Brett Johnson [00:00:00]:
We are looking forward our way. Hi. This is Brett. Three years ago, Carol and I had the opportunity to podcast with Tammy Wharton, president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland to highlight the Dream Big program. That's a $16,000,000 investment in Central Ohio's girls promoting STEM educational opportunities. The Dream Big is happening and the STEM Leadership Center is now open. Tammy has returned to give us an update on the wonderful programs already underway. Thanks for joining us.
Tammy Wharton [00:00:30]:
Thanks for having me. Tammy, it
Carol Ventresca [00:00:32]:
is so wonderful to see you, and I'm so excited about this building. As I mentioned, I saw it just before it opened. Now I need to come back out and visit and actually see the girls running around and and doing all kinds of things, and and it's beautiful. It is just absolutely beautiful.
Tammy Wharton [00:00:47]:
Well, and it's functional as well. And I I have a smile. You can't see, but I have the smile on my face every time I talk about the building. I think I shared previously, one little girl walked in and she said, you built this for us. And it was absolutely true. This building's built for girls. It's built for youth in general and for the community. There's something for everybody out there in it.
Carol Ventresca [00:01:07]:
Well and that's what's going to be exciting. We're going to talk about today. It it is for the girls, but it also is really for any child in Central Ohio. There's programs with the schools and and community groups, and so we're we're going to get into all of that. But before we actually talk about the big dream, we want to talk about you. Reintroduce yourself to our audience. Tell us your background and how you got involved in Girl Scouts.
Tammy Wharton [00:01:32]:
Wow. Well, most people know me as the Girl Scout lady, but I do have a background. Before that. I came to Ohio State to swim, synchronized swimming, way back when. We're not going to tell you how long that was, and that's how I ended up in Ohio from Pennsylvania. I worked in the athletic department and for Ohio State for a while and then transferred over to nonprofit and I've been doing my heart work ever since.
Carol Ventresca [00:01:57]:
Isn't that nice? Wonderful. Yes. Yeah. I think the last time we did have a long talk about who we knew and synchronized swimming because you were swimming when I was in, I think, in graduate school. We did. Wonderful. Wonderful.
Tammy Wharton [00:02:09]:
And I do more sinking now than swimming. So that's I
Carol Ventresca [00:02:12]:
was I was just gonna say, you know, that that pool out there at Camp Conjectory is pretty cool too. A lot better than the pool that was there when I was a camper. Absolutely.
Brett Johnson [00:02:21]:
Oh my gosh. When you were with us in 02/2022, you provided an incredible behind the scenes look at the big dream, the new STEM leadership center that would be built at Camp Conjocati on the West Side of Franklin County. This initiative is a transformational step for the Girl Scouts in our region, providing immersive experiences for young girls to consider a STEM career path. How has the initiative started and who has supported your efforts to make it a reality?
Tammy Wharton [00:02:46]:
Well, dream big is a reality as as Carol said. It's open, but it started way back in 02/2018, '2 thousand '19 when our national office said we're going to do a STEM pledge to put 2,500,000 girls in the STEM pipeline by 2025, and lo and behold it's 2025. I was joking and I said well we're gonna put a million in so everybody else doesn't have such a hard lift. But I had to figure out how we were gonna do that and I looked at a couple sister councils, one had a STEM center and we went down, we toured it, we talked with some of her funders, some of her staff, and on the plane where I had the way back, our board chair at the time, Julie Holbein, said, we can do this. And, of course, I'm a little competitive as a synchronized swimmer or past synchronized swimmer,
Brett Johnson [00:03:40]:
and I said, but ours has
Tammy Wharton [00:03:40]:
to be bigger and ours has to be better. And that was, I believe, 90 some acres. Ours is on a 220 acre campus, and, ours is definitely a lot bigger with it being about 24,000 square feet for the center alone, but that's not the whole campus is an immersive STEM center.
Carol Ventresca [00:03:59]:
Wonderful. And and you've really had a lot of support from all of the large organizations, large, corporations here in Central Ohio.
Tammy Wharton [00:04:10]:
We have. We brought them early on in the dream and talked to them about the need to really invest in girls. We have a thriving community that, is bringing a lot of new jobs to the area, and we really need to think about how are we gonna fill those jobs. So we told them that a girl's STEM identity is formed by the third grade and their confidence peaks by the fifth grade, and that's important because we need to get girls into STEM experiences and in demand experiences early and often. And that means in those early formative years, a lot of people were throwing money at high school or college, and it's really too late to get girls engaged and involved. So we're not the only part of the pipeline for that work future workforce, but we're a critical part of it. And so that's why it's so important that, we had the support of the funders and shared our progress along the way, and we wanted that center to be something very different. We looked at what is in the community, and we said we don't wanna be duplicative.
Tammy Wharton [00:05:12]:
We wanna make sure that our programming is unique, and if there's something that we feel our girls want or need and they tell us that, then and it's already happening in the community, then we'll bring the community partners in so that we can create programming together.
Carol Ventresca [00:05:27]:
Right. And so, really, an important part of that is what you've been saying is giving people the information they need. And I was really excited to see this new report that was created, for all of the girls in Ohio by the four I think I believe it's four councils, Girl Scout councils across the state, and the report's called Ohio State of the Girl. Now this report provides an excellent overview of the issues and challenges that girls face every day. It also includes actions that can provide girls with the techniques that they need to make their world more positive and successful. I was really excited about that because I'm looking at that going, that is an obvious action step. But until you actually see it in writing, it's not like it's gonna come off the top of your head. So let's look at this report.
Carol Ventresca [00:06:21]:
It's going to lead us to the importance of the STEM leadership programs, but there are lots of demographics and numbers in there and I love numbers. So let give us a little bit about the demographics of today's girls.
Tammy Wharton [00:06:33]:
So it's interesting. This report looks at the physical wellness, the emotional wellness, the social wellness, and the academics for girls, and they're really tied together. Unfortunately, the news is not good, but I always say that data is not our destiny. So the report shows different statistics in each of those areas, like bullying, academics, and the it's mostly cyberbullying, girls' physical health, etcetera. And it also gives solutions, gives solutions to our teachers, it gives solutions to caregivers, how we can do differently so that, again, that data is not their destiny. And, of course, Girl Scouts has programs that support girls with the caring adults so that they feel safe and secure in participating in programs and learning new skills and then gain the confidence that they need to kind of combat some of the things that they're facing.
Carol Ventresca [00:07:29]:
We if you're listening to this podcast, our audience, we are gonna, include a link to that report. And I really encourage you to take a look at the report and send it on like I I mentioned to Tammy, I send it on to some friends of mine who are principals of elementary schools, because that's that those are the folks who need to see this. So, again, those demographics show kind of a sad situation, but if we know where we are and we know where we wanna be, then we could come up with the steps in between to get us to our goal. And that's what I loved about this report. It showed whatever the issue was, there were groups of mentors and guardians and people, you know, who are helping our girls and the steps that each of those different populations of people can take. So there's different steps for teachers as opposed to different steps for parents. It's a really it's a great report. So I I encourage everybody to to take a look at that.
Brett Johnson [00:08:34]:
Yeah. Well, that report dives into four major indicators, physical wellness, emotional wellness, social wellness, and academics. So let's start with the physical wellness. We all know our kids spend way too much time with their days online. So what should our kids be doing instead? I I think that's what you just mentioned, Carol, in regards to helping parents get them offline and and and and and but it's but online is a major part of our life right now. But but but we do have to take a rest from it. So, again, what should the kids be doing? Well, I
Tammy Wharton [00:09:08]:
think you hit on the number one piece, and it's first limit screen time because all of the issues that you're seeing in this report are related to technology to some extent. And so if we can get girls off the screens and get them outdoors, there's benefits. And the research says there's many benefits to getting outside and getting active. And, unfortunately, gym class or phys ed is not in the schools as much as it used to be. So our girls, our youth aren't getting activity there all the time, and so they need to get out and get physical, and they can do it through sports and other activities. It's just really important or just go out and and walk in the great outdoors. But if they do it with their friends or they're encouraged by their parents or caregivers, that's important too. So limiting the screen time is number one and saying, shut it down, get outside, and go play.
Brett Johnson [00:10:05]:
Right. Don't don't bring the screen along with you. Exactly. I mean, yes. You I think there's some safety to bringing a phone along, of course. You know, we we it's attached to our hips and that sort of thing for if something happens. But don't look at it while you're walking.
Tammy Wharton [00:10:19]:
You know? And one of the, flowers. Yeah. Or the or the sky.
Carol Ventresca [00:10:23]:
Yes. Or or
Brett Johnson [00:10:24]:
in front
Tammy Wharton [00:10:24]:
of you so you
Carol Ventresca [00:10:25]:
don't trip. Right.
Tammy Wharton [00:10:26]:
But I think one of the other pieces in this report talks about body image. And if you're getting out and getting physically fit, then you have a better image. You feel better. You're mentally better, for the social and emotional piece. So it's all tied physical activities tied into the other pieces as well. So everything kind of is integrated, to each other.
Carol Ventresca [00:10:46]:
Well and so that really walks right into to our next point. Our kids are lonely. They're sitting alone at home on their screens. And although that's communicating, it's really not because they're not with other people. They don't have friends. They don't have emotional support. They have a home life that may be unstable or in constant upheaval. It's leading to depression and suicidal tendencies, which we read about in this report as to how this is affecting the girls.
Carol Ventresca [00:11:15]:
Have you witnessed or heard about some of these situations?
Tammy Wharton [00:11:19]:
Yes. I have. And I have a daughter, who is a little older now, but it was just starting, I think, some of the the challenges of technology when she was in school. And I think the stats that you were referring to, fifty six percent of Ohio girls in grades nine through 12 reported feeling sad or hopeless. That's over half the girls, and that's after the pandemic. We understood that more may have felt that way during the pandemic, but I feel like we've come out of that and the girls are still feeling that way.
Brett Johnson [00:11:52]:
Mhmm.
Tammy Wharton [00:11:52]:
And there's reasons why we keep talking we come in keep coming back to technology and some of the unrealistic is, issues or visions that you're seeing through the, through the Facebook and everything. You know, our girls think that those are realistic images and you can doctor up pictures we all know with Photoshop and different things. I don't even know what that's out there to make yourself look different than you truly are. However, our girls are thinking that that's how they should be. They should be thin, that's the body image piece, they should be beautiful, they should have brown hair, red hair, whatever it is, they think that's realistic and if you're not sharing that, that is not a realistic image of girls and not everybody has this beautiful perfect life. They're writing about maybe a fantasy that that is not how life is. Girls have to learn that. And then we also need to be there to see when girls are having changes and they're acting differently and that's where friends come in.
Tammy Wharton [00:12:57]:
And we always say in Girl Scouts, you know, we make new friends and keep the old. I mean that's one of the things great about Girl Scouting is you meet a lot of friends And friends are going to be there to see the changes and they're going
Carol Ventresca [00:13:08]:
to be there to support you. And if they need, to call somebody to get help. Right. You know, it there was a report that came out, I think, in the winter where the the researchers were telling parents their children younger than kindergarten should not be on the screen at all, and it was, like, for less than an hour. And I'm thinking, why would you want a three year old on a screen for even an hour? All the they all the playing they need to learn to do, all of the, figuring out how to put blocks in different places and how to read and how to do their colors and numbers and things. You know? And I'm not saying technology can't support some of that, but if they're just watching cartoons on their screens, that's not getting them anywhere. So, yeah, this is
Tammy Wharton [00:14:04]:
And I think some people use the screens as a babysitter. Right. But I will tell you that I have a nine month old grandson, and he knows what a phone is already. It it's crazy. And I just am sitting there, and I'm horrified because he likes other things more than the phone. But as soon as you pull that phone out, he goes for it.
Brett Johnson [00:14:24]:
Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's kinda hard to to to stop that because parents are so entwined with the electronic device as well too, and kids wanna emulate the kids, or I should say the parents, or do what they're doing and and play what they're playing with or whatever. You know, in their eyes are playing with that electronic device, not talking really and that sort of thing. But it makes it difficult. Yeah. Well, in a world that's so technology, connected, we're also actually suffering socially. Children are bullied in school and on the Internet, probably more on Internet than they are in school, quite frankly.
Brett Johnson [00:14:55]:
What did this study find, and and are there some viable solutions?
Tammy Wharton [00:15:00]:
Yes. Girls are getting bullied and mostly cyberbullied is what we're finding, through those we keep coming back to technology, but a large number of girls are facing the bullying, from others. In middle school, I think it said thirty nine percent of girls and twenty eight percent of high school girls were bullied online in 2021. And so there's some strategies to think about to kind of combat the bullying. We can help girls establish supportive connections with caring adults. That sounds like Girl Scouts. And we take people to join.
Brett Johnson [00:15:35]:
Can I
Tammy Wharton [00:15:35]:
do that shameless plug? Absolutely. Monet we already mentioned this, but monitor the use of social media and the, digital and teach digital literacy. Tell them what's really happening. Those are photoshopped pictures. Those aren't real. Artificial intelligence. Absolutely. And and that's even scarier when we talk start talking about AI because we don't even know if it's a real person anymore.
Tammy Wharton [00:15:59]:
Encourage schools and other organizations to provide anti bullying education. I I mean, I know that we're working to get math scores up and all these tests and stuff, but our schools have to be. That's where it's some of it's happening, and and our teachers, they have to be aware and they have to to take a stance that that's not gonna happen. And if somebody sees someone struggling and knows that that's happening, get them the help they need. If that's mental counseling or or tell an adult so that they can get the help they need. I I heard something too on on, this past week about bullying and physical
Carol Ventresca [00:16:37]:
to sexual violence against against young girls. And they were saying that the first most important thing is that when a child reports bullying or violence, that they are believed. And and through, a friend, I found out that her child is being bullied. And instead of the teacher taking steps to look into what was going on, her response was, well, we have a bullying code. There there's there are rules, but but nobody was talking about enforcing the rules. So having them is only the first
Tammy Wharton [00:17:12]:
step. Exactly. And and that's where a friend comes in so that if they see something happening, they can they can stand up for their friend, and they can also go get help. And I think when you have more people than just one person coming forward, I you'll have more paying attention. And that's sad because you gotta believe if somebody says they're being bullied, who wants to
Carol Ventresca [00:17:32]:
be bullied? If you're coming forward saying that, it's kind of embarrassing. So listen to to the the youngster that's saying that and investigate. Well, that goes back to your notion too of making friends, being together with friends, protecting each other, standing up for each other, and all of that leads to a better self worth It does. For all of the kids, all of the friends, not just the one being bullied, but the others too. And, you know, bullying makes you think you're weak. And your friends are going to help you realize how strong you can be.
Tammy Wharton [00:18:09]:
That's exactly right. And you did talk a little bit about the, experiencing sexual violence and sexual dating violence. And I think at one point, I don't know what the stats are anymore, but it used to be, like, one in three women have experienced sexual violence. Eighteen percent of girls, nine through twelfth grade reported ex experiencing sexual dating violence in 02/2001. And eighteen percent, you're like, that's not that much, but no girl should be That's one in five. Experiencing. I know. No girl should be experiencing that.
Tammy Wharton [00:18:42]:
And and it's it's it's just unacceptable.
Carol Ventresca [00:18:44]:
Right. Absolutely. Well, one of the the, main points that the report touched on were was academic success. Our kids were falling behind during the pandemic. They're struggling with even greater challenges today. There are some bright spots here in Ohio, particularly the increased supportive programs like your STEM leadership center. So tell us how this new STEM center can build the supports that our children need to advance their education and their careers.
Tammy Wharton [00:19:15]:
Well, I'm so excited to talk about the STEM Center. The campus, Camp Conjocati, which means away away from it all, is a campus that's a STEM immersive campus. And so it's the buildings have STEM programs in them and the buildings have doors just about everywhere and windows everywhere so you can bring the outside in and take the inside out. And what I mean by that is we have a wetlands and so the girls were doing a program where they were investigating the wetlands seeing if it was healthy and then they had to bring it inside to do some of the experiments they had and so they had the ability to go inside and outside to do the experiments. We're on the big derby, water quality testing. We do rocketry in some of the, labs but you can't send the rockets off inside so you go right outside to do that. Trust me. It might have been tried.
Tammy Wharton [00:20:06]:
Yeah. And there's other I was
Carol Ventresca [00:20:07]:
gonna say there's always opportunities. Right.
Tammy Wharton [00:20:09]:
And there's there's other things going on. We're going to have a camp this summer where girls build dollhouses. And so construction is a field that women are underrepresented in, and so we're trying to give girls an idea of some of the activities that they could have future careers in. So they'll build the dollhouses and then they'll use the three d printer to do all of the elements, the beds, the dogs, the people, that go inside the dollhouse. So we're teaching girls skills that they're gonna need for their careers, but girls learn differently. And I think sometimes we forget that. We can't say to a girl, do you wanna be an engineer? Do you wanna be an architect? Do you wanna be, in construction? We have to show them programs where they can learn them, decide if they like them, and decide if they're good at them, and then tell them what kind of careers match those skills. And we also have to bring the parents along because in the past, it used to be you need a four year degree to be successful and and that's not the case.
Tammy Wharton [00:21:09]:
There's certifications. We were just talking about that earlier. There's apprenticeships and you can make a very good salary this this day and age in the apprenticeships and so parents need to understand that that it's okay if a child doesn't want to go to a college for four years. There are other ways that they can have a successful career. So we're bringing the parents along and the caregivers along just as much as the girls.
Carol Ventresca [00:21:36]:
You know, I that is my background is in career counseling. And that is so important for anybody to understand. You can't ask a kid, what do you wanna be when you grow up? What do you want your major to be? Because if a lot of kids would say, I wanna be a doctor. I wanna be an engineer. I wanna be whatever. And but they don't really have a clue as to what that means because they have not had the experiential opportunity of seeing what an engineer does, what an architect does, what a scientist does. Even and it's even social sciences. I taught students who were in sociology and criminology, And until we told a crim student they could do something besides being a police officer, they didn't wanna do criminology.
Carol Ventresca [00:22:21]:
But when they found out they could do all of these other kinds of things with a background in in Crim, then suddenly their eyes opened up. And and it's so important for kids to get that experience. As you said, third grade is you can grab their attention. Fifth grade, it's sort of getting entrenched, but they still need all of all of their grades need to have the opportunities for the kids to see how does it tie to my world. Construction of a house is one thing. Construction of a dollhouse for a 12 year old, new whole new ballgame.
Tammy Wharton [00:23:00]:
Well, we make the activities fun, and we always say science is all around us.
Brett Johnson [00:23:04]:
Mhmm. I
Tammy Wharton [00:23:05]:
think one of the challenges we see still in this day is if you're struggling in math, somebody will say, that's okay. You don't have to do math. You could be a teacher. And just because you're struggling doesn't mean you might not be a wonderful mathematician in the future. So I think our girls today are afraid to fail. And I shared this with, a group of individuals because I love the word fail. Because to me, fail means first attempt in learning.
Brett Johnson [00:23:32]:
Mhmm. And
Tammy Wharton [00:23:32]:
you have to fail to succeed. And I I've asked a lot of people, when have you learned the most? And it's typically when you've were unsuccessful at something and then you worked really hard to get back up and accomplish it and so we need girls to be able and and youth in general to have opportunities to fail and then succeed because today look at your grades you're getting all a's oh that's great you got a c oh my gosh we gotta work on that well maybe they learned more with the teacher helping them with that c than the person that got the a who it was simple for You know, we we see that in in jobs too. You're doing a great job. We're gonna give you a promotion. I'm not saying that we that's all bad, but we have to learn how to fail and be curious so that we can figure out solutions and never give up. Right?
Brett Johnson [00:24:23]:
Yeah. There's just cliche as in the entrepreneur entrepreneurial world of the, you know, fail fail early, fail often or, you know, the reverse of it. It's like, yeah. You only learn from the failure, quite frankly.
Tammy Wharton [00:24:34]:
Yes. And they hurt, but they Oh, cool. Open up all kinds of new, doors and windows. And I think all of us could say that in our careers.
Carol Ventresca [00:24:42]:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. One of the things that, happens at Camp Kondjaketi, and now with STEM, it's opening a little bit more, is the maple syrup. Is that right?
Tammy Wharton [00:24:53]:
So, yes, we have the science of maple syrup, and we have we typically, tap about 400 trees on our property at Camp Conjocati. 4 Hundred? 4 Hundred. I mean, I know that
Brett Johnson [00:25:04]:
That's a lot of pancakes.
Carol Ventresca [00:25:06]:
That is. That is I knew there were a lot of trees, but I didn't realize they were all tapped.
Tammy Wharton [00:25:10]:
Unfortunately, I'm not flipping them because Yeah. But it is interesting because we have girls that do the tapping. Then we have programs where they go out and do the tapping, and then we put the lines up, and we teach them about the lines, how they work. And we teach them the a little bit of math. Forty gallons of sap to one gallon of maple syrup when you, put it in the condenser. So it's just it's crazy. There's a lot of math out there that they don't realize they're getting, and there's a lot of science in the science of maple syrup.
Carol Ventresca [00:25:39]:
And and putting those lines in, that is very needed skill today. I had a printer that had lines for the cartridge as opposed to cartridge ink. It came in the little wells, and the lines didn't work. And I didn't know how to fix those lines, so I got rid of the printer. I mean, that's the best way to for me, was the best way to do it. But but yeah. I mean, those and it all goes back to things they can do at home and and by the learning that they've done at at Camp Conjectory.
Tammy Wharton [00:26:12]:
One, we do a maple syrup chef program where the girls take maple syrup and create things. Like, you would think this it's a sweet, but there's been some savory that were really good as well. And the Maple Syrup Festival, when we talked about Camp Conjocati and the STEM Leadership Center being for the community, it is a community event, so families can come out there and get some fresh air, two twenty acres of hiking, activities. I mean, it's just a lot of fun, and we do field trips out there, during the year as well. So we're reaching out to schools. We want to use this property as their outdoor laboratory so that they can learn the science of maple syrup or some of the other things that are out on that campus that they don't get in a classroom.
Brett Johnson [00:26:55]:
The report mentions two very important factors that can improve the lives of our girls, helping them to build their self confidence as well as the need for support from caring adults. Both are leading methods to fighting bullying, improving body image, and supporting academic success. What strategies do you see as the most important in fighting bullying and promoting a positive body image?
Tammy Wharton [00:27:15]:
I'm gonna say number one, get them off the technology, and two, the confidence that they need to gain because a confident person's less likely to get bullied than somebody who's not. And as as I said earlier, the confidence peaks in the fifth grade, so we really need to work on building girls' confidence and also their friendships. And so if you have a friend who sees that you're being bullied, that friend, be a friend, help them out, or go get somebody who can help them out. If you see a girl and her emotional state's changed, try and find out. I know that the friend is not the, mental health counselor to help them but go get somebody to help them or let people know that something's changed. If a girl says that she's contemplating committing suicide, tell someone. Don't just say, oh, she's just saying it. It is true that girls talk about it more than actually completing, suicide, but don't take that chance.
Tammy Wharton [00:28:22]:
Our girls are too important. They think that a horrible thing that's happening in in one moment is not gonna go away, and they make a lifetime choice through suicide.
Carol Ventresca [00:28:34]:
Right. Right. You know, I can remember when we were in scouts decades ago. But part of that was the fact that the moms were involved. And so we had that that group of mentors who were the leaders, but our moms were involved, so that if I was having a problem, maybe my mom didn't see, but my friend's mom could see there were issues. So that that notion of being part of a group and I I think I'm not saying girls need a group more than boys do. Boys need their groups also. But it it's so much more important for girls to be long.
Carol Ventresca [00:29:17]:
They may not be able to afford sports. The sports activities are becoming more and more expensive, and educational programs, don't have the dollars they used to have for for sports programs. But, they need to be involved in these programs. And, so yeah. So I that that notion of watching over your friends is is so important. This also goes kind of into my next question. We've been talking about how important STEM careers are in today's workforce. The flip side of that is this is critical for girls.
Carol Ventresca [00:29:53]:
What's what is going to happen if we don't move this needle for our girls?
Tammy Wharton [00:29:58]:
So women make up over 50% of the population and the workforce. And they represent, I think, at the high level, 30% in STEM fields and sometime at some point, it was 18% in the STEM fields. So if we don't change this needle early, our workforce is not gonna be there. So we need to have girls, 50% of the population, helping to make things better. Women see things differently than men. And so so the what did they say? Women men are from Mars, women are from Venus, and they do see things differently. And so they're needed as part of the solution. I think about some of the cars, and they talk about safety belts, and women are smaller.
Tammy Wharton [00:30:47]:
Doctor. Howard from OSU, she said she couldn't be an astronaut and go up in space because at the time she was looking at it, there was not a uniform that fit her. And so if we don't have women expressing some of these needs out there, then they're not going to be included because people just don't think about it if it doesn't impact them. Right. I I
Carol Ventresca [00:31:10]:
just bought a a new car and they need to have female engineers build the seats because I just it doesn't matter how I move that that chair. I either can't reach the pedals or I can't sit high enough. You and you'd have to have a women a woman's perspective on all of the products that we create in our country.
Tammy Wharton [00:31:33]:
Well, and there's research out there that says when women are in leadership positions in a company, the company does financially better. And so to me, I'm thinking if that's the research, why in the world are there not more women at the c suite or at least at the executive level? And, I mean, I know it's a hard and it's an intentional transformation, but we have to be intentional to get the best products.
Carol Ventresca [00:32:00]:
Well, and that really goes to also the message to women who are succeeding, who are moving up the ladders, that they need to also watch what's going on behind them, making sure that the doors are open for everybody, and that young girls are getting what they need to keep moving up not just up a ladder, meaning more money, more prestige, but in terms of success, reaching success.
Tammy Wharton [00:32:27]:
Well, I have all these little taglines, and one of them is girls need to see it to be it. Oh. And so if girls are not seeing someone that looks like them, then they question if that occupation or area is for them. Another thing that is really challenging, we always like, well, one woman, she made it. Yay. But I hear that there's you have to have three women around that table for them to truly have impact.
Brett Johnson [00:32:52]:
Mhmm. When you mentioned that, to to see it to be it, and let's say a woman does want to become a mentor, what does that involve? I mean, in in regards to the time commitment or I mean, it can be their own, of course, but what's what's a a a a good example of all you have to do is this and it makes a difference? You know, that sort of thing that you you may have the time a woman listening may have the time and not even realize that they can make a difference with just whatever it might be to give.
Tammy Wharton [00:33:22]:
So I will give it in relationship to Girl Scouting Mhmm. Because that's near and dear to my heart. Right. A woman, and men too can serve as troop leaders. So men can be Girl Scouts if they're over 18, but you can't have a husband, wife, or relative running a troop together. So you could run a troop. You could serve as a subject matter expert at one of our events. You could be you could give a speech to our girls.
Tammy Wharton [00:33:51]:
We have our Gold Award Girl Scouts that are absolutely incredible and doing great accomplishments in their communities, and they wanna see some of these leaders and what they've done. And and we give them time with them ahead of the the gold award ceremony to ask any questions they want and kinda have that one on one time. And then there's other opportunities at camp to volunteer and at different events to volunteer, and volunteering also helps support Girl Scouts. There's a lot of opportunities in schools for mentoring, and there's a lot of other organizations out there that are really great that you could join. If that's what's near and dear to your heart, you you could become a big brother, big sister, or there's just, like I said, there's just a lot of, things out there. I know Franklin County Children's Services, there's ways to volunteer there. So it just depends on what your interest is, and then you wanna match it up to your interest. And that's important because it's hard work that you're doing.
Tammy Wharton [00:34:52]:
So really be realistic to what you want and the time commitment you want, and there's something out there for everyone.
Brett Johnson [00:34:59]:
Yeah. It's all gonna lift all boats.
Tammy Wharton [00:35:01]:
Correct.
Brett Johnson [00:35:02]:
Right. Whether it's helping Girl Scouts directly or not. And that's where I was going with that name exec. There there are opportunities. Just give the time to it.
Carol Ventresca [00:35:10]:
But you
Brett Johnson [00:35:10]:
You can.
Carol Ventresca [00:35:11]:
And I'm gonna say this isn't just women who are in STEM fields now. It's really anybody who is, in a in a profession that they are excelling in and doing well in. One of the easy things to do is look back at your alma maters, your alma mater high school, your alma mater college. How can you connect with students and let them know what you do? So way back when, when I was still in graduate school, we used to do an alumni night at our high school and bring in a hundred different alumni to talk to students about their careers. The one person I used to go out for every year was a woman who had graduated two years after me and had become an airline pilot. She was a professional airline pilot pilot.
Tammy Wharton [00:36:01]:
Know only 3% of women are airline pilots? Exactly. It's crazy.
Carol Ventresca [00:36:04]:
And she was one of the first. This was back way back when. And she did it for years. She did, commercial passenger flight. And then, after so many years, she went into, the non passenger, whatever they call that, flight and retired. I I mean but she would come in in her uniform from, as I said, it was a major airline. It was the coolest thing. And so we'd we'd almost planned the event around her flight schedule to make sure she was home so she could be there.
Carol Ventresca [00:36:36]:
But those are the ways that you could go in and you can talk to, students who you've got a natural connection to because they are in your school.
Tammy Wharton [00:36:45]:
Well, I always said it would be really cool to have a flight simulator out at the STEM Center. So if anybody listening know has one and wants to teach us how to use it, wouldn't that be fun so that we can Oh, yeah. Get more women as pilots.
Carol Ventresca [00:36:58]:
Well, aren't we building a new tower at the the Columbus Airport? I'm sure they're gonna have something left over from the old tower.
Tammy Wharton [00:37:06]:
I love it.
Brett Johnson [00:37:07]:
I love
Tammy Wharton [00:37:07]:
the idea. And I think that's also part of what we've been doing is, you know, we talk about partnerships and we are not the experts in all of the different fields out there, but we feel like we are the experts in girls. And so creating partnerships, I I joke about the simulator. I don't know. I I I think I tried one once and I crashed the plane, so you would not want me there. But having somebody and having having, teaching our girls at a young age that this is something they could do, it's just it it changes their lives.
Carol Ventresca [00:37:39]:
Mhmm. Absolutely.
Brett Johnson [00:37:40]:
Alright. Are there any others Girl Scout programs you wanna mention? And and, obviously, wanna update on the Girl Scout cookie sales.
Tammy Wharton [00:37:49]:
Yeah. So we're having lots of different programs out at Camp Conjocaty. And peep if people wanna go to, our website, they can learn about the programs because some of them are community programs. The other thing that I would say is if they wanna go to our website, to look at the report, they can go to ohiogirlreport.org Right. And pull up the full report.
Carol Ventresca [00:38:14]:
And and we'll have that in our resources for the podcast. Yeah.
Tammy Wharton [00:38:17]:
Perfect. And as far as cookie sales, we just completed our cookie sales. So if you missed out, I'm sorry you gotta wait for next year. But I will do a teaser that there is a new cookie coming next year. So stay tuned for the announcement of that. It'll be a lot of fun.
Carol Ventresca [00:38:33]:
If if anybody wants to come to my house, I have two more boxes of Thin Mints in my freezer waiting for till Lent is over.
Tammy Wharton [00:38:41]:
I think Thin Mints went really well this year. They were we were getting asked, do we have any more cases of Thin Mints? There you go. And I wanna say thank you to everybody who did support the cookie program because it is a program. It's an entrepreneurship. The it's young girls learning about entrepreneurship. And so while people are like, oh, gosh. We paid this for cookies. You're getting a treat and investing in a girl, and we absolutely appreciate it.
Carol Ventresca [00:39:05]:
You know, I always used to buy the cookies through whichever kid I knew. And I have really started buying them from wherever I see a group selling, like, in front of the grocery store. I saw some girls at the, Home and Garden show this year. And because it gives you the opportunity to watch them interact and be salespeople, and it's so much more fun. And the moms are doing a great job of saying, okay, how much does this is this for five boxes? And walking them through the whole process. It it's so it's really more fun that way for me, but you see the kids in action.
Tammy Wharton [00:39:46]:
Well, I walk up to booths and they don't know who I am. And so I start asking questions and I'm sure they're like, who is this person? Like, what are you gonna do with your proceeds? How are you do you know, and I always have to buy if I if I walk by someone. It's just I have to do it. So Absolutely. But I see more booths than the knock on the doors, and and some of that's a safety issue. Some of that, we talked about the the health. People aren't getting out and walking around as much. So and and some of it's the weather here in Ohio because it's so crazy.
Tammy Wharton [00:40:16]:
So but we are seeing a little bit of change, in how girls participate in the program, And we also have a digital vehicle as well. So girls send out their link to the people that they know, and then you can buy from them digitally as well. And that is our day and age today. I mean, look at Amazon. How many things have you bought from Amazon this week? I mean and have them delivered. So we have to teach girls about those skills as well, but we also have to think about their safety.
Carol Ventresca [00:40:42]:
Well, you probably won't thank me for this, but every time I talk to the girls, I would always say, I know Tammy Wharton, and you need to meet her, and you need to go to Conjogity and go to the STEM. And all
Tammy Wharton [00:40:53]:
the moms are, like, looking
Carol Ventresca [00:40:54]:
at me like, who's that? Yeah. So, yeah, if anybody ended up on your doorstep because some lady bought some cookies, that was me.
Tammy Wharton [00:41:02]:
I welcome them. I I love seeing the girls participate in activities and see their eyes light up and, again, going into that STEM center and knowing that that's for them, I mean, it's just absolutely incredible, and that's what we build it for. It is it is hopefully a legacy that lives on and touches so many girls in the future. Right.
Carol Ventresca [00:41:23]:
Tammy, one of the things since we're talking about programs now out at the STEM Center, if say for instance my friends who are principals at elementary schools, if they want to contact, somebody to talk about what the programs are out there and if their kids can from their schools can take advantage, do they just call
Tammy Wharton [00:41:41]:
the council office? Yeah. And we'll put them in touch with someone.
Carol Ventresca [00:41:45]:
Okay.
Tammy Wharton [00:41:45]:
And that's, 614 oh, goodness.
Carol Ventresca [00:41:48]:
We'll put it on our resources. We'll put
Brett Johnson [00:41:50]:
it on your yeah.
Tammy Wharton [00:41:50]:
We'll put
Brett Johnson [00:41:50]:
it on
Tammy Wharton [00:41:51]:
our resources. I don't call myself very often. That's kinda scary. They call you. I think it's 487 Something something. Yeah.
Carol Ventresca [00:41:58]:
So, yeah, we'll we'll we'll we'll put it down. But but the the notion is that if you are an educator in Central Ohio, please look at the, information about the center and call if you need more details and, because there's lots that's going going on up at the center. Right.
Tammy Wharton [00:42:16]:
We have lots of field trips and and bringing the, classes out there, and we bring girls and boys out there during the field trips, and our team does the programming for them, and then the teachers serve as chaperones. And so they get a little bit of a break, but have fun, and the kids get an outdoor experience and get to see science come alive. Wonderful. It's it's a lot of fun. We wanna invite all schools to work with us so that this can become their their outdoor classroom because this is for the community just as much as it's for our girls.
Carol Ventresca [00:42:49]:
Right. Wonderful. Well, as we always ask our guests before they they leave us, if they if you have any last words of wisdom.
Tammy Wharton [00:42:58]:
My last words of wisdom are Girl Scouts offers so many different programs that people don't know about. I think the STEM Center is is case in point. So if you think you know Girl Scouts, come look at us again. It's a great way for girls to make friends. It's a great way for girls to combat some of the bullying and and they learn life skills, entrepreneur skills. They'll learn a lot of skills that are gonna serve them well in the future, and it's a lot of fun. Wonderful.
Carol Ventresca [00:43:29]:
Thank you so much for coming today.
Tammy Wharton [00:43:31]:
Thank you for having me.
Brett Johnson [00:43:32]:
Yes. Many thanks to Tammy Wharton, president and CEO of Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland for joining us today. Listeners, thank you for joining us as well, and and don't forget to check our show notes for contact information as well as resources on our website. That's lookingforwardourway.com. And we are looking forward to hearing your feedback on this and any of our other podcast episodes.