Types of discourse used within Girl Scouts
For 110 years Girl Scouts have followed in the footsteps of its trailblazing founder Juliet Gordon Low in fulfilling her belief that girls can do anything. Girl Scouts was founded during a time when women and girls were expected to follow strict social norms and could not yet vote in the United States. The program encouraged girls to embrace their strengths, go after their goals, develop lifelong friends, unlock their full potential, and make the world a better place. An organization that started with 18 girls in Savannah, Georgia now has over 50 million alumni nationwide. Girl Scouts is and will always be known for the impact it has had and continues to have on American history and individual girls’ lives.
Girl Scouts is dedicated to helping girls reach their goals, discover their passions, and become leaders. The mission statement of the organization is to, “build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place” (5 Ways). This mission has developed programming that allows girls to learn valuable skills, develop strong core values, and explore who they are themselves, and their interests. Girl Scouts has created an acronym using the word girl to embody the characteristics of what the organization tries to instill in each of its members; G.I.R.L. stands for Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader (G.I.R.L. Agenda). This has led the organization to harness the power in every girl to have a lifetime of adventure, leadership, and accomplishment.
Girl Scouts creates a safe environment where everyone can be themselves regardless of race, socio-economic status, or religion. Girl Scouts supports the LGBTQ+ community, speaks out against racism, and is invested in the climate crisis. Individual Girl Scout members are a part of different troops within their community divided by age level. Troops seek to have fun, make friends, have adventures, impact their communities, learn valuable life skills, and earn badges and awards. Each troop is a part of a Girl Scout Council. A Girl Scout Council is supporting office of the national organization that focuses on a specific geographic area. A Girl Scout Council can have multiple offices throughout its region, camp(s), and store(s) where handbooks, uniforms and merchandise can be purchased. A council also provides support to leaders and parents to help carry out the program; an example of this support trainings for leaders.
Within the Girl Scout community different forms of communication are used to carry out the goals and mission of the organization. The main forms of communication can be broken up into categories and subcategories. These categories are programming, traditions and ceremonies, face to face interactions, counsel and national events, the Girl Scout Research Institute, and in recent years social media.
The national organization creates guidelines and programming that plays an integral role in every troop. Girl Scout levels are categorized by school grade level; this ensures age specific programming can be distributed to each troop. Programming includes badges, awards, handbooks, journeys, the cookie program, fall product, and camp. The different levels of Girl Scouts are as follows: Daisies (kindergarten – grade 1), Brownies (grade 2-3), Juniors (grade 4-5), Cadettes (grade 6-8), Seniors (grade 9-10), and Ambassadors (grade 11-12). Every level has a handbook and several journeys to choose from that help facilitate national programming.
Every level has a handbook that helps guide the leaders and girls. A handbook contains information about the history of Girl Scouts, requirements for earning badges and awards, and information about what it means to be a Girl Scout. A Girl Scout Journey accompanies the handbook to explore a specific topic of interest, teach values, and life lessons. The Girl Scout website describes Journey’s as, “multi-session experiences in which girls dig deeper into their interests and use the skills they gain along the way to make a difference in their community. While badges show the world you’ve learned a new skill, Journey awards say, ‘I found a way to make a difference’. During a Journey, Girl Scouts do hands-on activities, connect with experts, and take the lead on a Take Action Project with their community. And once a Junior, Cadette, Senior, or Ambassador completes their journey, they’re ready to drive lasting change in their communities by going for their Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award” (Journeys). The journey and handbooks are meant to help teach life lessons, skills, help girls develop goals, and have girls make an impact on their communities. These handbooks and journeys are written by the national organization and are used in every troop in Girl Scout councils across the country.
I was a Girl Scout from kindergarten through my senior year of high school. In my own experience I viewed the handbook as a guide to completing badges and awards. A badge teaches a skill, information, or life lesson. There are hundreds of different badges a girl can earn, and they each have different themes. Some of the themes that they explore are outdoors, STEM, life skills, entrepreneurship, art, citizenship, financial literacy, health, and navigating relationships with others and yourself. A Girl Scout can earn a badge on her own or with her troop. I saw the Journey’s my troop chose to complete as a workbook that helped me grow as an individual. Every level has multiple journeys with different themes and a troop chooses one to complete that spark the interest of the girls within the troop. For instance, a few of the journeys I completed were about how to form true friendships and navigate conflict, internet safety and how media affects our lives, environmentalism, as well as other topics. Each Journey used simple language and real-world scenarios to help you reflect on your own life and relate to the topic at hand. A journey is essentially a workbook that you read, answer the questions within the book, and complete the activities within it including a Take Action Project. A Take Action Project is a specific project a Girl Scout completes that has a lasting impact on her community. Each Journey I completed helped me learn more about myself, grow as an individual, learn more about the world around me and become more invested within my community. As an upper-level Girl Scout completing a journey helped prepare me to complete the bronze, silver, and gold award.
Traditions and ceremonies also play an important role within the Girl Scout community. Traditions include the Girl Scout Promise and Law, uniforms, and the bronze, silver, and gold award. The promise and law are words Girl Scouts live by. The Girl Scout website explains the promise and law as, “Girl Scouts of all ages recite—and live by—the ideals listed in the Girl Scout Promise and Law. They remind us to do our best in being kind to others, respecting ourselves, making the world a better place, and so much more” (Promise and Law). Traditionally the promise and law are recited at formal Girl Scout events such as ceremonies, and local/national events. Girl Scouts wear their uniforms less frequently in modern times than previously throughout history. They are mostly worn at counsel wide and national events, when officially representing Girl Scouts, when selling Girl Scout Cookies, as well as at ceremonies. Daisy scouts wear a smock while the upper levels wear a vest or a sash. The different levels of Girl Scout are indicated by different colors: blue (daisy), brown (brownie), green (junior), khaki beige (cadette, senior, ambassador). Every uniform has the American flag, girl scout insignia, world trefoil pin, Girl Scout membership pin, and troop number. Different levels have specific pins, membership stars and disks, journey award patches, award pins, and badges (Uniforms). Overall, they communicate level and accomplishments. Girl Scouts can ascertain a lot about one another just by looking at each other’s vests; every vest is as unique as the girl who is wearing it.
The national organization also communicates directly with the public through the use of its events, social media, and the Girl Scout Research institute. The research institute helps inform the public of important decisions made about the future of the organization, “The Girl Scout Research Institute (GSRI) delivers data-driven insights across the Girl Scout Movement and beyond. The GSRI measures the impact of Girl Scouting and conducts original research on girls’ leadership, healthy development, and well-being. These reports are used to inform programming, public policy, and advocacy for Girl Scouting (GSRI)” (Research and Data). Social media has also become a very effective way of communication for the organization, just as it has for every other organization, company, and person.
Troops primarily communicate through face-to-face interactions. Each troop has a few volunteer adult leaders who help the girls within a troop. These leaders are typically a mother of a girl within the troop. Leaders create an environment where every girl can thrive and grow as an individual. Leaders use encouraging, and loving language. They are the ones who teach the girls within a troop the national programming. Their role is to help support each girl and help her reach her goals. An adult troop leader can greatly impact the success of a troop, and how much each girl gets out of the Girl Scout experience.
I would not be the woman I am today without my two troop leaders. My leader and co-leader fostered an environment that allowed each girl to be herself and to reach her full potential. They became invested in each of us and acted as a mother figure to all of us – they both had a daughter in our troop. They encouraged us, taught us life lessons, how to navigate tough situations, financial literacy, and helped us become confident courageous women. My leaders deeply cared about our troop and used language that reflected that. They also, when needed, helped moderate arguments between troop members when an issue would arise. My leaders encouraged us to go after our dreams and to figure out a plan and goals, so we accomplished our dreams. For instance, my troop calculated how many boxes of cookies we had to sell as a troop- based on money earned per box- to be able to travel the country each year. When we were younger our leaders would facilitate our meetings. However, we started planning, leading, and conducting our own meetings beginning in middle school- our leader’s main role was to make sure we stayed on topic and provide support when needed. The main style of communication used between leaders and troop members was through face-to-face interaction.
My troop and I functioned the same way a group of friends would, because at the core that was what we were. We communicated mainly face to face; however, as all friend groups our age do, we also communicated through group chat, social media, and facetime. We would communicate during and outside of troop meetings. Our conversations would pertain to Girl Scouts, life, and school. I was lucky enough to have three other girls by my side since our first meeting all the way through our last meeting. The number of girls throughout my troop varied year to year and we had new members join our troop through our junior year of high school. The largest my troop ever became was 34 girls, this was when we were younger. When I graduated there were ten of us in our troop – including myself. We went to Girl Scout camp together, camped as a troop, travelled the world and country, earned badges and awards, went to national and local Girl Scout events, hosted local events, sold Girl Scout Cookies, and fall product, went on adventures, and became lifelong friends.
The forms of communication within Girl Scout community are effective in communicating the organizations mission. Research conducted by the Girl Scout Research Institute prove the program’s effectiveness. An article written about Girl Scout Alumni states that, “Girl Scout alums say they have Girl Scouting to thank for many of their life achievements. Girl Scouts: set them on a path for achievement and success, connected them to a network of girls and women around the world, developed their passions and interests in the outdoors; business and science, technology, engineering, and math” (Alum Difference). Research conducted for the same article ascertains that 7 in 10 (68%) of Girl scout Alumni say that Girl Scouts had a positive impact on their lives (Alum Difference). Girl Scouts helps girls explore their interests, their strengths, and their communities. Research comparing other women to Girl Scout Alumni has shown that, “Girl Scout alums are more satisfied with life and with their relationships, education, financial circumstances, and careers than non-alums. 88% are satisfied with their lives overall versus 83% of non-alums. 87% say that they have been successful in achieving their goals in life versus 80% of non-alums. Friendships 88% vs. 81%, education 86% vs. 77%, career 68% vs. 60%” (Alum Difference). Girl Scouts makes lasting impacts on the girls involved; this proves that the forms of communication are effective.
The different forms of communication that the Girl Scouts use has helped its success as an organization. The multiple types of communication help communicate the mission and goals of the organization in different ways in an effort to connect with people of all learning styles. The effective communication channels used within the Girl Scout community help the Girl Scouts live out their mission statement and contribute to their success!
Works Cited
“5 Ways Girl Scouts Builds Girl Leaders.” Google, Google, https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/adobe-acrobat-pdf-edit-co/efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj?hl=en-GB.
“The G.I.R.L. Agenda Powered by Girl Scouts Launches: Girl Scouts.” Girl Scouts of the USA, https://www.girlscouts.org/en/footer/press-room/2017/g-i-r-l-agenda-powered-by-girl-scouts-launches-promote-civic-action1.html#:~:text=We’re%202.6%20million%20strong,%E2%84%A2%20to%20change%20the%20world.
The Girl Scout Alum Difference – Girl Scouts of the USA. https://www.girlscouts.org/content/dam/gsusa/forms-and-documents/about/research/GSUSA_GSRI_2021_The-Girl-Scout-Alum-Difference.pdf.
“Journeys: Girl Scouts.” Girl Scouts of the USA, https://www.girlscouts.org/en/members/for-girl-scouts/badges-journeys-awards/Journeys.html.
“Promise and Law.” Girl Scouts of the USA, https://www.girlscouts.org/en/discover/about-us/what-girl-scouts-do/promise-and-law.html.
“Research and Data.” Girl Scouts of the USA, https://www.girlscouts.org/en/discover/about-us/research-and-data.html.
“Uniforms – Insignia List and Placement: Girl Scouts.” Girl Scouts of the USA, https://www.girlscouts.org/en/members/for-girl-scouts/uniforms.html.
CAROLYN FREY 