Three students from Kane County will each receive the Girl Scout Gold Award on April 27 at the Girl Scouts of Northern Illinois (GSNI) annual meeting in DeKalb. The Gold Award is the highest honor given by the Girl Scouts.
Grace Bourbon of West Dundee, Alaina Nelson-Carrillo of Aurora and Kaitlin Liu of Maple Park were all named Girl Scout Gold Award winners.
Bourbon’s Gold Award is for a project aimed at improving everyone's access to family geneaology and family military records. In her project she collaborated with the Dundee Township Historical Society and VFW to explore current genealogical tools for her community and created instructional guides for their use. Guests of the Historical Society now use her guides and her referenced genealogy programs and resources while doing computer research.
Nelson-Carrillo's Gold Award is for a project addressing the increase of mental health concerns in teens and tween girls. In her project she created mental health-based workshops using art lessons and techniques. This created safe and creative spaces for them to express themselves through art. The new artists then were able to display their work in a community art show hosted by Alaina and her team.
Liu's Gold Award is for a project aimed at inspiring girls to be a part of the cutting-edge future in STEM using Girl Scout badges. In her project she created Tech Camp GSNI and led a team of more than 50 volunteers to create a Maker Spaces at Camps Dean and McCormick. At Camp Dean her team renovated White Tail Lodge and brought in robotics, tablets, a smart TV, 3D printer, microscopes, sewing machines, and more. At Camp McCormick her team set up two Maker Space cabinets in the Welcome Lodge full of high-tech equipment.