Gold Award Girl Scout - Rebekah (RJ) Schoen
Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming Celebrates International Day of the Girl by Honoring National Gold Award Scholarship Recipient
Billings, MT— October 11, 2022 — Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming (GSMW) is proud to recognize Rebekah (RJ) Schoen, this year’s recipient of the national 2022 Gold Award Scholarship.
Nationally, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is recognizing the 3,500 members of the 2022 Gold Award Girl Scout class who identified the root cause of pressing issues in their communities, created sustainable solutions, and took action to earn the Gold Award: Girl Scouts’ highest achievement. This year’s class of world-changers invested over 300,000 hours in addressing real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and emotional wellness, and gender inequality in STEM.
Schoen, who is currently in their second year at Michigan State University, earned the Gold Award in July 2021 by addressing period poverty and stigma at their high school while advocating for young people in their community. According to Schoen, “I decided to do the Period Project my senior year because I wanted to choose a cause that empowered women in my community in a multifaceted way while still being true to my gender identity.” Through their Period Project, Schoen partnered with the national organization PERIOD to establish a PERIOD chapter in their high school. The PERIOD chapter created a safe space for students to collaborate and advocate for change for themselves and others. They hosted workshops with educators on how to address period poverty in the classroom, held period product drives, and created educational content for social media.
GSUSA’s 111 councils were each provided the opportunity to nominate one of their outstanding Gold Award Girl Scouts to receive a national scholarship for over $2,000 each. The GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship recipients represent $225,000 invested, made possible by Insight Global, The Coca-Cola Foundation, and Kappa Delta Foundation. “RJ was chosen by GSMW for the GSUSA Gold Award scholarship because their project demonstrated extraordinary leadership, measurable and sustainable impact, and addressed an issue of national and global significance” says Bridget Moore, GSMW’s Member Support Manager who oversees the council’s Highest Award program. “RJ’s project addressed the issue of period poverty in their high school and had a multifaceted approach to tackling the issue that resulted in opening up conversations and raised awareness for the problem in their community and beyond.”
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs. “I’d like to tell younger Girl Scouts to take advantage of the higher awards system. It gave me such a new level of confidence, passion, and skills that I am able to rely upon” Schoen said. “If you are interested in making change in your community, country, or even world – this is the perfect time to start.”
To view the list of the 3,500 outstanding 2022 Gold Award projects, visit girlscouts.org/goldawardclass.
Girls in grades K–12 can join Girl Scouts any time during the year to begin their Girl Scout journey. As girls grow with Girl Scouts, they learn hands-on leadership skills they’ll use to make their mark through the Gold Award and beyond. To join or volunteer, visit www.gsmw.org/join.
