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Ep 65 Madalyn Nguyen - STEM Diversity Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Release Date: 07/29/2021

Ep 70 Ephemia Nicolakis - EcoOrthodox Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Ephemia created Eco Orthodox to encourage her church to reduce the use of plastics and find more eco friendly options. Ephemia Nicolakis is a second year student at Quinnipiac University in their 3+1 accelerated dual degree program double majoring in Graphic Design and Public Relations. She currently works as a Digital Platforms Assistant for Quinnipiac University’s department of Integrated Marketing Communication, and is also the Social Media Manager for the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA. A new on-campus organization she recently joined...

E 69 Gitka Gorthi - Ignited Thinkers Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Gitka connected with partners to expand her existing platform and row it to a new level, encouraging rocketry activities for younger students. Gitika Gorthi is a senior attending Chantilly High School and is the Founder and CEO of the non-profit organization IgnitedThinkers. Gitika founded IgnitedThinkers in the 8th-grade to spread space education to all. She is an aspiring aerospace physician and astronaut. Gitika has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten and it has greatly equipped her with the tools to be a strong leader in her community. Gitika has...

68 Megan Burke - Hushabye Nursery Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Megan created a storage area and a drive to stock the space with items needed for babies in the nursery with withdrawals from opioids. Megan has been a girl scout since Kindergarten. She is currently in the 10th grade. She has completed her Bronze and Silver awards. Megan is currently on the service team for her chapter counsel as a girl member. Megan has lots of interests outside of school. You will always see Megan in a theater production of competing in speech and debate. Her area she competes in is Original Oratory. Last year she spoke about perfectionism....

Ep 67 Tatiana Torres - Calm4you Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Tatiana created a website sharing coping tools to improve mental health. More about Tatiana: Hi my name is Tatiana Torres and I am currently in 12th grade ! I have been doing Girl Scouts for a long time, ever since Kindergarten. I was with Troop 32204 from Kindergarten to 8th grade, then went on to join Troop 31862 from 9th to now. I started my Gold Award in the beginning of Junior year and I completed my Gold Award at the end of Junior year. I was super excited to have an outlet to show what I am passionate about. Having a brain injury during my teen years...

Ep 66 Sabrina Richard - Speech for Success, Women’s Words Matter Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Sabrina created a girl's only speech and debate event. She has also been on the Food Network. More about Sabrina: I’m Sabrina Richard I have been a Girl Scout for 12 years. I have competed on the Food Network as a kid chef from 2015-2018, but I couldn’t have done it without the skills I learned from Girl Scouts. I am a super-seller Girl Scout, having sold about 15,000-lifetime boxes of Girl Scout cookies. I am also a 2021 Gold Award Recipient with my project Women’s Words Matter: Speech for Success. I am currently a senior at Westfield High School where I...

Ep 65 Madalyn Nguyen - STEM Diversity Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Madalyn championed STEM Diversity by addressing girls’ underrepresentation and minorities in STEM. More about Madalyn: Madalyn Nguyen, a rising senior at Poway High School (PHS) Engineering Academy, is a STEM enthusiast, FIRST Robotics fanatic, and aspiring engineer or computer scientist. Getting a Mindstorm Robot in 5th grade ignited her love for robotics and desire to join every FIRST Robotics program possible: FIRST Lego League (6th grade), FIRST Tech Challenge & SWENext (7th grade) and FIRST Robotics Competition-Team Spyder (experienced/motivated 8th...

Ep 64 Nadia Gonzales - Yanaguana’s Fiesta Fun Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Nadia wrote a book and created a game to showcase the Yanaguana Fiesta especially for patients at the hospital that overlooks the park when many Fiesta activities are held. More about Nadia: I am Nadia Gonzales and I have been a Girl Scout for thirteen years during which I have attended various community service events such as cleaning up after the Battle of Flowers Parade for keeping San Antonio Beautiful. Two years ago I decided that I wanted to complete a Girl Scout Gold Award, which is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. As a native San Antonian, I...

EP 63 Girl Scout Adult Recognition Awards

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Sharing about the different adult recognitions offered by Girl Scouts. Receiving the Thanks Badge II this week was a huge honor for me. However, I realized that so many people do not understand the Girl Scout Adult Recognitions that are available. AS a member of out council's Adult Recognition Committee, the biggest effort we make is educating about the awards and encouraging others to nominate volunteers. Our council has worked to make the nomination process as simple as possible and we were able to grow the number of nominations received, but I know other...

EP 62 Katryna Dionisio - Music Walls Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Katryna installed two music walls at Wild Rose Elementary for kids with special needs. More about Katryna : My name is Katryna Dionisio and I am from California. I have been a Girl Scout since the 2nd grade, so 11 years. I originally joined to do fun activities with my friends but as I got older, it became so much more than that. I learned leadership skills and ways to make my community a better place. Through Girl Scouts, my passion for serving others grew and is something very important to me today. During high school, I was involved in other service outreach...

Ep 61 Aria Chalileh - Ditch the Vape Girl Scout Gold Award Project

Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts

Full transcription available at Aria created a documentary and educational campaign to educate regarding the dangers of vaping. More about Aria: My name is Aria Chalileh and I'm a high school senior from New Jersey! I have been involved with Girl Scouts since the 2nd grade, and I have received both my Bronze & Silver Awards before achieving my Gold Award. Outside of Girl Scouts, I am co-captain of my high school's debate team, community outreach leader for my robotics team, a member of various vaping prevention & awareness campaigns, and more! I will be attending college next year,...

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Full transcription available at http://heartsofgoldpodcast.com/

Madalyn championed STEM Diversity by addressing girls’ underrepresentation and minorities in STEM.

More about Madalyn:

Madalyn Nguyen, a rising senior at Poway High School (PHS) Engineering Academy, is a STEM enthusiast, FIRST Robotics fanatic, and aspiring engineer or computer scientist. Getting a Mindstorm Robot in 5th grade ignited her love for robotics and desire to join every FIRST Robotics program possible: FIRST Lego League (6th grade), FIRST Tech Challenge & SWENext (7th grade) and FIRST Robotics Competition-Team Spyder (experienced/motivated 8th grader).

Seeing that girls were minorities on her robotics team, she founded the Society of Women Engineers and National Center for Women and Information Technology Clubs to create a community that encourages girls, especially minority girls, to join robotics. The purpose of the clubs is to support, promote, give opportunities for advancement, and empower girls in STEM to pursue careers in engineering.

Madalyn champions for STEM Diversity, especially for the underrepresented and disadvantaged, by volunteering over 200 hours of outreach per year since 2016 and is a 4 time recipient of the President’s Volunteer Service Gold Award. During the fall FLL season you can find her mentoring about 10 FIRST Robotics teams locally and globally. Her greatest accomplishment is starting a FIRST Robotics program at Wilson Middle School in the low socioeconomic community City Heights in San Diego, California where 100% of the student body receives free or reduced lunch. Wilson Robotics increased participation by 300% and now has female representation of 30 % from zero participation. With her continued mentorship and support in procuring funding, Wilson Robotics is thriving going into their next season.

In 2019, she traveled to Paraguay to advance STEM/Robotics Education and women in engineering and Sacramento for political advocacy with Senator Brian Jones and Assemblymember Brian Maienschein.

She pays it forward by being a passionate FIRST Youth mentor & volunteer for FLL, FRC, FTC, FGC and a robot judge for FLL. She was last year’s Chief Project Officer, where she oversaw the building and programming of 120 lbs robots and managed 15 subteam leads. She is currently Team Spyder Co-President, PHS Titan Ambassador (selected exclusively by teachers to represent her high school), and Poway Unified School District Career Technical Education Ambassador.

Madalyn is a changemaker and trailblazer by making a difference in thousands of youths locally and globally. For her commitment to STEM Diversity, she is the recipient of the FIRST Dean’s List Award 2020, the highest honor bestowed to an individual in FIRST Robotics for leadership and advancement of FIRST’s mission. She was one of 10 winners selected from 3400 nominees worldwide for this prestigious award. Even after receiving her Gold Award in April 2020, she continues to advance STEM Diversity. During the pandemic, she organized a virtual 7 weekly STEM Career Series which impacted over 700 attendees worldwide and organized and moderated a two-day Women in STEM forum with over 300 attendees. She also helped create PPE and sneeze guards for local health providers. In addition, she created and organized a virtual Global Engineering Challenge where 65 teams participated worldwide. Overall, she is an amazing & inspiring role model. She often speaks at events and was the keynote speaker for the SWE Conference in San Diego in Feb 2020. Even though Madalyn is just a rising senior in high school, you will not find a more hard-working & dedicated champion for STEM diversity. She is truly a rockstar for STEM!

Links to learn more about Madalyn and her work.

Instagram of Robotics Team & SWENext / NCWIT clubs

@spyder1622

@phs_swenext

@phs_spyder_ncwit

@goldawardgirlscoutengineer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/madalyntnguyen/

Girls in STEM Inspiration Day 2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBCFCE4AGg

http://teamspyder.org/

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/story/2020-10-23/girl-scout-shares-her-love-of-stem-while-earning-gold-award

https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/pomerado-news/news/story/2021-02-25/poway-high-student-is-on-track-to-make-her-mark-in-engineering

https://www.powayusd.com/PUSD/media/PHS/PHS-ROBOTICS-1622-FIRST-World-Championship-Virtual-Showcase-Winner-2020-press-release.pdf