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Leadership and Self-Esteem
Today's Girl Scouts are tomorrow's leaders. Through activities that build self-confidence, creative decision-making skills, and teamwork, girls develop real-world leadership abilities that will last them a lifetime. By working towards such earned age-level awards as the Lead On Badge or the Leadership Interest Project Award, girls can interview female leaders, set goals, build team spirit and communication skills, develop successful problem-solving techniques, and learn to trust themselves in any situation.
Here are just some of the many ways girls can build their leadership skills and self-esteem:
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Girl Scout Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards
For each of these awards—the highest achievements in Girl Scouting—a girl will have planned and executed a project that fulfills a need within her community (whether local or global), creates change, and encompasses organizational, leadership, and networking skills.
Each year, the top ten Girl Scout Gold Award recipients in the nation are honored as Young Women of Distinction for their outstanding work. Past honorees have created a brochure about hepatitis B written in Chinese; helped provide residents of a small village in India with free eye care; written a booklet on breast cancer from a teenage daughter's perspective and educated teens on the importance of early detection; and developed a series of self-defense classes with homeless women living in a safe-haven shelter for victims of physical abuse.
Each award recognizes a girl's accomplishments as she works to improve her life and the lives of others and becomes the best she can be.
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Ms. President Patch
The White House Project, an organization that is changing the way people think about women in leadership roles, worked with Girl Scouts of the USA to develop the Ms. President Patch, a participation patch that Girl Scouts can get when they take time to celebrate those women who have paved the way in social and political reform, as well as to learn about those who are on the front-lines of government today.
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uniquely ME! The Girl Scout/Dove Self-Esteem Program
Created in 2002 by Girl Scouts of the USA and Unilever to address the important issue of low self-esteem among adolescent and preadolescent girls, this multi-faceted program is offered through selected local Girl Scout councils. Three booklets containing creative, age-appropriate resources and activities were designed in English and Spanish for staff and adult volunteers to facilitate girl-centered activities. The books, in conjunction with the uniquely ME! section of the STUDIO 2B Web site, help girls discover the importance of challenging themselves, how to develop healthy coping skills, what to look for in a friend, how to evaluate media influences, and ways to make a difference in the lives of others.
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VOLUNTEER