Gold Award

The Girl Scout Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting; it recognizes girls in grades 9-12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects. Since 1916, girls have successfully pursued the highest award, an act that indelibly marks them as accomplished members of their communities and the world.

Sara Davidson created Safe Life Line, a non-emergency services application for the residents of Harris County. Sara noted that residents in her community needed more access to information and resources for non-emergency 911 calls. Together with her team of 11 volunteers, Sara helped lead the coding, graphic design, and beta testing for the app. To date, the app has been downloaded over 200 times by local users. Miranda Santovena created a podcast series aimed at discussing and providing information on modern day racism. The monthly series discusses hard-hitting topics like racism in the entertainment industry, systematic racism, social media, and microaggressions. With her project, Miranda hopes to teach and inspire others to take action in their communities against racism.

Shritha Kolla realized that children around the world, were not receiving the fundamental resources or experiences that are critical in academic foundations. To help prevent loss of learning, Shritha began an online organization where she led and recruited volunteers to help teach and provide lessons to students online. Shritha wanted the attendees to know and feel that learning was critical during COVID-19, and that online coursework could be just as fun and engaging. Marin Tzannis was inspired to teach youth in her community about the importance of gun safety. As an avid recreational shooter with her father at the gun range, Marin understood the importance of teaching others about how to use guns properly and safely. Additionally, Marin also created a YouTube series with further resources and information, and presented her project to her Wildlife Management class at school and at GAM 2019.

Emma Lambert and her team of volunteers, partnered with Brazos Bend State Park to help deliver “Be One With Nature”, a project focused on teaching children about the local wildlife, the environment, and how to respect it. As a long-time Girl Scout, Emma understood the importance of learning about the outdoors and was motivated by her passion for the environment to teach others how to enjoy and care for the outdoors. Sejal Thakur focused on bringing awareness to the Autistic community and the issues they faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Sejal and her volunteers partnered with Best Buddies and ASL, school clubs that helped bring information and knowledge to Houston communities about individuals living with disabilities. Additionally, Sejal made special masks with clear mouthpieces that were donated to the Monarch School and Institution.

New Highest Awards Specialists

GSSJC is excited to introduce the 2021-2022 Highest Awards Specialists - an official team of Gold Award Girl Scouts dedicated to assisting with workshops, speaking engagements, materials development, and promotion of Girl Scouts' Highest Awards. To qualify as a member of this team, girls have earned their Gold Award within the last two years and have been selected through an application process. We are proud of the example these young women will set in representing GSSJC during the next year.