Nazeefa Loladia earned her Girl Scout Gold Award by designing a multi-layered project to address the digital divide. Locally, she organized an electronics donation drive that collected nearly $5,000 in devices for the Atlanta nonprofit Inspiredu to refurbish and distribute to underserved communities. She expanded her project's global impact by partnering with Leap to Shine, a sister organization in India, where she created 15 educational video tutorials to teach children and instructors how to navigate the newly provided tablets and academic software. Additionally, Nazeefa addressed community technology needs by leading cybersecurity and basic coding workshops that successfully educated 100 elementary and middle school students.

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I've been a proud Girl Scout for the past nine years, earning my Bronze, Silver, and now Gold Award. Through Girl Scouts, I've developed a strong passion for leadership and community service, which has been recognized through honors like Council Woman of Distinction and a council scholarship. In high school, I've stayed actively involved in student council, National Spanish Honor Society, National Honor Society, DECA, and several marketing internships, all of which have helped shape my interest in business. While I haven't committed to a college yet, I plan to major in business and continue building on the leadership and service skills Girl Scouts has given me.

https://www.instagram.com/digitallaccess/

Hannah MacLean's Girl Scout Gold Award project focused on instilling patience, empathy, and understanding for neurologically diverse students within the Franklin Public School System. Motivated by the bullying and unfair treatment her younger sister faced, Hannah enhanced the district's anti-bullying curriculum and introduced a nuanced, Socratic-inspired curriculum focused on critical thinking. Her project involved three core components: collecting and distributing diverse books to middle schools, serving as an active student representative on local committees, and teaching her own educators how to incorporate neurological diversity into their classrooms. The curriculum she established remains a part of the school system's Mental Health Awareness Day.

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In addition to my Gold Award, I have been a lifetime member of GSEMA since Daisies, and I recently worked as a camp counselor with the Girl Scouts of Northern California. Some of my favorite Girl Scout memories included selling cookies to fund a trip to the Grand Canyon with my travel troop, and discovering my interest in International Relations and Diplomacy through the annual Girl Scouts International Leadership Conference at Salve Regina. These successes I attribute to the incredible role models and leaders I had along the way, including but not limited to Roni Doherty, Joanna Lenahan, and Amy VanNederpelt, the lovely cookie Moms and role models of GSEMA, and the other incredible leaders who paved my way. Since this introduction to the accessible ways I could use my voice to make a change, I have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics with a minor in Social Justice Theory from St. John's University in Queens, NY. Partly in thanks for my work with the Gold Award and Girl Scouts, I earned over $160,000 in scholarships and the privilege of traveling the world with the Vincentian Institute of Social Action through the Ozanam Scholars program.

Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson

Layla King discusses her impactful Girl Scout Gold Award project to restore Lincoln Cemetery, a historically Black cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Partnering with the organization Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL), Layla took a hands-on approach to preservation, learning to clean and level headstones using specialized solutions to ensure the names of those buried there remain visible to future generations. Beyond the physical labor, Layla utilized her leadership role in SkillsUSA to launch a school-wide awareness campaign and donor drive, successfully bridging the gap between spreading a message and inspiring community action. Her project not only honored local history but also paved the way for her current success as a computer science major at Howard University and the founder of her own web design business.

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I'm Layla King, a freshman Computer Science major attending Howard University. I've been involved in Girl Scouts since I was little (about 2013), starting as a Daisy and working my way up, then finishing as a Juliette to earn my Gold Award in 2025. Outside of Girl Scouts, I own a web design business called A Young Mindset, where my long-term goal is to build an agency that values more than profit. I want to invest in community service projects and provide unemployed people with the opportunity to learn web design through a training program and eventually work at my company. I want my business to be a tool for lifting others up. In college, I'm involved in Howard's Inaugural DECA Cohort, the College of Engineering & Architecture Council as an Advocacy & Inclusion Intern, and the National Society of Black Engineers. In high school, I played soccer and ran track, participated in FBLA (won 1st in PA for website design and 10th nationally), SkillsUSA as Vice President (placed 3rd in PA for web development and design), the National Honor Society as Co-President, the National Technical Honor Society, and Four Diamonds. Lastly, I became an Amazon Future Engineer Scholar.

Personal Portfolio Website: laylaking.com/

Business Website: ayoungmindset.com/

Instagram: @lay.kin9

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/layla-king/

Lincoln Cemetery SOAL Website: lincolncemetery.org/

Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson