| Gold Award | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | Girl Scouts of the USA | ||
| Created | 1980 | ||
|
|
|||
The Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA. Only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award.[1] Awardees are honored at councilwide ceremonies.
Contents |
The Gold Award is the first award that is exclusively for Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts.
Previously, the highest awards were:
The Silver Fish (1912–1916) was originally the highest award achievable, but this was technically a Girl Guiding award and no American girl ever earned it.[3][4]
Senior Girl Scouts aged 14–18 are eligible to earn the award. The guidelines are currently in transition to include the Girl Scout Journey program.
The new requirements take effect in fall of 2011. They include:
If the majority of work will be done after fall of 2011, troops and girls must use the new requirements. If most of the work will be done before that, troops and girls can choose either set of guidelines.
The old requirements updated in 2004 include:
Once these steps have been met, girls use their vision for change to complete a service project that reaches beyond the Girl Scout organization and provides lasting benefit to the girl's larger community. It requires a minimum of 65 hours of work in planning and actually completing the project. All of these hours must be completed by the Awardee, and though it is encouraged that the girl use troop members and other from the community to help her, their time spent does not count towards her 65 hour requirement. Plans must be developed with the aid of an advisor, then a project proposal must be submitted and approved by the girl's local council before starting the project, and a final report after the project's completion.
The Gold Award emblem is presented as a pin resembling an eight-pointed gold star with rays radiating from a central, polished trefoil.
Recipients of the Gold Award who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their achievements.[5][6][7] Some universities and colleges offer scholarships to Gold Award recipients. Yearly, GSUSA selects ten girls to be Young Women of Distinction based on their Gold Award projects.
The Gold Award is often compared to the Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America.