By: Rowan S.
Do you know much about the Girl Scout Silver Award? What about epilepsy? Though the two may seem like completely separate subjects, Girl Scout Cadette Lauren can teach you about both. Through her website, Epilepsy from Inside Out, you can learn about this condition, how to cope with it, and myths that surround it. Not only is it free, it provides several resources for family, friends, and individuals who have or are affected by epilepsy. And in the following interview, which took place at the end of May, you can learn about the website itself, the girl who created it, and the process behind her Girl Scout Silver Award project. Please note that this interview was edited for length and clarity. Enjoy!
Rowan - Lime Green Giraffe: Tell me about your Girl Scout Silver Award.
Lauren: You may not already know this about me, but I have epilepsy, and so when our troop started talking about the Girl Scout Silver Award, we formed ideas and I was like, “Hey, maybe I should do something with my epilepsy!” So after we went to the Silver Award training up in Atlanta, that gave me the idea, maybe if I create a website that can educate people, it might get rid of negative stigma and false facts. I created it to help people with and without epilepsy to convey actual factual information that’s most up to date.
Rowan: That’s pretty cool. What was particularly challenging about this?
Lauren: I think one of the biggest challenges was probably trying to find what website builder to use. There are a lot of website builders out there, like Wix or Squarespace. I started seeing all these ads everywhere about Wix and how good it was, so I started using it and it was really good, but it was very overwhelming, and I didn’t want this website to be budgeting and taking money in. Then I thought about the project I did in my social studies class in December. We use Google sites for projects, and so I gave it a look and I was like, “Hey, it’s very simple, it’s easy to use, why not use this?”
Rowan: What did you learn along the way?
Lauren: Probably time management skills. When I started this project in November after the training, I worked a lot on it. I would put three or four hours in a day, and then I got burned out in late winter, early spring, and I barely worked on it. Then I realized, “I’m going out of town soon, during the summer—I need to get this project
done!” So, I just created a daily routine that helped put in those hours. I stuck to doing 40- minutes to an hour each day, and now I’m in the last five hours of the project.
Rowan: What are you particularly proud of?
Lauren: I’m proud of one of the pages of the website I made, it’s called Epilepsy Explainer Videos. That was the main point of the project, to help convey accurate information. One of those things I did with my videos was help spread factual information and get rid of misconceptions, and I just really like how it turned out. I think it’s also one of the best ways to spread information because you can also look at it from a personal perspective, and that can be really helpful to a lot of people.
Rowan: That’s good. What was the most fun part?
Lauren: Fun? Probably creating the interactive learning resources, which is where you get crosswords or things like that. I made a quiz that was based off those videos and I said, ‘Hey, if you think you can prove your knowledge, do this quiz.” I made the quiz from Google Forms and posted it there. I also made two separate flash cards to post with it, because I find that they’re a lot of fun.
Rowan: That is very useful! How long did it take you to complete your Silver Award project?
Lauren: I started working on it in about November, so that’s around six to seven months. We could’ve started working on it a year ago, but we didn’t because there were some people still working on their Girl Scout Bronze Award. So we waited and then realized, “We’ve got one year to do this because final reports are due in September of next year.” I did get a little spacey throughout those few months of January and February, but overall, it took about six to seven months.
Rowan: That’s pretty good. What is your advice to others doing their Girl Scout Silver Award?
Lauren: Probably time management and using resources wisely, because you want to identify something you care about. If you don’t care about something, then you’re not going to do well in it. I care about my epilepsy, so I want to do well. I want to get the award, and by using resources wisely you’ve got to find what’s important, what works best for you. It just depends on what your project is, and identifying that root cause.
Rowan: That’s good advice. And did you earn your Girl Scout Bronze Award?
Lauren: Yes, I did. Our troop, we did a pollinator garden, which is very popular.
Rowan: I did that for my Silver Award!
Lauren: Yeah, we did a pollinator garden in Lilburn or something, I can’t remember where it was. It was off to the side of the park, and we got some people from that park to help us with that, so that was fun.
Rowan: That’s good. Ok, that’s all my questions!
Find out more about Lauren’s Silver Award here: Epilepsy From Inside Out
No comments:
Post a Comment