How Girl Scouts prepared me to advocate for the environment

As a life-long Girl Scout (and current leader), I’ve recently reflected on how Girl Scouts helped shape my life and career.

Basic skills in Brownies

Like many girls, I joined Brownie Girl Scouts in first grade. I sold cookies and earned badges by learning about how the plumbing in my house worked or rolling up my own sleeping bag to prepare for a camping trip. I learned the Girl Scout promise and the Brownie Smile Song, wore my uniform to school on meeting days and marched in our local parade. Though it was one of many after-school activities I was involved in, I especially liked it because it was fun to go camping and go on field trips, like staying overnight at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, with all my friends in the troop. 

Photo by Staff | Used by permission

Older Girl Scouts learn valuable skills

Unlike many girls, I stayed in Girl Scouts past elementary school, even after many of my friends left for other activities. As we got older, we got to do more cool stuff like going to Broadway shows, canoeing, taking longer overnight trips and lighting the campfire ourselves. We started to be responsible for leading the activities – teaching younger girls the songs, how to roast marshmallows, how to pitch a tent or helping them glue dried macaroni onto a paper plate. I took on more responsibilities – I became a camp counselor at Girl Scout Camp (Camp DeWitt) and volunteered at younger troop meetings. 

Photo by Staff | Used by permission

What I didn’t realize at the time was that I was learning a set of skills that I would use in my professional career. 

• I learned to plan an activity, think through the audience and figure out which materials we needed and how to get them. 
• I loved songs,so I spent hours teaching music and games, learning how to break a complicated song with hand motions (and sometimes dance moves) into bite sized pieces so that everyone could sing it without ever seeing the words on a page. 
• I learned about conflict resolution – if there are 10 five-year-olds and only three glue bottles, how can you help them share? 
• And I learned that I could do almost anything I wanted – if I had a good idea, there were adults around me to support me carrying it out.

Spending time outdoors can teach you to love nature

The other thing I learned through Girl Scouts was to love the outdoors, both through camping trips and, most importantly, during my years at summer camp. I didn’t realize it at the time but spending every summer outside made me love the trees and the sound of running water from the brook. If I’d worked at the mall or waited tables, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to hike in the rain and see the water droplets on the leaves, lie in a field looking at the stars after everyone was asleep or see wildlife that occasionally revealed itself (shrieks of the campers aside).

Organizing for a higher purpose 

After college, I became an environmental organizer, working on campaigns to end mercury pollution from power plants, stop water pollution from factory farms and convince universities to reduce their energy use. I recruited and trained volunteers. We weren’t gluing macaroni onto paper plates. Instead, we asked people to take action on important issues, not much different from asking someone to buy Girl Scout cookies or donate craft supplies. We memorized stories about our campaigns, just like the songs of my youth. And I was leading groups, inspiring people to volunteer or work on campaigns, using the same talents as I did to convince a group of campers to keep hiking and not turn around quite yet.

Today I use all of those same skills to run Environment America’s public lands program – working to protect nature for wildlife and humans now and in the future. I’m still recruiting and motivating people by telling stories and using my conflict resolution and other communication skills. I’m motivated every day by the idea that someone will be able to hike through or set up camp in an area that I’m working to protect. One day, I hope the skills I learned as a Girl Scout will help ensure that wildlife can live undisturbed when the occasional group of humans comes through on foot, leaving no trace.