Annie Cai of Pleasanton Receives Girl Scouts' Highest Honor for Inspiring Entrepreneurship, Innovation in Local Students

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA — Girl Scouts of Northern California (GSNorCal) is proud to announce that local Girl Scout, Annie Cai, was selected by Girl Scouts of the USA as one of the 2015 National Young Women of Distinction, the highest honor in Girl Scouting, for her Gold Award project, Imaginarium.

This special honor and designation by Girl Scouts of the USA showcases Annie’s extraordinary leadership over a project that had measureable and sustainable impact, and addressed a local challenge related to a national issue. Only ten girls from around the country receive this distinction each year. Annie will be honored in a ceremony hosted by the Girl Scouts of the USA and be featured in a livestreaming TED Talk–­­style event with her fellow National Young Women of Distinction. Both the recognition ceremony and livestream will take place on October 7 in New York.

For Imaginarium, Annie’s focus was on developing contemporary career skills and to inspire innovation in K—12 students. From Annie’s perspective, there is a significant gap between what the career world expects from students, and what the educational system provides. Annie designed a career development conference for middle and high school students to transform their creative concepts into formal business plans, while exposing them to the subjects of business management, finance and communications in the process.

“I wanted to inspire entrepreneurial creativity in the younger generation so that they can not only set up innovative businesses, but also then better our society in terms of gender equality, domestic policy, and socio-economic standards,” said Annie, 18, who is now a freshman at University of California, Berkeley.

Hosted at Amador Valley High School, 30 middle school students participated in an all-day conference to invent and develop new business concepts: from apps that promoted safe driving to designing entire bathroom systems that reused water. With the guidance of experienced business professionals, students turned initial brainstorm sessions into detailed business structures with an operations breakdown, a financial budget, and a marketing plan. The students then presented their business plan in front of a panel of judges and received direct feedback on their business knowledge and public speaking abilities.

“We made sure that we didn’t change their dreams, but merely revised the way that they organized and presented those dreams, said Annie. “This way, we only amplified their creative inventions; we didn’t crush them.”

Both the Kappa Delta Foundation and Girl Scouts of the USA each generously provided a $5,000 college scholarship to all of the ten National Young Women of Distinction, including Annie. Although Annie is now currently studying abroad in the United Kingdom for her freshman year at college, Imaginarium created a lasting ripple effect at Amador Valley High. Along with a small group of students, Annie started a new campus-based store managed, marketed and operated entirely by student staff, helped organize a monthly business professionals panel of speakers as part of Amador’s curriculum, and inspire a TEDx event around leadership, which the school plans to host in the future.

“Annie’s vision and execution for Imaginarium is a remarkable achievement, and we are so proud to honor the incredible work which earned her this distinction,” said Marina Park, CEO of GSNorCal who will join Annie at the October 7 ceremony in New York. “Annie exemplifies the type of thoughtful analysis and leadership from our local girl scouts who are fortunate to gain intimate access to the culture of innovation that is unique to Northern California.

“The Girl Scout organization pushes us to grow individually without negative judgement from others,” adds Annie. “This is exactly what I wanted to bring to Imaginarium: a space where we could take the student’s own ideas and expand upon them using their visions in a space without judgement. Thus, the students can become more creative, more free thinking, and more confident in their own ideas.”

Earning the Gold Award is just one of the fun and amazing things girls can do as part of Girl Scouts. To join Girl Scouts or learn more about volunteering, please visit: www.girlscouts.org/join.

Girl Scouts of Northern California serves a diverse membership of 50,000 girls and over 32,000 adult volunteers in a 19-county area from Gilroy to the Oregon border. To learn more visit GirlScoutsNorCal.org

We’re Girl Scouts of the USA

We’re 2.8 million strong—2 million girls and 800,000 adults who believe girls can change the world. It began over 100 years ago with one woman, Girl Scouts’ founder Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low, who believed in the power of every girl. She organized the first Girl Scout troop on March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, and every year since, we’ve made her vision a reality, helping girls discover their strengths, passions, and talents. Today we continue the Girl Scout mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. We’re the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. And with programs for girls from coast to coast and across the globe, Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to do something amazing. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, visit www.girlscouts.org.

About Kappa Delta

Kappa Delta Sorority is a national organization for women with more than 230,000 members, 159 active collegiate chapters, and more than 500 chartered alumnae chapters nationwide. In 2009, the sorority created the Confidence Coalition, an alliance of organizations and companies committed to promoting confidence in girls and women. In 2010, Kappa Delta established International Girls Day to empower girls to reach their potential. It also created International Women’s Friendship Month for women everywhere. Kappa Delta is active in a number of philanthropic endeavors, including the prevention of child abuse and confidence-building programming with Girl Scouts of the USA. Kappa Delta’s national headquarters is in Memphis, Tennessee. For more information, visit www.kappadelta.org.