Ep 166 Building Connections: The Impact of Adoption Peer Groups Loren Elle and the project that gained her acceptance to The Ohio State

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Welcome to Hearts of Gold.

Today we have Lauren L. with us.

Hi.

Hi everyone.

Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?

Yes, so I worked for the past two years on my Girl Scout Gold Award project and I was

a recipient this March.

I've done so many projects.

I did my bronze and my silver so I knew gold was the next step up and I always did something

that was meaningful to me and another person so I never got the chance to do something

meaningful for myself.

So it took me a while to kind of come up with an idea of something that I was very passionate

about that like I knew I could do as a young adult.

So one of my strong passions has always been adoption.

When I was younger I was adopted by both of my parents and they have been fantastic

role models to me and you know there were some things that I just wish I had growing

up that you know knowing so late in life that I was adopted I wish I knew you know growing

up that somebody else had a similar story to myself.

So it drove me to start my Gold Award project.

I was able to start a peer group for adopted pre-teens and teens in my area up in Trenton,

New Jersey and I worked with this fantastic organization that kind of stumbled upon through

a Facebook kind of group of people that it was I did two different ones people who were

like local to New Jersey Gold Award Girl Scouts and then kind of like a wide range of

Gold Award Girl Scouts people who have done it people are still working on it so I kind

of just threw my idea out there and said does anyone have any connections and I stumbled

upon the Children's Home Society of New Jersey and they were nothing but fantastic you

know I came to them with this idea of wanting to start a peer group and they were nothing

but fantastic they were always willing to you know ask me more questions see how it could

fit them and me at the same time and I was able to work with this lovely lady named Valerie

and she would do anything for a lot of these children and she always came to me and was

like I have something that I want you to kind of talk about with the kids or I want you

to kind of do this and do this for our organization so it was really fantastic it was a fantastic

experience I was able to run over at least 15 sessions both in person and virtually that

way it was accessible to everyone because not everyone is close to Trenton and it was during

the week too so like with my busy school schedule work schedule everything I know how it is

for a lot of the parents you have so many kids that are running between activity to activity

because I was always that kid so I tried to make it as most accessible as I could so I did

both I loved kind of getting on zoom with them too my favorite because it's holiday time I'm just

going to share this my favorite kind of activity that we did was holiday trivia and I had one new

boy that joined but I had a few returning people and at first like the new new child of course was

kind of nervous because it's it's somebody that they've never met before I'm just sitting there

talking you have no idea who I am but after we played like a few rounds of trivia he loved it

and he would come back every you know every time we had something and it just showed to me that

you know what I was doing was important to them and important to me as well and so I kept going

and I was able to train another person in the peer group he was a similar age to me I'm now a

college student but I'm out of state so it was something that I couldn't I knew I couldn't do

out of state but he had so much interest in it and he was going for early childhood education so I

knew he would excel in it as much as I wished would happen after I left and he still runs them I'm

still in contact with both Valerie and him and he does a fantastic job and you know I always

in like if you need anything reach out and I never hear from him so I know he's doing fantastic

you know I will always text him and be like how are things going and everything and he's always

been like very happy but very happy to talk to me as well and very he was very good with communicating

with me and others so it was very I knew I was passing in the long to somebody important at the end

of kind of my peer group sessions the month of November is national adoption month and Valerie

came to me and was like what do you think about doing baskets and that was something that I always

thought of to like you know have us do and kind of keep in the organization's facility itself

but she came up with the idea of getting the courts involved in New Jersey courts do a huge thing

for national adoption month but it's also like a huge day as well there and last year I mean

roughly 20 boxes just of you know people who donated things and things that like I made I'm a

fashion major so I know how to sew so I started making things for it and with like old fabric for

my high school and things like that just to keep it more sustainable and they have something a little

bit extra and homemade in their basket I was able to make over 20 baskets and share it to kids who

are being adopted that month and even to kids who she Valerie had a list of a few kids that you

know she knew we're being adopted in the next like month or two that she would keep and she would

she kept an example for like the following year and us as a peer group we did it all together we

made the baskets all together we did everything kind of all together and I even when I was kind of

researching and setting up the like donations list for like to send to like family and friends

and like post on Facebook and everything like that they came up with their list themselves I did

some of it and some things that you know I wish I hadn't like basket if I didn't know where I was

going but they came up with it and they did a fantastic job and we were this year because I

stepped back I wasn't really involved in it but I received like an email saying that one of the

girls had fundraised over $500 and was making the baskets again this year which was fantastic you

know my project kept going it wasn't just me and stopped so both sides of the project are still

going and you know I'm grateful that they loved it so much and that they were able to you know

excel and see other people who are similar to them even now now that I've backed away from the

project and you know friends and family know about it I still get more and more kids that are

interested and like want to talk to me and I send them right over to the peer group because I know

that most kids enjoy it and I wanted it to be able to be enjoyed by more than just me and everyone

who is already in it so it is still growing the peer group is still going and it forever I hope

forever will continue to grow and the baskets are still growing too and it was something that one of

the little girls did at their their middle school so they just kind of kept it growing even

though I wasn't there as well so I think overall my project was a lot for me to do throughout my

senior year especially but I could see the impact and how much it changed everyone's life who was

involved and I would do it again if I had the choice to restart the whole project I would do it

when girl scarats are looking for a gold award and looking for a partner they often use your

their networks oftentimes that means friends and family you used the bigger girl scout network

in order to connect with your agency that you worked with so when you connected with them you

didn't have somebody to make that introduction how was that experience and how did you have the

positive energy in order to feel like you could do that I just knew that I was looking for months

in months and this is something that you know I really wanted to do and you know many girl scouts

get there and then they kind of just stop and kind of get like unmotivated but for me I was like

all right if I'm going all in I'm going all in and I'm gonna do this for myself but for others as

well that was my main goal and for me I was nervous I will tell you 100 percent I was so nervous

going into even emailing them I was just nervous knowing that like this might be my organization

that I'm working with for the next year and it was a lot of pressure for me to just draft that

email to just know it was like this is their first introduction of me for me it was like I need

this to be perfect but my mentor she I worked with her for my silver award project and she knew

me since I was little so it was she knew how I thought and how I think and like many different ways

that like I would think of things and she'd be like here's how to enhance it so she was really like

kind of my motivation and my push to like do it just do it because I I would always call her I would

always text her be like I found this organization here's the link here's everything that I learned

what do you think of this and she was fantastic but she wasn't there all the time for me to do

like for me to ask questions and to do everything so a lot of it was prior knowledge and kind of

just wrote out notes prepared questions prepared a slideshow even like of what I was thinking to give

a visual because not everyone is a you know look at the screen and be like okay I could definitely

see what this project is so I made it more visual so that it was accessible to kind of everyone

I just remember it was my junior year winter break kind of and I remember I woke up early for this

doing my schedule the Zoom early that was quiet I knew I could focus and I just remember kind of

just sitting there like freaking out and I was like this is my one shot to like present myself I

need to do the best that I can do and if they say no they say no but I went in and I was like you

know what I've got this whatever happens happens and I went in and I was like here's my project

idea here's why it connects to me here's like everything I kind of laid out everything and hoped

for the best and they fell in love with the idea so it really was just going in being confident

in myself and knowing my abilities from you know my mentors and everyone who I had in the

prior to it but even like my parents and everything that I've learned in school I just knew that like

I just have to get on this Zoom and prove that this is project is going to work and this project is

something that the community can use so overall just I kind of went in confident and

gave it my best shot really is it was scary but I tried my best and it worked out for me in the end.

Another challenge that a lot of Girl Scouts face with projects they choose that I could see

could potentially have happened to you also is privacy concerns so you're working with an

agency an adaption has privacy filters how did those conversations go with your partner

organization so a lot of it was privacy and I know from my experience I had a closed adoption my

whole life and I'm now 19 years old and I've learned that closed adoption is a thing but also open

adoption is a thing so it was really kind of knowing both in my experience but I had no idea about

the like open adoption so I had no idea and I really just worked with Valerie and you know she was

very fantastic she was fantastic to say the least and she walked me through like if there was a

new kid joining or there was somebody else that you know was had this happen to them or this happen

to them she would tell me before I went into this meeting so it was a lot of you know I would sit

there and I would kind of talk about my experience and ask about others but it was never like I would

never try to overstep so I already knew something that they might be saying because me and Valerie

talked about it but otherwise I would never bring up something that I already knew so I know one of

the girls was meeting their birth parent for the first time I never brought it up and unless she

felt comfortable bringing it up to us I would never mention it even though I knew and later on like

me and her like kind of were on a zoom together just talking through like things that she was

going through and things she looked up to me as a mentor so I just kind of sat there and talked

with her and that's when she mentioned it so I never mentioned anything towards the group or anything

just it was a challenge for me knowing that you know they might be struggling and I can't really

say anything because they didn't say anything to me and I already know I kind of just took it one

step at a time and I was new at this I've never posted a peer group before so it was something that I

never done in my life so I kind of just you know took every step that I could and you know maybe

it was sometimes talking to Valerie and being like how would you go about this or even my mentor

from Girl Scouts itself or even I would say to my mom like what would you what would you do not

saying a name not saying anything just keeping their privacy safe and like what I knew and what

the organization knew but I would never overstep just asking for advice for even if it was something

that like could pertain to me I would just say oh it's for me and just kind of leave it like that

just just their privacy is you know privacy is very important to me it's very important to them and

they don't want all of their information spread on social media and I try not to and even like

pictures and videos like I would make sure that like their parents were okay for me to post this or

for me to have this or even put it in my Girl Scouts proposal like I say out an email and everything to

all of them just because some people don't want their kids on social media and look I get it like

especially with adoption there's a lot of like things that like people just do not want their

children to be seen this way so I was always careful and cautious of privacy for everyone not

just myself but for everyone who was involved in the project who else was on your team and how did

they help you it was a lot of my family and friends my parents were the biggest supporters and

I was so grateful to have them my mom did a fantastic job with you know she helped me kind of find

books and things like that she was one of my biggest supporters and she was she is very like

hands-on and those like certain things my dad was fantastic as well he helped in so many different

other aspects he owned his own business so he knew more of the financial background and things

that I would have never known so I always would go to him and he was fantastic he knew what to do

and he always had the answers so both of them together made my project a huge success I could have

all the nights that I would sit in my bedroom and sit here for hours on end just like

consumed in homework and Girl Scout work like they thought I was crazy but I did it at the end of

the day otherwise I had Valerie who worked with the organization all the peer group kids I had about

five to ten and their parents as well they were very involved in everything that we kind of did

activities wise they would always be there as well otherwise I had a fantastic Girl Scout mentor

her name was Nicole Wendell and she did a fantastic job every single time something Girl Scouts

pops up or anything that ever pops up she's always the first person I call she was not just a mentor

to me she was like a second mother to me and always was willing to help in any aspect she's known me

since I was you know in first grade when I first started and she kind of watched me grew up and she

helped me on my silver warrior project was one of one of my best friends who no longer did Girl Scouts

after that but she knew how we would work on projects together how I would function how she

would function and she learned it pretty quickly and she was able to help me just excel in so many

different ways otherwise my best friends throughout high school throughout everything even people I

would work with they were a fantastic kind of support system and a lot of them helped

and joined my project I remember one night I have a huge friend group from high school and

one night I was like look I can't come because I have to do these Girl Scout cards and I

don't do like a hundred of them for my gold award project I put in the baskets and just to have

as extra on everything and they were like absolutely not we want to hang out with you we're going

to do cards with you so they they were fantastic to say the least and even my best friend who I worked

with she would always like if there was event or something that was coming up she would be like

okay let me take off work for it to help you and like get you there and help you like you know

manage things and even after the project they host a Valentine's Day party every year and I went

for the past two years that you know I was here and everything and she came with me last year

because she knew how important it was to me so it was just a fantastic kind of group of people that

I could put together was very random and very like not everyone knew each other before it but now

everyone does and it was just a fantastic group of people I also threw Facebook I found another mentor

who did a similar project to mine she didn't do it about adoption but she did a peer group

for her community she was also a college student who you know just went to college it was like her

second year of college so she was very recent to it I would contact her too if I ever had any

questions and starting my peer group like I had no idea my girl scout mentor Nicole and I had no idea

and I was just like I don't know what to do and then I went to Facebook found her and she was

fantastic she really every time I had a question she knew the answer right away and would like text

me right away or call me right away and she was fantastic as well so having her as well as another

girl scout kind of guide was fantastic and I would suggest that any girl scout stealing their

gold award to find a girl scout who recently graduated or within like the past five years just

because they know what they're doing they've gone through the whole project they've gone through

you know getting rejected getting denied getting a yes getting a no and everything so

find them because they are God's sense at the end of the day because sometimes you're just like

I have no idea what to do so I would suggest that but build a strong team that you know

are is reliable and that is always willing to kind of work with you and your ideas what was

your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it my biggest challenge even

before my project was probably the approval process just because you know it's a project that's

not talked about as much if it was something that like has been done before but has known twist

that's completely different I feel like it's it might be easier for approval but I know for me

I did all this work all the pre-work to it all the research everything and the first time I did it

I got rejected the second time I did it I was on like a zoom interview and it was the summer going

into my senior year and I was I worked my butt off I was going to work every day but then I would

come home and just do girl scout work because I knew I wanted to start my project before September

1st of my senior year so I just kept going and going and you know it was a very big drawback for

me because I'm so used to you know going in and doing something and doing it perfectly the first

time just through girl scouts everything else in my life it has to do like multiple times but

through girl scouts I was always even in our like kind of moralton New Jersey kind of area where all

of our service units were I was always the oldest I was a lot of the girls that I was friends lit

with kind of left in my grade so there was maybe one or two of us left but I made it a point

to be at everything so I was always the girl scout that they always looked up to so everything I

would do in girl scouts was my like the first time I did it was perfect because I did all the research

before and I prepared myself even with the little girls I always came in with inactivity or

something like just to be like that older sister figure for them and I would go in I would try to

do the best that I could and they were always thankful that I was there in helping doing this

going award project putting in all this work that I would normally do for a girl scout event

or anything girl scouts and getting pushed back was the biggest challenge for me because I had

to take a week off I couldn't just knowing that that happens to me and like I did all this work

and now I'm getting pushed back was like kind of shocking almost and for me it was a challenge because

I knew that I did as much research as I thought I could and I thought I made the project you know

perfect and you know my advisor went over everything and she looked at it and she was like you

seems perfect to me I submitted it and got the email like here are some things we want to

want you to fix we submit it and then we'll go for an interview so I took a week off and then I

came back with a fresh brain a fresh mind fresh new new goals to the project that I created for

myself just knowing that you know this is going to happen multiple times throughout the project

it's not just going to happen to me once and even like I knew that once they set up an interview

for the second time I needed to be on my A game I needed to be look my best feel my best and do

my best to you know really make myself feel like wow I just did all this work I feel accomplished

and I tried my best I went in and it was after a long day of work and I was exhausted if you can

imagine New Jersey summer heat and I worked on a farm at the time like outside like all day and

I was just like I'm exhausted but I need to do this and I need to get approved like today

so I went in confident I tried to elaborate the best that I could try to you know do the best

that I could just because I didn't want to be pushed back again just because I had a goal of

doing this before my senior year and it was late August and we weren't going down the weeks and

I was like I've got this let me do this so I really went in there as confident as I could and knew

that I did more research to the questions that they kind of thought were lacking in areas and

I tried to give my like best judgment of to what they were asking of me and then I got approved

and I was over over the moon about it I called my advisor right away I told my mom I told my dad

I was like I got approved I'm so excited so it was just that was one challenge that really kind

of pushed me back and I was kind of in shock about you have shared how busy you were in high school

why did you continue to choose girl scouts I was a girl scout for years and years and I really

didn't think about stepping away from the program itself and you know everyone that I met along

the way kind of left so I thought it was my time to kind of leave but something always drew me

back in and I never actually knew what it was until I graduated and I was done with it because

this past semester even being a freshman in college and not having girl scouts kind of

I found out the reason why I loved it so much it wasn't for me it wasn't ever about the camping

because I was never an outdoorsy person so it was never about the camping it was never about the

event it was more about the relationships you I built along the way that I knew that I couldn't

just leave and be okay with leaving to like all the younger girls that I would see all the time

and like I got to know their parents I got to know them it was just hard for me to kind of back

away from that and knowing that they were still there and I kind of left and they looked up to me

like oh that's their sign to leave too you know what I mean so I always tried to

stay as long as I could and I was always busy but I you know I might have not made every meeting

or every event but I tried my best to kind of keep going and projects meant so much to me but

the relationships through the projects and through Girl Scouts itself truly was the like part that

I loved about it even now I connect with Girl Scouts all the time throughout college and you

would think that I always share about my gold award that's one thing I will always share about

and every interview everything they go to they always ask what's your one thing on your resume

that you love so much and it's always Girl Scouts but not having it this semester of college I

was like well this is so different I've always worked I've always gone to school I always had

extra extracurriculars and it was always like Girl Scouts or sport or something that like I built

relationships off of and walking away from that was like very hard for me even at our ceremony like

in March when it was kind of like the end ceremony when we were celebrating my gold award I

kid you not I cried the whole time just like I cried throughout my speech I cried throughout

everything just because I knew like like closing the chapter of 12 years of my life that now

was just like kind of non-existent even though I'm a lifetime Girl Scout now I just opened that letter

from in the mail and I know I will always be connected to my troop but even like troops by where

I go to college so I will always love Girl Scouts but I always was a big Girl Scout and I always

was a mentor and loved it for years so it's hard for me to like not be a part of that but that's

the whole reason I stayed well and I was going to say you know you can probably volunteer in the

area near your college I bet you that there's a troop that would love to have you yes they have

on campus Girl Scouts where I go to college and it is a fantastic connection I can't do it a lot

because I don't have a car there for first semester but I've made a connection with two or three

two or three girls who have a car and go to these troops so I was like I'll come join with you so

I love doing that and I love like connecting with people who are not from my area and just seeing

how the girls are so different there from what they are here you've mentioned that you also did

your brides and silver awards what did you do for those projects so for those two projects my first

ever project was with three of my other like Girl Scout friends I'm still close with one of them

which is fantastic and I love talking to her and we grew up together all of us grew up together

so we all did we all had dogs at the time so we did toys and donations for a dog shelter local

to us we got like food and blankets and made toys made treats for them and everything we were

able to donate to there and then my second project was with another one of my really good friends

and we did like hand-knotted blankets for a children's hospital for kids who had like illnesses

mostly mostly cancer unfortunately and we did it kind of in COVID time so it was hard to do a

project during then if you could imagine but especially for a hospital and we got approved before

the kind of COVID shutdown so we were trying to do the best that we could to you know keep the

project still going and be able to do the project but those were my two projects before I did my

gold award and both projects kind of taught me you know steps to my gold award if I didn't do either

of those I think I would have struggled with my gold award just because you know I especially in

my silver I learned from one of my friends that she was very organized and as much as I was organized

she was insanely organized and I I think my star is that I was her partner because I would have

never done anything I would have never been able to do it but she when we would track our time we

would never track it in like a book or something whatever we had a shared Google sheet that it was the

date the amount of time we did it for and the title explaining everything that we kind of did and

it was color coordinated to like each section and I did that in my gold award and I will say

I was a color coordinating like freak like it had a whole thing and like I broke it down in each

section of what I did and like it was insane but I will say that was one thing I took away from

that project not having her was be as organized as you possibly can be every document every email

you send put it in a folder that's like everything that I did was in a folder color coordinated

organized everything was the color green for Girl Scouts and I just knew where everything was so

that was one thing I will take away from that project but I loved both projects and they both

taught me a lot between I did mine like in fourth or fifth grade like first one and then next one was

like seventh eighth grade kind of year and then junior senior year so I I learned a lot in between

but I loved the two projects I did before that was there a reason that you waited until later in

your high school career to do the gold award or is that just how things unfolded for you it's kind

of just how it happens I was always so busy and doing so much I was throughout high school I was

always working I played club volleyball that was always traveling on the weekends and it was just

a lot and with clubs and school and everything there was always a lot going on and I just knew that

timing kind of lined up perfectly to where junior year I stopped kind of playing volleyball as much

and I kind of stepped away from that so I knew that something else could fill its place and really I

had I had a car now I was driving so I could do things on my own and not rely on my parents to do

everything but I need to go touch and feel supplies I would go do it myself or bring a friend with me

and like I I got so much more done knowing that I could do it myself than not do it at all what did

the gold award teach you about yourself or what skills did you learn that you know you're going to

take into your future now being a college student and networking which I never thought I would

be doing but I'm in a fantastic business program at Ohio State I'm a fashion major but I'm in

a fantastic business scholars program and I never thought I would talk about girl scouts as much

as I do and that's insane to say but you know I have this resume of things I didn't high school now

it was very active in high school but I always talk about girl scouts it's the number one thing

I will always talk about and they always ask this one question what did you learn about yourself and

I always say the one thing I learned about myself is how much of a communicator I always was I always

email and text right away and that's one thing I've always learned is I'm very good with that stuff

I might not answer you right away because I don't know the answer to your question that's the only

reason I will not answer but that is one thing I did learn about myself throughout through all the

projects and especially my gold award because it was all on me it was never on my mom it was never on

my dad it was never on my leaders it was nothing it was all on me so far I wanted to do a fun

raising event if I wanted to do anything I had to make it happen so I always bring that up is

I learned how to communicate and be a good communicator but one thing I will take away like in my

future through girl scouts like all together is they always say be a sister to every girl scout

but I always was like I never understood that and being a sister every girl scout is every time

you you talk to somebody you're gonna find a girl scout make them your best friends always make

them your best friends because they know things that you might not they may know this person that

was in girl scouts and that might be a job opportunity so you have to go chase that so it's

connects with every girl scout that you can and build again building those relationships with them

it will never fail you at the end because I build relationships with all the younger girls and a

lot of them are now like middle school high school age they'll still text me they'll still you know

react to my social media things and they look to me is like oh my gosh she's doing fantastic she's

in college and she looks like she's having so much fun but it's like wow she's really do she

really taught me like there's work and fun and it can be a balance so I try to be a mentor to them

but I always look for somebody older to be a mentor for me I even talk to my advisor mystical

she has two daughters who graduate and I always try to go talk to them when I see them and ask

them how they're doing ask them about like do they still talk about girl scouts because that was

my number one thing over the summer like who still talks about girl scouts and who doesn't so

that's few things that I will take away like in future forever in future years but I just think

they were important to me so I continue to share them and grow that way you've mentioned during

college so what are your future hopes and how did girl scouts impact those hopes so I'm currently

at the Ohio State University studying fashion and retail studies on the merchandising track

I have a communications minor and then a sports communications certificate so I'm very like

education heavy but I was able to get into the business scholars program at Ohio State and I

forever thank thankful that I am because I made my best friends through it and it's only been one

semester but then I was able to grow like networking wise career wise but it taught me like a lot

about business and things that you know I'm the fashion major I would never thought of that

like just being me and my like I like close kind of area like I would have never thought of any of

that but my dream like profession to ever exist and one day I hope that I own my own business

and do this I want to be a professional sports athlete stylist so a lot of the athletes now they

walk this like game day ready carpet and they're going into this event and they're dressed like I

want to be the one to dress them and I knew going to Ohio State would be my like number one in

because sports there is insane but I that is my dream that has been my dream for fashion has

always been my dream but that has been my dream for the past like two years and I will like continue

to work on that but I think Girl Scouts was my like one thing that you know I wrote about Girl Scouts

on my like college applications and everything and it really like kind of pushed me over a little

bit more I was never like AP honors child student anything but I did Girl Scouts I was heavily

involved in everything that I did and I think that kind of pushed me over the edge and especially in

my scholars program the one thing they look for is leadership and I tried to find leadership

everywhere that I could in my job I found leadership in Girl Scouts I found leadership and

that's what they look for in a lot of these like scholars and honors programs is not that you're

smart all the time that you know how to be a leader and know how to you know talk to people

communicate everything so that is one thing I will take with me in the future and for my goals

to own my own business is I know how to be a leader just from what I already know and to grow that

that is my goal to grow and leadership alone just to be able to own my own business and do

what I can is what I dream to do what else would you like to share with the audience overall I just

want to say that the gold award will change your life for the better I wish that someone had

told me that before I worked so hard for this award I did over 80 hours of service and everything but

I then think that this award would be so meaningful after the fact try your best do everything you

can to make this project work if it doesn't work it doesn't work but I found that you know it taught

me problem solving it taught me how to be a friend how to be a leader and creating a group of people

that I knew were strong in different aspects not just the same person that you know like if I

had one person come in and be the same person every time that would have not helped me and get me

to where I wanted to be so having different people even different like even if they're like minded

people just having them on your side that you know somebody that's good with like design and like

prints and everything like that just to have flyers up and like run a social media if you need that

until and like I would suggest just doing the little things that you can do and that you can control

use social media to your advantage use people that you know to your advantage you know

people are always willing to help and you don't realize that until you are asking like oh I kind

of need this advice and they are always willing to help and sit down with you on the Zoom we're on a

caller in person and I've learned that like both academically outside of academics through

Girl Scouts through networking everything that people are always willing to help you if you

reach out to them so I would take away just being a really good communicator reaching out when

you need help and just using your resources wisely they always say that Girl Scouts but truly do it

and you will succeed more than you think you will and one thing my dad has always taught me is it

doesn't matter the outcome as long as you put the effort into it and effort is always key so

just put as much effort as you can into anything you're doing but especially your Gold Award because

I take my eye walk around now knowing that you know I'm a Gold Award Girl Scout not many people can

say that and you know sometimes people have no idea what you're saying until you're like it's

similar to an Eagle Scout and they will pick it up right away and be like wow that's huge

so I would just say effort is key use effort in every place and every where you can do and you'll

succeed you'll have a fantastic Gold Award you'll succeed in everything that you do so I hope that

you could take all these all my advice and create a fantastic Gold Award like I did and like many

of my peers have done before me how do you make your smores I put the marshmallow directly into the

fire and I will burn it and then I will blow it out and then like just the top part is burnt like

the outside typically for me I'm not a big graham cracker person I always use Girl Scout cookies

that's just me thin minutes are my number one but I will use when they have the smores Girl Scout

cookies those were my favorite for a while but I always go back to thin minutes so I do the thin

minutes because I already had chocolate on it and I just put the marshmallow inside and that's

why I sport but I still do that I freeze them in my freezer and still do that well thank you so much

for joining us today yes thank you so much for having me with so great talking to you and sharing

my experience through Girl Scouts make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new

episodes are released power your passion and conquer your challenges thank you for listening

if you'd like to be on the show to share your story with how you earn your Gold Award reach out

and send an email to growandshareatoutlook.com be sure to catch up on our previous shows on

any of your favorite podcasting platforms as well as view the full video versions at youtube.com

slash sharel and robinson thanks again for listening and we'll see you next time

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