Submitted Report
Amber Diaz has earned the highest award in Girl Scouting, the Girl Scout Gold Award. Open only to girls in high school, the Gold Award challenges a Girl Scout to develop projects which address global issues with sustainable solutions. A Gold Award Girl Scout’s achievements prime her for the fast track when it comes to college admissions, and make her an outstanding candidate for academic scholarships and other financial awards.
Passionate about the environment, she spent more than 80 hours completing a project aimed at educating the next generation about the roles they can play in keeping earth beautiful. For her Gold Award project, Outdoor Learning Center, Diaz provided an environment for Dahlstrom Middle School students to learn about the environment and watersheds outside, in order to make students more aware of their effect on the environment.
“The root cause of many of our issues is that people are not familiar with the ways they can minimize their impact on the planet,” Diaz said. “Water can affect our environment in more ways than many people may think, and I hoped my project would make people be more aware of the effects water can have on our ecosystems.”
Diaz built exhibits for various science experiments, including a compost bin and a permeability exhibit, and developed lesson plans to give students an opportunity to practice environmental stewardship in a familiar and low stakes setting. She also created online resources through a website and a blog, where students and teachers across the world can access her curriculums. Currently, her project will serve the more than 800 students in the school and will provide a learning center for countless students in the future.
Girl Scouts as young as five years old are taking action to make a difference in their worlds. They are the makers of tomorrow and we, as their peers, neighbors, and mentors, must rally around them in support of their groundbreaking work.
