Courtesy photo
Girl Scout Gold Award Take Action project
I, Navya Venkatesh, a girl scout and a junior at Watchung Hills Regional High School, have recently completed a Take Action project in order to complete the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor a girl scout can earn.
The Gold Award is a Take Action project meaning that it goes beyond community service because it must have a long lasting impact. The project must address the root cause of an issue, have a national and/or global link, demonstrate leadership, and have a sustainable and measurable impact.
I looked at my community to find an issue that needed a solution. I noticed that my peers were very concerned about school and the future in general. Things like staying up past midnight and studying during lunch are commonplace. That’s why for my Gold Award Take Action project, I wanted to focus on stress management.
My Take Action project began in December of 2022 when I first began brainstorming and finding a team of volunteers to help with the project. Emma Giantisco, a student assistance counselor at Watchung Hills, was my project advisor who had the task of guiding me throughout the process. Active Minds, a student organization at Watchung Hills, will sustain the project for many years to come. Other members of the team include Premini Thanasegaran, my troop leader; Jason Sabino, the head of the guidance department at Watchung Hills; and Dr. Savitha Puttaiah, a psychiatrist.
My project consisted of three workshops that were planned around students’ most stressful times of the year including December, March, and late April. These periods occur around the end of the first semester, the month of the year with the most school days, and right before AP exams, respectively.
The first workshop was in December of 2023 and focused on time management skills. Students learned about the pomodoro technique and how to avoid procrastination. To end the workshop, students made a schedule for themselves which is a key component of managing time. For this workshop, 93% of participants reported that they learned something new.
The second workshop was in March of 2024 and focused on ways to de-stress where students learned about the effects of cortisol, the stress hormone, and how to lower cortisol levels by doing arts and crafts, journaling, and self-care. For this workshop, 96% of participants reported that they learned more.
The third workshop was in April of 2024 and focused on the connection between physical and mental health. 90% of participants reported that they learned more about how physical and mental health are related.
Overall, the three workshops involved more than 75 students and across the three events, 90% of students learned something new.
The project not only benefited the community at Watchung Hills, but it also benefited me. I learned more about stress management while teaching it to my peers. However, I also learned more about myself. Through the process of earning the Gold Award, I learned that I am capable of taking on a complicated, long term project with many steps that require early planning and effective communication with many people.
I am very grateful that this project was able to benefit my community and that it will continue to serve Watchung Hills students for years to come.
Additional notes: The project began in December, 2022 and ended in June, 2024. Over 80 hours of community service went into the Take Action project.
