[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 productions.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today we have Jasmine with us. Hi Jasmine.
[00:00:18] Jasmine: Hi.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:24] Jasmine: My girl scout gold award project is an English library and a Japanese international middle and high school. I went there over the summer during COVID-19. And while I was there, I made some friends and we were talking about like English books and stories.
[00:00:40] And I noticed that they had English books in their library, but they only had like a few English books and they only had like so many levels of English reading. During COVID as well. A bunch of the people here at the military base where cleaning and getting rid of stuff and I’ve loved reading. And so I saw an opportunity to help the school and the people on base.
[00:01:05] So I reached out to people that were cleaning and. The friends and teachers that I know, and I asked them if they had any books they would like to donate or get rid of. So I started collecting books and I ended up collecting about 400 to 500 books and I cleaned and organize them and donated them to the school.
[00:01:25] And then while I was still at the school. I helped them. We clean them again, due to COVID and categorize them by like levels and then put them into the library system there at the school. And then we put stickers on them and put them on the shelves. And then I actually took 10 of the books back to my house and.
[00:01:48] I asked 10 of the other girl Scouts, brownies, and juniors. If they wanted to help me make audio books. And I made 10 audio books for the school as well.
[00:01:57] Sheryl: Very cool. What gave you the audio book idea?
[00:02:00] Jasmine: When I was creating my project, I was working. Someone who was in the overseas girl Scouts committee and I was, they were working on our help,
[00:02:12] she was helping me with my paperwork and we’re trying to figure out another way to keep it like longevity and have it last longer. And she had actually suggested audio books. And I was like, that sounds like a really cool idea. and we were just talking about it. And she was like, yeah, you can like record them yourself.
[00:02:34] Then I was like, you know it would be really cool is if I had some of the younger girls read the audio books because the Japanese girls are learning to read English. And so are some of the younger girl Scouts. So it would be easier for them to understand, besides someone who’s very proficient in reading and would read it really fast.
[00:02:51] Whereas the younger girls read it slower and the Japanese girls would be able to understand it better.
[00:02:56] Sheryl: What kind of feedback did you get from the brownies and juniors that recorded the audio books?
[00:03:00] Jasmine: They really love being able to participate in the project. And they liked being able to find new books to read.
[00:03:09] And I think he was very helpful for them because reading, like they’re learning to read at school. And so it was more practice and some of them. Like pick books that they found interesting. Sort of like, Ooh, that sounds like an interesting book. Like I want to read. And so they took the books home after their meetings, practice reading them.
[00:03:28] And then I had two separate Saturdays that the girls came in and read their books and they really enjoyed.
[00:03:34] Sheryl: What did you learn about recording audio books from that?
[00:03:39] Jasmine: It’s really hard to record audio books because how I did it is I had a microphone set up and the girls were able to look at the books and read them.
[00:03:49] And then I took the books and recorded turning the pages slowly and had to edit it together. And I’m not very good at that type of computer stuff. So I learned how to do that.
[00:04:01] Sheryl: What kind of feedback have you gotten from users of the library for the books?
[00:04:05] Jasmine: I haven’t been able to go back much recently, but before summer break I went and I was talking with the librarian and she said a lot of the girls have been very eager to have these new books about lots of different topics to read and when I had originally gone back right before spring break.
[00:04:26] The librarian she actually said a bunch of the girls were taking home English books to practice reading over spring break. And I thought that was amazing and it made my heart melt.
[00:04:36] Sheryl: What was a challenge that you had during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:04:40] Jasmine: Actually, the Corona virus pandemic.
[00:04:42] I had. To get permission from like the base captain and my school, and then the Japanese school principal to attend the school during the pandemic. And then I had to like work very closely with the teachers and the principal at the Japanese school. Well doing my project. And at one point COVID got really bad here that they weren’t sure if I was going to be able to continue going to the Japanese school.
[00:05:10] So I had to get like special permission to like still attend and continue my project. And then once I had finished going to get permission again, to. Go back and make sure everything was finished and ready to go. And originally I was going to have like an opening ceremony, but that was canceled due to COVID.
[00:05:31] Sheryl: What’s a favorite memory from your project?
[00:05:34] Jasmine: I actually had a day off in October after I had finished my project over the summer and I was able to go in and I actually got to teach an English class about Halloween in the library to some of the younger Japanese didn’t.
[00:05:51] Sheryl: Do they celebrate Halloween there?
[00:05:53] Jasmine: No, they don’t. They they know it’s like an American holiday and some of them like will dress up or there’s like amusement parks that do special, like mini trick or treating and stuff. When you get like a card and you go to places in the past that like Japanese snacks, like the Japanese don’t necessarily.
[00:06:12] Like get a ton of costumes and go like trick or treating, like Americans, do they just know like, oh, it’s an American holiday. And like, they kind of celebrate a few things here and there, but they don’t Halloween isn’t necessarily a holiday for them.
[00:06:27] Sheryl: As you mentioned, you’re in Japan, you are part of girl Scouts overseas.
[00:06:31] Can you tell us why you’re in Japan and what it’s like to be in girl Scouts?
[00:06:38] Jasmine: So I’m in Japan because my dad works for the department of defense, which is part of the government. And he got a position over here to like work. And what he does is he’s a quality assurance officer. So. Make sure that people that are building parts to fix ships are built correctly.
[00:06:58] And what it’s like to be part of overseas girl Scouts. It’s really cool. We don’t necessarily get to interact a lot with girls from other bases, but some of the girls I’ve known here in girl Scouts have moved away. And I actually had one of my friends who moved away and then moved back. So it’s really cool because we get to make so many friends and you kind of have to when people move, but like you get to see them again or you stay in contact and then we actually get to interact with the Japanese girl guides as well.
[00:07:29] Sheryl: Tell us about the Japanese girl guides.
[00:07:31] Jasmine: The Japanese girl guides are pretty much like the Japanese girl Scouts. They work to earn badges and they have uniforms. They have the different, like brownies, genius, cadets. They have the different levels. We only get to interact with them maybe once or twice a year for world thinking day.
[00:07:51] And we get to meet up with them and we do activities and stuff. And so if they’re pretty much, they do the exact same thing. So of course in Japanese but yeah, they’re, they’re separate from the girl Scouts on the military basis, but we still interact with them and get to meet them and have fun.
[00:08:09] Sheryl: What’s something that you have learned about girl guides. That’s different than girls scouts?
[00:08:14] Jasmine: They meet up less often then the American girl Scouts too. But they still, they still still do like the same, like journeys and awards and stuff. I don’t know if they have gold, silver and bronze award though.
[00:08:29] Sheryl: How long have you been a girl scout?
[00:08:31] And what other troops have you been in besides the troop that you are on in base?
[00:08:37] Jasmine: I’ve actually only been in girl Scouts for four years. I think this is my fifth year. I actually didn’t start girl Scouts until I moved here to Sasmo Japan. My sister wanted to do girl Scouts before we moved here.
[00:08:53] And when we moved here and I went to There was like a little get-together for people interested in girl Scouts. I had gone with my mom and my sister, and there were a bunch of older girls there that were like, Hey, you should join. You should join. You should join. And I didn’t even really know any of them, but I was like, you know what, I’ll give it a try.
[00:09:11] So I joined in seventh grade. So my second year as a cadet and I’ve been doing it ever since.
[00:09:17] Sheryl: Were you able to work on your silver?
[00:09:19] Jasmine: Yes, I was we worked on our, silver award actually the year that I had joined and we needed, or no crocheted baby blankets for the Navy Marine Corps relief society.
[00:09:32] Sheryl: Joining girl Scouts, as an older girl, scout is much different than joining as a Daisy.
[00:09:38] What have you gotten out of joining girl Scouts that you didn’t think that you were even missing in your life?
[00:09:44] Jasmine: I have been able to learn so many different things. Like we learned how to shoot bow and arrows. We make pizza at a dairy farm. I made friends I’ve learned like leadership skills and I always been able to work in a group, but I feel like with girl Scouts, you learn fun to work with people.
[00:10:05] More than I think you typically do. Like you’ve learned to work with girls your age. You’ve learned to work with the older girls. You learn to work with the leaders and any volunteers events that you do. So I feel like I’ve learned a lot actually.
[00:10:22] Sheryl: What are your future plans?
[00:10:24] Jasmine: To go to college and then I kind of want to join the Navy after college and go in as an officer to pay off my college debt.
[00:10:35] And then I’m not really sure what I’m going to do after that.
[00:10:38] Sheryl: Well that girl scout gold award will help you when you go into the Navy that rank increase, yay!
[00:10:44] Right?
[00:10:45] Jasmine: I think the rank increased, I heard is only for enlisted. So if I go in as an officer, it won’t necessarily help.
[00:10:51] Sheryl: Interesting. I didn’t realize that.
[00:10:54] Jasmine: Although I did hear from one of the girl scout leaders that in college I don’t remember who exactly you reached out to. I think it’s the school. And if you tell them like you have your girl scout gold award, they send you $500 every quarter, semester to pay for books.
[00:11:11] Sheryl: Interesting. Very cool. Do you know if you are planning on going to college back in the U S or are you going to go overseas somewhere?
[00:11:20] Jasmine: the college I’m most interested in right now is actually MIT, but most of the colleges that I’m looking at are in the states.
[00:11:30] Sheryl: Have you taken any trips with your girl scout troop while you’ve been in Japan that have been interesting?
[00:11:35] Jasmine: With the extra money that the, all the troops get from cookie season, all of the girl Scouts go to an amusement park about an hour to two hours away called Greenland.
[00:11:46] And we all like get to spend the day there with our troupes.
[00:11:51] Sheryl: What was your favorite ride?
[00:11:52] Jasmine: I know they have it in some places in the states. It’s like a, a slide down like the Hills. You like sit in like a little cart and you have like a lever that if you push it forward you go faster and if you pull it back, you go slower.
[00:12:04] And it’s like a slide track down the mountain. It’s really cool.
[00:12:07] Sheryl: Is there anything you haven’t shared with the audience?
[00:12:10] Jasmine: Any advice I’d have for girls that are planning to their gold award is you should definitely do it. And it’s gonna seem tricky first finding a project and getting all the paperwork done.
[00:12:23] I got a little overwhelmed by the paperwork. But once you get done with the paperwork, you’re really just like, you’re going to start rolling. And then of course you’re gonna have paperwork at the end, but the paperwork, while it is difficult, it helps you make sure you understand your project to the depth that I think the gold board wants you to understand.
[00:12:45] And that was like really helpful for me as when I was doing my work. I was like, you know, I never really thought about like, Whatever the question was asking. And I was able to like, like go in depth and be like, yeah, this is my project. And it’s like a thousand something words about my project. And then you just, you write about it and you kind of like understand more why the gold award is so high because it demands so much.
[00:13:15] But I feel like that’s a good thing because it is the highest.
[00:13:20] Sheryl: How do you make your smores?
[00:13:22] Jasmine: We have the ground cracker. Heat the marshmallow, I personally, don’t like to burn my marshmallows. Some of my family members do, but then instead of a Hershey’s piece, we put a Reese’s peanut butter cup in there and we’ll eat it like that.
[00:13:38] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining me today.
[00:13:40] Jasmine: You’re welcome. Thank you for emailing you about this amazing interview opportunity.
[00:13:45] Sheryl: 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.
[00:13:59] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:14:05] Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshareoutlook.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.
[00:14:26] That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.
