Macey Long Earns Girl Scouts Highest Honor While Making Her World

Macey Long Earns Girl Scouts Highest Honor While Making Her World a Better Place

S.T.E.A.M. club at West Pottsgrove Elementary

(Stowe, Pa)–– Today there are more female leaders than ever – but still far too few at the very top. The leadership gap begins in girlhood. That’s where the Girl Scouts help.

The Girl Scouts Research Institute has found that two-thirds of girls want to be leaders, but only one in five believes she has the skills to lead.

Macey Long has been working over the last year to earn her Gold Award and will be recognized when she receives the Girl Scout Gold Award at Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania’s annual Spring Girl Scout Achievement Ceremony.

Ms. Long encouraged children from kindergarten through second grade to get involved with S.T.E.A.M. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math) by working with the Technology and Science Clubs at West Pottsgrove Elementary after school for over a year and providing an exhibit with some of these elementary school students at the Pottsgrove High School Tech Expo. She provided an environment that convinced the children that learning about S.T.E.A.M. is important and interesting.

Ms. Long plans to attend college next fall for biomedical engineering. She is currently a 12^th grade honors student at Pottsgrove High School and is involved in multiple other community programs, such as Spark the Wave. Ms. Long has earned her Leadership in Action award, the Program Aid award, multiple service bars, her Bronze Award, and her Silver Award. She will begin to earn her Volunteer in Training award in the next few weeks wherein she runs programming for a younger Girl Scout troop. By earning her Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards in Girl Scouting, Ms. Long has earned the “Trifecta” of the top awards, which is considered a large accomplishment.

The first Girl Scout Gold Awards were conferred in 1980, having evolved from a long line of special Girl Scout awards going back as far as 1919 into an elite honor.

For many, the leadership skills, goal setting, and sense of community and commitment that come from earning the Gold Award set the foundation for a lifetime of active citizenship. An amazing two-thirds of women in corporate, political, and philanthropic leadership roles today are former Girl Scouts. A growing number of colleges and universities have recognized the achievements and leadership abilities of Girl Scout Gold Award recipients by establishing scholarship programs for them.

These projects go beyond performing a community service; they encompass organizational, leadership, and networking skills that the girls can carry with them as they strive to become leaders. They are living the Girl Scouts’ mission to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Gold Awardees are also often eligible to enter the United States Armed Services at an advanced level and salary, through recognition of the high standard of leadership evidenced by earning the Gold Award.

Chartered in May 2007, Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP) serves over 41,000 girls and 14,000 volunteers in Philadelphia, Bucks, Chester, Montgomery, Delaware, Lehigh, Berks, Northhampton, and Carbon Counties with premier leadership development programs. GSEP is the largest girl-serving organization in Pennsylvania.

GSEP is headquartered in Miquon, Pennsylvania with service centers located in Valley Forge, Allentown, Reading, Delaware County, and Northeast Philadelphia. More information is available at www.gsep.org or call 215-564-2030.