Josefina Pimentel from Carbondale Has Earned the Girl Scout Gold Award

Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSSI) is pleased to announce that Josefina Pimentel from Carbondale has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. 

For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, called Creative Writing: Express Your Dreams, Josefina held several creative writing clinics for 55 children at Unity Point School, the Carbondale Library and the Boys and Girls Club of Carbondale. Josefina said she wanted to pass on her love of writing to other youth living in the Carbondale area. 

“Through my Girl Scout Gold Award Project, I had the opportunity to work with children from many different circumstances: wealthy and low income, international and local, boys and girls, etc. Working with them and getting to see their faces light up when they were proud of their writing was an amazing experience. I also learned better time management skills and how to be a leader and role model for children,” Josefina said.

Josefina is the daughter of Susan Walch-Pimentel and Ed Pimentel. She will graduate from Carbondale Community High School in 2017 and has been a Girl Scout for 11 years.

The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, recognizes a Girl Scout's commitment to excellence as she develops skills and values to meet present and future challenges in her life. To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, a Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador must design and carry out a project that fulfills a need within a girl’s community, creates change, and is sustainable. The project must be completed with a suggested minimum of 80 hours of work. Only about 5 percent of eligible girls earn the prestigious Gold Award.

Have You Seen GSSI's New Web Platform?

GSSI launched a new website on April 24!  

While the URL remains the same - www.gsofsi.org - GSSI's updated website, which is built on the Adobe platform, will make it easier to find the information you need, as well as offer improved data security.  Searching for events, programs and forms will be simpler than ever before! 

You will notice that our new website looks very similar to other Girl Scout websites across the nation.  GSSI's web update is part of the Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI), a Movement-wide business transformation which puts girl, parent and volunteer customers at the center of GSSI’s efforts. 

Through implementation of CEI, including significant process improvements, staffing alignment and training, and technology tools, Girl Scouts is improving volunteers’, parents’ and girls’ experiences, making it easier and less time consuming for volunteers to effectively complete tasks. For the first time, Girl Scouts is investing in shared tools and technology that will empower us to dramatically improve the Volunteer and Girl Experience. From joining and getting oriented, to managing a troop and renewing membership – being a volunteer will be easier, more manageable and more enjoyable. This results in an enhanced Girl Experience.

The ultimate goal of CEI is to provide girls with exciting, meaningful and impactful experiences and to ensure every girl who wants to participate in Girl Scouting, can do so, with a caring adult to support her.

Three key technology tools support the initiative – Volunteer Systems fueled by Salesforce, the Volunteer Toolkit, and a new Web Platform.

Volunteer Systems: A best-in-class membership and customer care database that is fueled by Salesforce, which also includes the Salesforce Marketing Cloud, a digital marketing tool to help communicate with volunteers and parents. Volunteer Systems will roll out in August 2017.
  

In addition, the new and improved Web Platform will deliver a uniform brand experience to customers, as well as improved data security.  It is also the gateway for the NEW Volunteer Toolkit

Girl Scouts' Volunteer Toolkit (or VTK): helps volunteers access the information and resources they need through their personal computers or mobile devices, and stay better connected to troop leaders and parents. It makes forming and maintaining a troop easier than ever before, which means more time spent on girls and less on administrative tasks. Volunteers can plan out a whole year of impactful activities to ensure their girls receive the best Girl Scout experience possible. 

The Volunteer Toolkit will offer sample K-5 badge-based year plans, K-5 journey-based year plans and help making meeting plans. It focuses on the pillars of our program where we know girls benefit most, especially in a girl-only environment: the outdoors; STEM; life skills and entrepreneurship.

The Volunteer Toolkit will be available through our website, www.gsofsi.org, after the Volunteer Systems and new Web Platform are in place. 

While CEI attends to the needs of K-5 troop leaders, parents and girls to start, Girl Scouts plans to expand the reach to girls and adults participating in delivery models beyond the troop, and to middle and high school girls.

Elizabeth Burr from Collinsville Has Earned the Girl Scout Gold Award

Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSSI) is pleased to announce that Elizabeth Burr from Collinsville has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. 

For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, called Camps in Motion, Elizabeth visited GSSI’s camps and filmed the camp properties and facilities as well as girls enjoying various programs and activities held at camp. Through her Girl Scout Gold Award, Elizabeth produced four promotion camp videos that GSSI can use to share information about the camp properties for girls and parents or to show potential funders who support outdoors and camping for girls. “I’ve always had a passion for film making, and I thought I would combine that with my passion for camps to complete my Girl Scout Gold Award,” Elizabeth said.

“I feel as though I learned to be a good leader and role model, as I saw many young Girl Scouts looking up to me as I filmed at camp throughout this project,” Elizabeth added.

Elizabeth is the daughter of Marvin and Allyson Burr. She will graduate from Collinsville High School in 2017 and has been a Girl Scout for 13 years.

The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, recognizes a Girl Scout's commitment to excellence as she develops skills and values to meet present and future challenges in her life. To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, a Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador must design and carry out a project that fulfills a need within a girl’s community, creates change, and is sustainable. The project must be completed with a suggested minimum of 80 hours of work. Only about 5 percent of eligible girls earn the prestigious Gold Award.