Earning one of the Girl Scouts’ highest awards challenges girls to be their best and develop, plan, and implement a Take Action project. The Gold Award, open only to Girl Scouts in high school, is the most prestigious and most difficult award to earn for girls and requires a minimum of 80 individual hours to complete.
In 2023, only 3500 girls in the nation earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. One Sandy Run Girl Scout earned the Gold Award in 2023.
Annie Lordi, a 2023 graduate of Pennsbury High School and a member of Troop 2105, earned the Gold Award by completing a project aimed at increasing awareness in her community about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers.
The Lower Makefield resident planned and hosted a STEM Symposium for local high school students to learn about different STEM opportunities. She was first interested in exploring different careers while researching different possible STEM majors for college.
As many high schoolers might have been, Annie was overwhelmed by the college application process and choosing a major. She decided that it would be beneficial to hear from some people who are successful in their current STEM careers and learn how they arrived at their current positions.
Annie contacted a multitude of STEM professionals to participate in the symposium and planned dates with Pennsbury High School to work around the school schedule. At the event, students had the opportunity to ask personal questions about each of the speakers’ careers and learn how they got to where they are today.
Annie and her team also prepared questions in advance for students to ask. Additionally, Annie conducted interviews with a select few STEM professionals, which she recorded and edited.
She posted these interviews online to a public YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCub_T17fGvj0XlZtmVjnwFQ) for more students to be able to learn about available STEM careers.
Annie hopes that the interviews can teach other students about the many different careers that are available in the STEM field. She now attends the University of Pittsburgh, where she is pursuing a major in chemistry.
In earning the Gold Award, Annie completed the tripartite, earning all three of Girl Scout’s highest awards – Bronze, Silver, and Gold!
PHOTO CAP: Annie Lordi