Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont is pleased to announce that Jesseca Ballard, Leicester, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting.
Ballard, daughter of Patrick and Jennifer Ballard and a member of Girl Scout Troop 30212, wanted to bring awareness to children about how to properly greet and interact with cats and dogs so that less children will get injured and less animals will end up in animal shelters. She created an in-person presentation for elementary school children, as well as a website that further explained her project and the Gold Award that she distributed to animal shelters across the country and internationally.
By earning the Girl Scout Gold Award, Ballard has become a community leader. Her accomplishments reflect leadership and citizenship skills that set her apart.
“Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award designation is truly a remarkable achievement, and this young woman exemplifies leadership in all its forms,” said Lane Cook, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont. “She saw a need in her community and took action. Her extraordinary dedication, perseverance and leadership, is making the world a better place.”
The Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting; it recognizes girls in grades 9 through 12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects. After the minimum requirements are completed, the Gold Award project is the culmination of a girl’s demonstration of self-discipline, leadership ability, time management, creativity, initiative and a significant mastery of skills. Each girl must dedicate a minimum of 80 hours to planning and implementing her project, which must benefit the community and have long lasting impact. Since 1916, girls have successfully answered the call to go gold, an act that indelibly marks them as accomplished members of their communities and the world.
Some universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award recipients, and girls who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their achievements.
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Jesseca also won a $2,500 scholarship from Sweet Briar College for her Gold Award project.
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