By Alisa Gershman
Within the Hillsborough County School District, students are taking leaps and bounds to achieve great things in and out of their academic lives. Balancing extracurriculars with a heavy workload is a rigorous task. Some find the right balance and thrive under these pressures.
One student is Isabel Sofía Santiago Reyes, a freshman at Newsome High School. Reyes recently achieved the Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girls Scouts, for volunteer work at Camp Dorothy Thomas. She was also selected to participate in a Girl Scout USA Destination trip and traveled to India with other Girl Scouts from around the world.
Her Girl Scouts journey began at a young age, when she joined to meet other girls her age and connect with people during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As the years progressed, she began to realize the amazing opportunities the program held and the many scholarships she could earn for college, as well as the travel chances to get to see the world around her. This is when she decided to set out for the Gold Award.
The goal of the award is to identify an issue within the Girl Scout’s community and create a solution through action and problem solving. The project is designed to show girls the importance of community and volunteer service, requiring that they complete at least 80 hours of work for their project. Reyes said she managed to achieve her award “on a tight six-month schedule and logging 136 hours of work.”
Her project proved to be challenging, as she took on the goal of water conservation for her local camp, Camp Dorothy Thomas, where she sought to make its water consumption more environmentally friendly. She worked with the Southwest Florida Water Management District to install efficient shower heads and timers to control the water flow. The project was a success, and she achieved her Gold Award.
From there, she took the trip of a lifetime to Pune, India, where she met with other Girl Scouts, such as those from Japan. Reyes applied online with an essay and went through an interview process to receive a spot for the trip. She recounted some of her time there, saying, “We met up with some of the Nivedita guides to celebrate Holi in Sangam’s campground. The Sangam staff had prepared colored powder that we threw and smeared each other with. It was so much fun.”
Reyes’ achievements are admirable, as she continues to improve the community around her and help those through her work in Girl Scouts of the USA.
To find a local Girl Scout troop or find out more about Girl Scouts of the USA’s award programs, visit www.gswcf.org.
