:06:55] Sheryl: [00:06:55] And what is a favorite memory from your project?
[00:06:58] Madalyn: [00:06:58] Working with the first Lego league team, mentoring them, who was primarily girls and actually went to one of my old elementary schools and I was doing a normal, like mentorship meeting with them, talking to them. You know, the competition, et cetera. And afterwards my team, our robotics team, we have posters and I gave them a couple of posters and I was about to leave the door and they walked up to me and they were like, Madeline, can we have your signature?
[00:07:21] And I thought it was so funny, cause I’m not a celebrity or anything, but it was really adorable that they wanted my signature just to remember me. And I thought that was really incredible. And it made me feel like I was making a really big impact in all these.
[00:07:32] Sheryl: [00:07:32] How many hours did you put into your project?
[00:07:34] Madalyn: [00:07:34] Around 419 hours into my go to work project. And honestly, it sounds like a lot of hours, but looking back, it really didn’t feel that like that many hours. Cause I was just really passionate about my project and it just felt like something I really enjoyed doing it.
[00:07:48] Sheryl: [00:07:48] You are a rising senior and you received your award last spring, which means you were, were you a sophomore you finished or?
[00:07:58]Madalyn: [00:07:58] It was like right towards the end of my sophomore year.
[00:08:00] Sheryl: [00:08:00] Right which is very early for many gold award, completely eligible, but very early for many gold ward girl Scouts, especially with a project as large as yours. How do you think that doing it that early in high school impacted your project
[00:08:15] Madalyn: [00:08:15] As a rising senior,
[00:08:16] that was a little bit younger when I started my project and I definitely was a little bit more timid than I am right now. You know, I was an underclassmen at the time. And I couldn’t drive. That was a big one. I couldn’t drive. So shout out to my mom for being, you know, like, like Uber everywhere. And yeah.
[00:08:35] It did make it a little bit more difficult just because, you know, I don’t have as much connections as I do now. I didn’t have any other girl Scouts around me who were working on their goals, go toward girl Scouts, because I do have quite a few friends who are in my grade who were also girl Scouts. So yeah, it was, I will say it was a little bit more difficult than it would have been if I started my go to word now, but I don’t think if I wouldn’t be do it, I would’ve kept it the same because I think it was really great being able to work on it my sophomore year, because.
[00:09:00] First of all junior year is very difficult and even senior years tend to be really difficult. So I had a little bit more time on my hands and it was really great. Cause I think just the product itself helped me break out of my shell a little bit to make me the person I am right now. And in general, for those out there who are interested in starting their project a little bit early, honestly, I would say go for it.
[00:09:18]Cause there’s only one way to know whether it’s gonna work or not investors trying it out. So honestly, if you’re interested in starting it your senior year, I mean sophomore year. I commend you.
[00:09:28] Sheryl: [00:09:28] And so finishing last spring, you weren’t is as impacted by the pandemic for your gold award project. As other girls were, that were in the midst of their projects.
[00:09:40] However, you did take. The work that you were doing and you pivoted, can you tell us about some of your activities that you did during the pandemic?
[00:09:48] Madalyn: [00:09:48] And I got pretty lucky with being able to start and almost finished my my gold award project before that pandemic. But I think the big thing with your gold award, it’s not just something that you do for the award.
[00:09:59] It’s something that you start and honestly just continue and. Like I said before, stem has been a really big part of my life and it’s, I just wanted to continue it during, during the pandemic, because it was, I think I was stuck at home right there wasn’t much I can do, you know, you want it to be safe, not going outside.
[00:10:15] And I decided with all the technology that we have nowadays with, you know, computers and like zoom and Microsoft teams and FaceTime and social media. I wanted to turn it into a good thing, which I know, especially when the pandemic started, it was definitely a really negative thing. And it was really, I just, just sat a nigga depressing.
[00:10:33]So I decided to host and basically do a bunch of virtual events that we normally did in Parson. And we realized, or I realized while doing these events virtually, I was able to reach a much wider audience and honestly, A bigger impact than I was making in person. And it was really incredible. And that kind of also incorporates the whole global aspect of my project.
[00:10:54] I was able to reach out to more teams globally, reach out to more teams that I wouldn’t normally get to reach out to. Especially if I was doing it local and I was able to continue a lot of political advocacy. As well as do a bunch of different career series a big event than we normally did before was our stem career series, where we would showcase a bunch of different stem careers.
[00:11:13] And we normally did it in person locally with my team, and we’re able to do it virtually this year, which was really incredible. We able to get participants and audience members from Paraguay Ben in Mexico, basically all of them. So it was really, really great.
[00:11:26] Sheryl: [00:11:26] So I found you through your Instagram account.
[00:11:29] Which is also how you often share about some of these virtual events. Can you tell us about your Instagram account and the experience that you’ve had there?
[00:11:37] Madalyn: [00:11:37] So my Instagram account it’s called gold award girl scout or gold award girl scout engineering girl scout it sounded like that. It’s pretty long, but I think it’s just really great being able to use like the online resources like Instagram, just to be able to document everything I’ve been doing.
[00:11:50] It kind of started off as like a really small account where I was just documenting, you know, the steps I took to doing my girl to ward girl scout. The really fun, different stem events that I was doing. And it also kind of worked as like a networking tool. I met a lot of really cool women engineers or other really cool and important figures who also became my mentors in life via this Instagram account.
[00:12:12] And honestly, it’s probably one of the best resources that I. Throughout my entire belt award. So for girls who are starting their gold award, maybe even already started, are planning on starting it soon. I highly recommend having an Instagram account just to, I guess, document all of your work towards your daughter or girl scout or your go to word.
[00:12:29] And just, it’s really great being able to look back on everything, because especially now that I’ve finished it, it’s just really cool seeing, I guess, where I started and where it ended. Because honestly, when I started it, I had no idea how it was going to go. I didn’t. Where was he going to end? I didn’t know if I was going to do all these events.
[00:12:45] Honestly, a lot of it was pretty spontaneous and it’s just really great being able to look back.
[00:12:48] Sheryl: [00:12:48] Can you tell us about your other girl scout activities?
[00:12:51]Madalyn: [00:12:51] Prior to doing my gold award, I actually got my bronze and silver award, which was pretty cool. And I did those also kind of stem based slash engineering based. So that was really, those are really cool.
[00:13:00] And even. Now that I finished my go to work. I’ve been able to work specifically with a lot of local girl scout troops, which is really incredible. I do a lot of coding and engineering on my own time as well as with my sweet next club. Cause a few of my other members are also girl Scouts and we’re able to.
[00:13:15] Almost like these like clinics or slash works option shops were able to work with girl scout troops to help them earn different stem badges, which is just one of my favorite things to do, because it’s really great to see these girls interested in stem and kind of get a taste for it for the first time.
[00:13:29] Sheryl: [00:13:29] You also had an opportunity to do something that a lot of troops I think are on their wishlist sometimes.
[00:13:35] And that is one of your bridging ceremonies was with the golden gate bridge. Can you tell us about that experience?
[00:13:41] Madalyn: [00:13:41] There was a few years ago. So I actually got a chance to go up to the golden gate bridge, to bridge from junior to cadet. And it was, it was a trip with me and my mom, as well as the current trip I was with at the time.
[00:13:50] And it was just really cool. I got to go up there to San Francisco. Maybe like my second time up in San Francisco, the first time I was like a lot younger. So I didn’t know. I didn’t really remember it. So it was just really great being able to travel with my troop and just be able to bridge. And it was cool.
[00:14:04] Cause you got to meet a lot of the other girl Scouts in like California. And even like outside of California, there was a bunch of like really big meeting grades and there’s a bunch of just like. I guess events and like booths and stuff like that. And it was just really cool being able to network with all the other girls Scouts and stuff.
[00:14:20] Sheryl: [00:14:20] Earlier briefly mentioned that you’re going to go to school for engineering.
[00:14:25] Can you tell us about your future plans?
[00:14:27] Madalyn: [00:14:27] It’s always been a dream of mine since I was eight years old to go to Caltech, which is up in Pasadena. And yeah, so it’s still a goal of mine is to hopefully go to Catholic fingers cross. I’m doing college applications this summer, actually. So it’s been a lot. So I’m really looking forward to it, to the future.
[00:14:41] Right now I’m kind of planning to go towards software engineering. I really like the whole coding aspect. But you know, I’m still pretty split who knows mechanical software, wherever the future may take me. I’m pretty open to everything and I’m just really excited for the future. And it’s pretty cool.
[00:14:57] Cause I’ve been working in doing all these different events, you know, inspiring others to go into stem. And that was finally my turn to actually start looking towards a career and honestly going into the workforce. So I’m just really, excited.
[00:15:08] Sheryl: [00:15:08] And I expect that you’ll be a member of sweep all through your life.
[00:15:11] Madalyn: [00:15:11] I actually I met the sweef president a few or like right before the pandemic and it was pretty cool. I was talking with her and I was the current president of my sweet X sub at the time. And she’s like, yeah, And a few years you’re going to be in my position. And I thought that was just really cool. So I’m just excited to continue with tweak and say, continue with my career plan.
[00:15:29] And honestly, I’m just excited for the future a little bit nervous, but excited.mostly.
[00:15:34] Sheryl: [00:15:34] Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:15:36] Madalyn: [00:15:36] I’m excited to see hopefully all these girl Scouts who are watching this also post their go to word on Instagram. Cause I’m excited to see all the other gold awards in the making right.
[00:15:45] Sheryl: [00:15:45] I love watching the gold award projects on Instagram and the girls posts. It really helps you get a feel for the whole project.
[00:15:51] Madalyn: [00:15:51] I’m just excited and dinner for everyone. And I’m excited for this pandemic to be over. So hopefully we can have more in-person events, meet more girls Scouts, more workshops, all that fun stuff.
[00:16:00] Sheryl: [00:16:00] How do you make your smores?
[00:16:01] Madalyn: [00:16:01] So I actually, I experimented with some s’mores like Freddy recently. Cause I went on a camping trip with some family members and instead of Graham crackers and chocolate, we use chocolate chip cookies. Of with for like the asset of this sport. And honestly, it was, it was incredible.
[00:16:16] It was really delicious. Very sweet too. So you can’t have too many, but I think that’s like my new go-to way to make s’mores with chocolate chip cookies instead and with a glass of milk. Of course.
[00:16:26] Sheryl: [00:16:26] Of course. Of course.
[00:16:27] Madalyn: [00:16:27] Yeah, of course.
[00:16:28] Sheryl: [00:16:28] Well, thanks for joining us.
[00:16:30] Madalyn: [00:16:30] Oh, thank you so much for having me.
[00:16:32] Sheryl: [00:16:32] 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.
[00:16:44] Walter: [00:16:44] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do.
[00:16:54] If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold 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.
