Sylvia Acevedo on Building Girls of Courage, Confidence, and Character

Episode 032: Sylvia Acevedo, Girl Scouts & STEM
In this episode, Girl Scout CEO Sylvia Acevedo shares so much wisdom and insight into how to reach learners at every level, especially girls. Her stories, both from her own life and from being the CEO of girl scouts and seeing the projects that students are working on, are sure to inspire! Stay tuned after the episode for more classroom tips and instructional resources.

Connect with Sylvia Acevedo
Website: www.sylviaacevedo.org; https://www.girlscouts.org/ | Twitter: @SylviaAcevedo | Book: Path to the Stars

Connect with Vrain Waves
Twitter: @VrainWaves | Becky Twitter: @BeckyEPeters | Ben Twitter: @mrkalb

Links & Show Notes

• Sylvia on being an Author, Entrepreneur, Engineer, and Rocket Scientist (01:54)
• Head Start program / Girl Scouts of America
• Sylvia on telling her story: Path to the Stars (03:18)
• Importance of math & programming in Middle School
• Fashion Institute of Technology in NY
• Early experiences with Girl Scouts & how they shaped her interests (07:17)
• One of the first Hispanics, male or female, to get a Masters Degree in Engineering from Stanford
• Troop leader helped her explore her interest in science
• Estes Rocket Kit
• Cooking is just like Science
• Resilience, determination, & confidence
• Girl Scout Cookie Program (10:43) - Create your future, create your own opportunities
• Never walk away from a sale unless you’ve heard ‘No’ three times
• Persistence, Resilience, and getting to Yes (11:30)
• Girl Scouts impact (13:02)
• Half of all female elected officials were girl scouts; almost every female astronaut was a girl scout
• Girl Scouts Alumnae Impact Study Report
• Sylvia’s CEO Patch (13:38)
• Voyager 2
• Barriers to success (16:46)
• Find out the barrier & address that - what is the reason behind that ‘No’?
• Bilingualism (20:11)
• Bilingual brain development & creativity
• Name changes (21:15) - “Sylvia Elia Acevedo Monge” → Sylvia Acevedo
• English is the de facto language of business - competitive advantage
• What Public Ed can learn from Girl Scouts (24:21)
• Learning organization (story behind the badges)
• Look at potential → Build skills → Take Action
• Caring adult / troop leader
• Include all 5 senses in the work
• Bronze, Silver, Gold Awards for service
• Every year a few girls change state laws with their community action
• Child Marriage Law in NH
• Smoking laws
• No Straw November
• Girl Scout Gold Awards
• Girl Scouts Mission: “Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.”
• Eco-gloo
• STEM + Civic Action (31:54)
• Focus on how to make the world a better place
• To girls, ranking is not as important as linking
• Learning skills in a girl-only space (36:35)
• De facto norm is the male experience (37:48)
• Decoding the Digital Girl report
• Girl Scouts research
• Cybersecurity
• Cancer Research on women (41:10)
• Drug studies based on 180 pound male
• Increasing partnerships with schools (43:36)
• Number of programs / ways to implement
• Ben & Becky’s takeaways (45:34)
• Out of our Heads and into the Classroom (47:55)
• Gold Award - adding in high, difficult goals for your classroom
• Badges (digital or real)
• IBM Badging program for its employees
• Community aspect - videos to students
• Civic Engagement in K12 classrooms: NCLCE Guidebook / Other resources from Jenny Pettit of SVVSD
• Put that you were / are a Girl Scout on your LinkedIn Profile!! Join the Girl Scout Network!