Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania

Girl Scout badges, beginning with Civic Engagement and expanding to Healthy Living, Communication Skills, Practical Skills, and Global Citizenship, form the foundation of activities that help girls grow as Girl Scouts. Whether it’s by exercising and staying healthy, developing strong relationships with family and peers, advocating on behalf of others, protecting our environment, or exploring careers that can truly change the world for the better, girls gain the life skills and the inspiration to accept challenges, overcome obstacles, and take the lead. Life Skills Journeys As a Girl Scout, she’ll team up with other girls to identify a problem she wants to do something about, come up with a creative solution that will make a difference, and create a team plan to make that solution a reality. Then she’ll put her plan into action, talk about what she learned, and celebrate her achievements. That’s a Girl Scout Journey, and here are just a few of the areas she’ll explore: Civic Engagement: With a focus on preparing girls to be active and informed members of their communities, Girl Scouts offers Citizen badges for all grade levels (including Daisies!), along with the Silver Torch and Gold Torch awards for Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors. Community Service: Whether it’s through planting a garden, painting a mural, or launching a letter-writing campaign, the It’s Your World—Change It! Journey inspires Girl Scouts at every grade level to take on unique leadership and advocacy challenges and discover what it means to be a leader who makes a difference in the world. Healthy Relationships: At every stage, from Daisy to Ambassador, Girl Scouts form stronger connections with family, friends, and their communities. Younger Girl Scouts (grades K–5) make new friends as they strive to be considerate, caring, and kind. In middle school, girls learn how to cope with bullying and relational aggression. And as a Senior or Ambassador, she’ll hone her people skills with her peers and her community, as she makes the world a better place. Financial Literacy: Grounded in real-life situations, Financial Literacy badges give girls a deeper understanding of financial issues, providing them with insight, skills, and practical knowledge in areas such as budgeting, philanthropy, making smart buying decisions, financial planning, and more.

Over the past 50 years, women in the United States have made great strides in education and entry into the work force in this country. However, despite these advances, women continue to be underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Women’s representation is low at all levels of the STEM career “pipeline,” from interest and intent to majoring in a STEM field in college to having a career in a STEM field in adulthood. For minority girls, the numbers of those represented is even lower.

Girls Scouts USA recently completed a study that aimed to explore how girls can better become engaged in STEM through examination of what girls themselves say are their interests and perceptions about these important fields. Through this study, Girl Scouts USA found some significant racial/ethnic group differences in data. Specifically, that African American girls say they have just as much interest in STEM as Cauca¬sian girls, but they have had less exposure to STEM, less adult support for pursuing STEM fields, lower academic achievement, and greater awareness of gender barriers in STEM professions. However, their confidence and ability to overcome obstacles are high, pointing to the strong role of individual characteristics in STEM interest and perceived ability in these subjects. Based on these findings, it is clear that there is a unique opportunity that exists for Girl Scouts to provide girls engaging experiences in the areas of STEM.

In order to address this need, Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania is working to promote STEM concepts through inventive, girl-led scientific discovery, efficiency and exposure coupled with real-world actives that allows girls to apply science, technology, engineering, and mathematics in contexts that make connections between themselves, their community, and the world.

Entrepreneurship Through Girl Scouts, girls learn to think like entrepreneurs as they participate in activities that spark curiosity, confidence, and innovation. Research shows that girls are actively interested in becoming entrepreneurs, developing financially stable futures, and using their skills to make a big impact on the world. But there are stumbling blocks on a girl’s path to entrepreneurship, including fear of failure, concerns about bringing her big idea to life, and the perception that men are more likely to be entrepreneurs than women. While entrepreneurship may not be right for every girl, every girl will benefit, and maybe even discover a future career path, by learning to think like an entrepreneur. By providing a foundation to learn important business skills, Girl Scouts is the perfect place to support young girls in exploring entrepreneurship as they progress through Girl Scouts. The Girl Scout Cookie Program, the foundation of entrepreneurial experience in Girl Scouts, is an important (and exciting!) part of the overall Girl Scout experience—tons of learning for her and beyond-delicious cookies for our awesome cookie customers! It’s a win-win. Whether girls go door to door, set up booths at libraries and shopping centers, or sell cookies online with Digital Cookie®, they’re also preparing for a bright future as a female business leader or entrepreneur. The Girl Scout Cookie Program lets girls show the world their business savvy as key members of the world’s largest girl-led entrepreneurial program. Every year Girl Scouts all over the country use their cookie earnings to do amazing things in their communities and beyond. From helping animal shelters and feeding the homeless to raising awareness about bullying, making public areas more accessible to people with disabilities, and tons more, Girl Scouts can and will do anything they put their hearts and minds to. As cookie entrepreneurs, girls gain essential skills and work as a team to accomplish common goals and solve problems, while building the confidence they need to shine as girls, as young women, and as future leaders. And did we mention fun? They have lots of that along the way, too. And now with Digital Cookie, girls can do and learn even more—and have more fun than ever before—all while giving cookie customers more ways to support them and their goals. Remember: smart cookies don’t just improve their own lives—they have the vision to change the world. Badge Spotlight Cookie Business: Meet My Customers Girls talk to customers, develop a sales pitch, count change, and role-play for better customer relations to gain skills that go far beyond the annual cookie sale. Cookie Business: Marketing Creating a brand identity, sizing up the competition, and crafting a compelling message helps girls make smarter, more socially responsible buying decisions.