Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Hosted by Sheryl Robinson

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203

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Oct 2026

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About the show

Identifying a project, overcoming challenges, personal connections, outcomes, and special moments: hear from Gold Award Girl Scouts sharing their stories related to Girl Scout Gold Award projects.

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November 5, 202620 min

Ep 174 Tell Your Story: Addressing School Segregation with Jalyn Robinson

Jalyn created a Gold Award project titled "Tell Your Story" to address systemic barriers to diversity and integration in the New York City public school admissions process. To highlight how high school admissions testing and budget cuts impact students of color, she launched a public storytelling blog, produced a documentary titled Separate Not Equal , and authored a research paper titled Barriers to Integration . Her advocacy work earned her recognition as the Girl Scouts of Greater New York 2025 Future Woman of Distinction. More About Jalyn: Jalyn Rayne Robinson has been a Girl Scout with the Girl Scouts of Greater New York for over 10 years. She has earned all three highest awards & was named the 2025 Future Woman of Distinction in recognition of her service & leadership in her community. She was also a CIT at Girl Scout Camp Kaufmann. Outside of Girl Scouts, she is passionate about sports and arts. She recently graduated from the Professional Performing Arts High School in NYC for Classical Vocal Music & is headed to the University of Connecticut to study Sports Management. Project Substack: substack.com/@tellyourstorynyc Project Instagram: instagram.com/tellyourstorynyc/

October 1, 202622 min

Ep 173 Two Girls One World: Bridging Literacy with Mariam

Mariam created a project titled Two Girls One World: Bridging Cultures Through Literacy to address the reading crisis among young students by increasing representation in children's books. She authored and illustrated a diverse book called The Adventures of Dolly and Kaitlyn to expose young readers to different cultures, and she developed an accompanying ten-chapter curriculum with matching YouTube videos and worksheets aligned with national literacy guidelines. After testing her curriculum directly with fourth-grade classrooms in Metro Detroit, her work earned her the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan Precious Metal Award and the 2026 Young Woman of Distinction Award. More About Mariam: Mariam Dukhan has been a Girl Scout since first grade, earning her Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards along the way. She's a competitive tennis player and figure skater, and stays involved in her community through activities like Model UN and the Mayor's Youth Council. Mariam is naturally outgoing and loves striking up conversations with new people, always curious to hear different perspectives and learn how others see the world - a curiosity that travel only fuels further. That same love of talking to people from all walks of life is what draws her to dentistry: she's excited by the idea of connecting with all kinds of patients, building relationships, and making a difference in her community one conversation at a time. In the future, Mariam hopes to become a dentist and eventually grow into commercial dentistry, owning her own practices. Project Website: sites.google.com/view/oneworldtwofriends/home Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZWVWX4C?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

September 3, 202622 min

Ep 172 Hands-Only CPR: Akshara Arvind’s Gold Award Mission to Save Lives

Akshara Arvind, an EMT and cadet with the Summerville Rescue Squad, focused her Girl Scout Gold Award project on addressing the lack of bystander intervention during cardiac arrests. Recognizing that fear of disease transmission, the complexity of traditional CPR training, and low confidence keep people from acting, Akshara launched an initiative focused on hands-only CPR. She taught open-access, 20-minute hands-only CPR sessions at her local rescue squad building and adapted her training for virtual audiences via Zoom. To ensure lasting impact, she authored educational materials, posted instructional videos on YouTube, and built a website, equipping her community with simple, accessible life-saving skills. More from Akshara: I am a Girl Scout Ambassador who has been a Girl Scout for over ten years. I have greatly enjoyed being a Girl Scout, whether as a Daisy selling cookies or as an Ambassador working toward my Gold Award. Girl Scouts has offered me invaluable leadership experience and never fails to challenge me. I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had to participate in; for one, I gave a presentation on my Gold Award project at the Girl Scout You Lead Summit. In addition, over the last two summers, I traveled to Costa Rica and Iceland with fellow Girl Scouts from New Jersey. These trips have broadened my perspective and allowed me to make many new friends. As a junior in high school, I am currently looking at colleges and plan to major in neuroscience. After college, I hope to pursue medical school and become a doctor.

August 7, 202619 min

Ep 171 Suds for Students: Combatting Chronic Absenteeism with Care Packages

Carolina Quinones joins the podcast to share the story of her Girl Scout Gold Award project, which set out to combat chronic absenteeism by addressing a lack of laundry resources for students in New York City. When faced with a massive $150,000 structural roadblock to install washing machines at her school, Carolina refused to give up on her passion for the community. Instead, she pivoted her project to raise funds and research cost-effective alternatives, ultimately creating 74 comprehensive laundry care packages for students living in temporary housing. Packed with essentials like laundry sheets, dryer balls, and fabric refresher spray, her project directly supported local families while raising awareness about the unseen connection between clean clothes and school attendance. More from Carolina: My name is Carolina Quinones. I am 18 years old, and a Senior at Fontbonne Hall Academy, a small, all girls Catholic high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I am also a Girl Scout and have been since kindergarten. Girl Scouts has given me the opportunity to participate in so many rewarding programs, such as the Journey for Justice destination. I am also a recipient of the Girl Scout Silver Award and Girl Scout Gold Award. For my Girl Scout Silver Award project in 9th grade; I worked to create a small library for students at my former middle school. I most recently earned my Girl Scout Gold Award. My project combated chronic absenteeism rooted in a lack of access to laundry resources. I am also chairperson of my school's DEI club and president/founder of Speech and Debate Club. I am pursuing my passion for advocacy as a political science major in Canada with the hopes of one day being elected into a position which will allow me to enact change on a greater scale and help more people.

July 3, 202612 min

Ep 170 Emergency Radio Communication with Chloe Button

Following the tragic loss of her brother and a total breakdown of communication during a severe hurricane in Fairview, 14-year-old Chloe Button dedicated her Girl Scout Gold Award project to building community resilience. She assembled waterproof natural disaster packs containing radios, chargers, flashlights, and maps of Fairview and North Carolina, distributing them to local churches and fire stations. To ensure the project's success, Chloe attended classes to earn her own official radio certification, providing her community with a reliable way to call for help and coordinate mutual aid when power grids and cell towers fail. More from Chloe: I am a Freshman at AC Reynolds HS of Asheville. I have been a Girl Scout since kindergarten in GSCP2P. I successfully completed my Girl Scout Gold Award by developing "Communication Disaster Packs" with an action plan to assist my local fire stations and churches through any future natural disaster. During the course of my project I also became licensed by the FCC for Amateur and GMRS radio communications. I am currently ranked 3rd in NC State for Marksmanship through the American Legion and JROTC and CMP programs in the sporter class. I also raise chickens and placed 3rd at the WNC State Fair in 2025. Last, I am a 3 time Youth Fishing Champion for Biltmore Estate. After HS graduation in 2029 I hope to earn my Bachelors in Criminal Justice and Forensic Anthropology with a minor in Psychology then pursue a career as a Crime Scene Investigator. Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson

June 5, 202615 min

Ep 169 Bridging the Digital Divide Globally and Locally with Nazeefa Loladia

Nazeefa Loladia earned her Girl Scout Gold Award by designing a multi-layered project to address the digital divide. Locally, she organized an electronics donation drive that collected nearly $5,000 in devices for the Atlanta nonprofit Inspiredu to refurbish and distribute to underserved communities. She expanded her project's global impact by partnering with Leap to Shine, a sister organization in India, where she created 15 educational video tutorials to teach children and instructors how to navigate the newly provided tablets and academic software. Additionally, Nazeefa addressed community technology needs by leading cybersecurity and basic coding workshops that successfully educated 100 elementary and middle school students. More from Nazeefa: I've been a proud Girl Scout for the past nine years, earning my Bronze, Silver, and now Gold Award. Through Girl Scouts, I've developed a strong passion for leadership and community service, which has been recognized through honors like Council Woman of Distinction and a council scholarship. In high school, I've stayed actively involved in student council, National Spanish Honor Society, National Honor Society, DECA, and several marketing internships, all of which have helped shape my interest in business. While I haven't committed to a college yet, I plan to major in business and continue building on the leadership and service skills Girl Scouts has given me. https://www.instagram.com/digitallaccess/

May 8, 202633 min

Ep168 Teaching Empathy and Neurological Diversity with Hannah MacLean

Hannah MacLean's Girl Scout Gold Award project focused on instilling patience, empathy, and understanding for neurologically diverse students within the Franklin Public School System. Motivated by the bullying and unfair treatment her younger sister faced, Hannah enhanced the district's anti-bullying curriculum and introduced a nuanced, Socratic-inspired curriculum focused on critical thinking. Her project involved three core components: collecting and distributing diverse books to middle schools, serving as an active student representative on local committees, and teaching her own educators how to incorporate neurological diversity into their classrooms. The curriculum she established remains a part of the school system's Mental Health Awareness Day. More from Hannah: In addition to my Gold Award, I have been a lifetime member of GSEMA since Daisies, and I recently worked as a camp counselor with the Girl Scouts of Northern California. Some of my favorite Girl Scout memories included selling cookies to fund a trip to the Grand Canyon with my travel troop, and discovering my interest in International Relations and Diplomacy through the annual Girl Scouts International Leadership Conference at Salve Regina. These successes I attribute to the incredible role models and leaders I had along the way, including but not limited to Roni Doherty, Joanna Lenahan, and Amy VanNederpelt, the lovely cookie Moms and role models of GSEMA, and the other incredible leaders who paved my way. Since this introduction to the accessible ways I could use my voice to make a change, I have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics with a minor in Social Justice Theory from St. John's University in Queens, NY. Partly in thanks for my work with the Gold Award and Girl Scouts, I earned over $160,000 in scholarships and the privilege of traveling the world with the Vincentian Institute of Social Action through the Ozanam Scholars program. Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson

April 3, 20268 min

Ep 167 Restoring History and Building a Digital Future with Layla King

Layla King discusses her impactful Girl Scout Gold Award project to restore Lincoln Cemetery, a historically Black cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Partnering with the organization Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL), Layla took a hands-on approach to preservation, learning to clean and level headstones using specialized solutions to ensure the names of those buried there remain visible to future generations. Beyond the physical labor, Layla utilized her leadership role in SkillsUSA to launch a school-wide awareness campaign and donor drive, successfully bridging the gap between spreading a message and inspiring community action. Her project not only honored local history but also paved the way for her current success as a computer science major at Howard University and the founder of her own web design business. More from Layla: I'm Layla King, a freshman Computer Science major attending Howard University. I've been involved in Girl Scouts since I was little (about 2013), starting as a Daisy and working my way up, then finishing as a Juliette to earn my Gold Award in 2025. Outside of Girl Scouts, I own a web design business called A Young Mindset, where my long-term goal is to build an agency that values more than profit. I want to invest in community service projects and provide unemployed people with the opportunity to learn web design through a training program and eventually work at my company. I want my business to be a tool for lifting others up. In college, I'm involved in Howard's Inaugural DECA Cohort, the College of Engineering & Architecture Council as an Advocacy & Inclusion Intern, and the National Society of Black Engineers. In high school, I played soccer and ran track, participated in FBLA (won 1st in PA for website design and 10th nationally), SkillsUSA as Vice President (placed 3rd in PA for web development and design), the National Honor Society as Co-President, the National Technical Honor Society, and Four Diamonds. Lastly, I became an Amazon Future Engineer Scholar. Personal Portfolio Website: laylaking.com/ Business Website: ayoungmindset.com/ Instagram: @lay.kin9 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/layla-king/ Lincoln Cemetery SOAL Website: lincolncemetery.org/ Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson

March 6, 202643 min

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

Loren Elle shares her Girl Scout Gold Award project, which focused on creating a peer group for adopted preteens and teens. Loren Elle discusses how her personal experience with adoption motivated her to provide a supportive space for others with similar backgrounds. Through her project, Loren Elle not only made a significant impact in her community but also gained acceptance to The Ohio State University, where she is pursuing her passion for fashion and retail studies. Join us as we explore the challenges she faced, the support she received, and the valuable lessons learned along the way. More from Loren Elle: My name is Loren Elle Ross, and I'm a freshman at The Ohio State University majoring in Fashion and Retail Studies with a minor in Communication and a certificate in Sports Communication. I'm also part of the Business Scholars Program, where I get to grow as a business-oriented leader and connect with peers who share similar goals. Before college, I was very involved in Girl Scouts, for 12 years, earning my Gold Award through a project that challenged me to lead, serve, and create lasting impact. I also balanced academics, National Honor Society, volleyball, fashion interests, and a part-time job, which taught me resilience, teamwork, and time management. At Ohio State, I'm excited to explore the intersection of fashion, branding, and consumer experience, with a special interest in sports merchandising and athlete styling. My future plans include building a portfolio that combines design, communication, and storytelling to prepare for a career as a creative leader in the fashion and retail industry. Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson

February 6, 202612 min

Ep 165 Advocating for Animals: Andrea's Journey to the Girl Scout Gold Award

Andrea shares her inspiring journey as a Girl Scout working on her Gold Award project focused on advocating for animal welfare, specifically for dogs in Florida. With the state ranking fourth in county shelter deaths due to overcrowding, Andrea discusses the critical issues surrounding impulsive pet ownership and the lack of spaying and neutering. To combat this, she created a comprehensive pet owner's guide in collaboration with her school, offering resources, tips, and tricks for the community to help reduce shelter overcrowding. Andrea also reflects on her lifelong passion for animals, influenced by her family's experiences with pets and the pressing need for support in animal shelters. She highlights her partnership with Howling Hounds Sanctuary Rescue, a local organization dedicated to housing dogs in a nurturing environment. Tune in to learn more about Andrea's impactful project and how you can contribute to animal welfare in your community. More from Andrea: I am an Ambassador in Girl Scouts with a strong passion for leadership, service, and creativity. Over the years, Girl Scouts has given me incredible opportunities to grow, travel, and discover what inspires me. Last summer, I traveled to New York City on a Broadway-focused Girl Scout Destination, where I had the chance to see four amazing shows and fall even more in love with theater. Experiences like that have shaped who I am and what I hope to do next. This spring break, I plan to tour colleges across Florida because I hope to stay close to home for my next chapter. I'm excited to explore different campuses and find the right fit for my future. Next year, as a senior, my troop and I will be celebrating our high school graduation with a cruise—something we've looked forward to for years. Outside of Girl Scouts, I hope to spend this summer auditioning for local theater productions and getting back on stage. Performing is something I truly miss, and I'm ready to keep practicing, growing, and stepping into new opportunities. https://petprojectgs.wixsite.com/2manypawnotenoughome https://www.facebook.com/groups/700149011903399 https://www.instagram.com/gs.pet_project/