Carson Bock, a Girl Scout from Signal Mountain, has earned the inaugural Gold Award Scholarship from the national organization for her exceptional work on visitor guidebooks for hospice providers in Chattanooga.
As part of Girl Scouts of the USA celebrating its 2021 class of Gold Award Girl Scouts, the organization selected one Gold Award Girl Scout from nearly every local council to receive a $2,000 scholarship thanks to sponsorship from Arconic Foundation and Kappa Delta Foundation.
Ms. Bock was nominated by Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians, which includes 46 counties from southwest Virginia, through eastern Tennessee and northern Georgia, and had 29 Gold Award winners across the region.
“We are proud of all our council’s Gold Award recipients and especially proud of Carson Bock for being selected a scholarship recipient by our national organization,” said Lynne Fugate, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians. “It is a high honor to be a Gold Award Girl Scout as it requires hours of hard work and determination, extraordinary leadership and the demonstration of measurable and sustainable impact that drives lasting change in the community and beyond.”
Inspired after she experienced a loss in the family, Ms. Bock’s Gold Award project eased trip planning and supported other families affected by grief. Each guidebook included restaurant and grocery listings, self-care tips and more.
Since 1916, thousands of Girl Scouts across the country have earned the organization’s highest honor for demonstrating extraordinary leadership and making sustainable change in their communities. Nationally, only six percent of all eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award.
“We are so proud of our 2021 Gold Award Girl Scouts for the incredible work they have done driving lasting, positive change,” GSUSA Interim CEO Judith Batty said. “Gold Award Girl Scouts set themselves apart from their peers through their perseverance and passion – and they build their resumes and open up scholarship opportunities in the process. In addition to changing the world around them for the better, they transform their own lives by building skills for academic, career and personal success.”
The 2021 class of Gold Award Girl Scouts will be celebrated at the organization-wide Girl Scouts Change the World virtual event on Oct. 9, sponsored by the LEGO Group, a partner that inspires the builders of tomorrow and believes creativity will rebuild the world. Current Girl Scouts grades four-12, parents and volunteers can register by Oct. 5 to be inspired by the 2021 Gold Award Girl Scouts and discover how they can make the world a better place. Attendees will be able to engage in sessions about mental wellness and girls’ rights.
Gold Award honorees across the country invested more than 350,000 hours in taking action to destigmatize conversations about mental health, raise awareness about racism in the healthcare system, organize a youth movement for environmental advocacy, document teens’ experiences of the pandemic in state archives, increase LGBTQ+ inclusion and more.
As they take action to transform their world, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re preparing to be leaders. Members of the 2021 class reported they’ve become focused project managers (89 percent), confident public speakers (84 percent), strong decision-makers (67 percent) and empathetic leaders (59 percent).
To help finance the Gold Award projects, the Girl Scout members generated funds, including from their Girl Scout Cookie earnings, which they learned how to budget. These skills give them an edge personally and professionally – research shows that 99 percent of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives. Also, according to recent research, most Gold Award Girl Scouts get a boost in earning academic scholarships. Those who join the armed services often enter at a rank above other recruits.