Danielle Johnson of Girl Scout Troop 80019 in Alamance County has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for a community leadership and service project that addresses behavioral management in local elementary school students by teaching them to calm down on their own.
Aiming to make learning easier for kindergarten through fifth-grade students and teachers, the Girl Scout Ambassador partnered with Elon Elementary School for her Gold Award project, “Calm Down Kits,” to help students learn how to self-regulate their emotions through mindfulness strategies, relieve tensions within the classroom and limit distractions from other students.
“Studies have shown an increase in misbehavior in students post-pandemic, and there has been a dramatic increase in behavioral referrals to the office at Elon since remote learning concluded,” said Johnson, a Girl Scout of 10 years. “My goal was to create a more productive, less distractive learning environment for students and teachers at Elon Elementary.”
Danielle designed a Calm Down Kit for all classrooms at the elementary school in English and Spanish that teach kids behavioral management strategies and help them better understand their emotions like anger, frustration and overstimulation in the classroom setting. She also hosted workshops to train teachers about the kits and encouraged them to use Social Emotional Learning (SEL) like reaching outside of classroom instruction to create a positive environment for growth.
Girls in high school can earn the Girl Scout Gold Award by creating sustainable change on a community or world issue. They address the root cause of a problem, plan and implement innovative solutions to drive change and lead a team of people to success. Each Girl Scout must dedicate a minimum of 80 hours to planning and carrying out their project that benefits the community and has a long-lasting impact.
Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they are the leaders our community and world need, and those from the Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont (GSCP2P) council have created community gardens, addressed issues in foster care, combated bullying in schools and so much more.
This Gold Award is sustained past Danielle’s involvement as self-regulation is now a focus of the curriculum at Elon Elementary School. The Girl Scout said, “100% of the teachers who responded to my survey stated that students are showing signs of self-awareness and are now able to identify what they are feeling. They have been taught breathing techniques, stretches and other methods to release their tension in place of acting out and disrupting learning time.”
Thousands of Girl Scouts across the country earn the Girl Scout Gold Award each year, which first began in 1916 as the Golden Eaglet. Earning the Gold Award opens doors to scholarships, preferred admission tracks for college and amazing career opportunities. In 2024, 40 GSCP2P Girl Scouts earned their Gold Award.
To learn more about earning a Girl Scout Gold Award, visit https://www.girlscoutsp2p.org/en/members/for-girl-scouts/badges-journeys-awards/highest-awards/gold-award.html.
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