About Hearts Of Gold - Reflections from Gold Award Girl Scouts
Identifying a project, overcoming challenges, personal connections, outcomes, and special moments: hear from Gold Award Girl Scouts sharing their stories related to Girl Scout Gold Award projects.
Ep 173 Two Girls One World: Bridging Literacy with Mariam
Mariam created a project titled Two Girls One World: Bridging Cultures Through Literacy to address the reading crisis among young students by increasing representation in children's books. She authored and illustrated a diverse book called The Adventures of Dolly and Kaitlyn to expose young readers to different cultures, and she developed an accompanying ten-chapter curriculum with matching YouTube videos and worksheets aligned with national literacy guidelines. After testing her curriculum directly with fourth-grade classrooms in Metro Detroit, her work earned her the Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan Precious Metal Award and the 2026 Young Woman of Distinction Award.
More About Mariam: Mariam Dukhan has been a Girl Scout since first grade, earning her Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards along the way. She's a competitive tennis player and figure skater, and stays involved in her community through activities like Model UN and the Mayor's Youth Council. Mariam is naturally outgoing and loves striking up conversations with new people, always curious to hear different perspectives and learn how others see the world - a curiosity that travel only fuels further. That same love of talking to people from all walks of life is what draws her to dentistry: she's excited by the idea of connecting with all kinds of patients, building relationships, and making a difference in her community one conversation at a time. In the future, Mariam hopes to become a dentist and eventually grow into commercial dentistry, owning her own practices.
Project Website: sites.google.com/view/oneworldtwofriends/home (https://sites.google.com/view/oneworldtwofriends/home)
Book:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZWVWX4C?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FZWVWX4C?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback)
3 Sept 2026
Ep 172 Hands-Only CPR: Akshara Arvind’s Gold Award Mission to Save Lives
Akshara Arvind, an EMT and cadet with the Summerville Rescue Squad, focused her Girl Scout Gold Award project on addressing the lack of bystander intervention during cardiac arrests. Recognizing that fear of disease transmission, the complexity of traditional CPR training, and low confidence keep people from acting, Akshara launched an initiative focused on hands-only CPR. She taught open-access, 20-minute hands-only CPR sessions at her local rescue squad building and adapted her training for virtual audiences via Zoom. To ensure lasting impact, she authored educational materials, posted instructional videos on YouTube, and built a website, equipping her community with simple, accessible life-saving skills.
More from Akshara:
I am a Girl Scout Ambassador who has been a Girl Scout for over ten years. I have greatly enjoyed being a Girl Scout, whether as a Daisy selling cookies or as an Ambassador working toward my Gold Award. Girl Scouts has offered me invaluable leadership experience and never fails to challenge me. I am very grateful for the opportunities I have had to participate in; for one, I gave a presentation on my Gold Award project at the Girl Scout You Lead Summit. In addition, over the last two summers, I traveled to Costa Rica and Iceland with fellow Girl Scouts from New Jersey. These trips have broadened my perspective and allowed me to make many new friends. As a junior in high school, I am currently looking at colleges and plan to major in neuroscience. After college, I hope to pursue medical school and become a doctor.
6 Aug 2026
Ep 171 Suds for Students: Combatting Chronic Absenteeism with Care Packages
Carolina Quinones joins the podcast to share the story of her Girl Scout Gold Award project, which set out to combat chronic absenteeism by addressing a lack of laundry resources for students in New York City. When faced with a massive $150,000 structural roadblock to install washing machines at her school, Carolina refused to give up on her passion for the community. Instead, she pivoted her project to raise funds and research cost-effective alternatives, ultimately creating 74 comprehensive laundry care packages for students living in temporary housing. Packed with essentials like laundry sheets, dryer balls, and fabric refresher spray, her project directly supported local families while raising awareness about the unseen connection between clean clothes and school attendance.
More from Carolina:
My name is Carolina Quinones. I am 18 years old, and a Senior at Fontbonne Hall Academy, a small, all girls Catholic high school in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. I am also a Girl Scout and have been since kindergarten. Girl Scouts has given me the opportunity to participate in so many rewarding programs, such as the Journey for Justice destination. I am also a recipient of the Girl Scout Silver Award and Girl Scout Gold Award. For my Girl Scout Silver Award project in 9th grade; I worked to create a small library for students at my former middle school. I most recently earned my Girl Scout Gold Award. My project combated chronic absenteeism rooted in a lack of access to laundry resources. I am also chairperson of my school's DEI club and president/founder of Speech and Debate Club. I am pursuing my passion for advocacy as a political science major in Canada with the hopes of one day being elected into a position which will allow me to enact change on a greater scale and help more people.
Reach and audience
Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.
YouTube views
191,705
Score snapshot 15 Sept 2025
Apple Podcasts (US)
5.0 / 5
3 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 88 / 100
A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.
Quality
92
Social presence
91
YouTube
82
Engagement
81
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