2023 USAGSO Gold Award Recipient
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
USA Girl Scouts Overseas (USAGSO) Honors Local Member of the 2023 Gold Award Girl Scout Class and Recipient of the National Gold Award Scholarship
USAGSO Gold Award Girl Scout Kendal W. earns national scholarship for her Gold Award Project, “Mental Health Rocks!” while she and her family reside on Kwajalien RMI.
Katherine Nolan Brown; knbrown@girlscouts.org
New York, NY (July 27, 2023) — USAGSO proudly recognizes its eleven USAGSO members who are part of the 2023 Girl Scout Gold Award class of Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts who earned the highest award in Girl Scouting: the Gold Award. Gold Award Girl Scouts make positive impacts on their communities by addressing some of our most pressing issues, including youth mental health care, cyber security for seniors, and care for veterans. This year, Kendal W. from Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands received a $10,000 scholarship for her work in/on mental health support for folks on military bases.
Nationally, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is recognizing nearly 3,200 members of the 2023 Gold Award Girl Scout class who identified issues in their communities, took action, and found or created solutions to earn their Gold Awards. This year’s class of world-changers raised $2.5 million in funding and invested over 300,000 hours to address real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and physical wellness, and gender inequality in STEM.
Lane Wallace, Executive Director of USA Girl Scouts Overseas: “USAGSO is so proud to have Kendal and her fellow Gold Award Girl Scouts as part of our worldwide community. This next generation of leaders will need to see the world on a global scale, and our youth members are uniquely suited to make the world a better place. Kendal and her Gold Award Project deserve this GSUSA Scholarship, and we are so proud!”
The 2023 Gold Award Girl Scouts demonstrate the breadth of issues American teens feel are most prevalent in society today. With almost 40% of USAGSO’s membership associated with the United States armed forces, our members are uniquely suited to know and respond to the issues facing families in our overseas communities. With a global viewpoint in everything we do, USAGSO Girl Scouts see how their smallest actions – and the actions of communities and governments – can affect and change the world.
This year GSUSA awarded 110 Gold Award Girl Scouts from across our Movement a $10,000 scholarship each, made possible in part by the Kappa Delta Foundation and funds from GSUSA and its National Board.
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.
According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.
To view the list of the nearly 3,200 outstanding 2023 Gold Award projects, visit girlscouts.org/goldawardclass.
We Are Girl Scouts of the USA
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.
USA Girl Scouts Overseas (USAGSO) brings Girl Scouts to the daughters of military, foreign service, and American expat families around the world and to girls in American or International schools. An operating unit of Girl Scouts of the USA, USAGSO ensures that no matter where American families move, they will have access to the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Originally known as Lone Troops on Foreign Soil, Girl Scouts’ overseas program began in 1925 with a single troop of 18 girls in Shanghai, China. Today, USAGSO supports almost 10,000 members in 70+ countries around the world. USAGSO members are supported by a staff team in three locations: at Girl Scout headquarters in New York City; Vicenza, Italy; and Camp Zama in Japan.
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October 03, 2023
