Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts shows and teaches girls many skills that are useful for the future. In Girl Scouts there is an award called the Girl Scout Silver Award. The point of the Girl Scout Silver Award is to do some kind of community service to help your community in any way. I wanted to focus my project on helping people in poverty, in India. I created a fundraiser by selling puff pastries and sold each pastry for 50 cents each selling these pastries to my friends, family, and individuals in the Girl Scout community. I made a total of $872 which I then used to buy supplies for different shelters in India. I went to three different shelters called "Samarthanam", "The Deepa Academy for the Differently Abled", and a shelter for children coming from poor families between the grades of pre-kindergarten - 5th grade. I donated varied supplies like conditioner to chalkboards and chalk. This experience was eye-opening for me because it depicted the life that some children are forced to lead across the globe.
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As someone who has always had the privilege of participating in extracurricular activities to receive real-world experiences, I wanted to provide the same opportunities to students who do not have easy access to such resources. Unfortunately, students are not always aware of opportunities to explore their passion. I wanted to spread awareness of STEM to inner-city students by teaching them First Lego League (FLL) robotics. STEM has an immense impact on our daily lives, and I wanted to demonstrate this impact to these students. In pursuit of my Girl Scout Gold Award, I worked with 25 6th-8th grade students, many of whom were refugees from various African countries, at a center called Kids in New Directions (KIND). I formed a curriculum, based on my past experience in FLL, that would teach robotics as well as other life-skills. I taught the students how to build robots out of Legos and basic block programming. I lead three volunteers from my robotics team to assist the students through the process. I also trained additional inexperienced volunteers to teach.
Initially, I did different team-building puzzles, to make the students feel comfortable around me. I started out by giving them basic tasks in robot building and programming. I also conducted team-work challenges with the students to improve their communication and collaboration skills. I focused on encouraging every student to participate in problem solving. Over the course of the camp, I connected what the students were working on to real world scenarios. We had discussions about STEM and possible careers that they could pursue. In the short-term, these inner-city students were given access to resources that they previously did not have. In the long-term, such programs offered at an early age to under-privileged students can give them equal opportunity to pursue fields in which they are under-represented. STEM fields need a diverse group of minds to take on challenges that our world faces, prompting the need for such camps.
