Gold Award Girl Scouts

Issues of the world, meet your match. 

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador can earn. You can pursue the Gold Award if you are in high school (9th–12th grade), you are registered as a Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador, and you have completed two Senior or Ambassador Journeys OR earned the Girl Scout Silver Award and completed one Senior or Ambassador Journey. Girls have until September 30^th of the year they graduate 12^th grade to submit their final report.

Understanding the Gold Award

• All Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors must complete the Gold Award for Teens tutorial on gsLearn prior to submitting a Gold Award proposal. Girls must opt-in to create an account and participate in the teen course by completing the short survey here: https://form.jotform.com/gscncprogram/gslearn-opt-in-

Note: girls must fill out the survey with their OWN email addresses. Parent and troop leader emails are already linked to gsLearn accounts designed for adult volunteers.

• Gold Award proposals are due by 5 pm on the first of the month using GoGold Online. If the first falls on a weekend, the due date is the first business day after that weekend. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time to complete the online Gold Award proposal. Do not wait until the last minute to begin. Use the GoGold Online Tips and Tricks for reference.
  

Unsure where to begin? Check out these resources!

• The Gold Standard
• GSUSA's Your Guide to Going Gold
• Gold Award FAQ
• GoGold Online Tips and Tricks
• Gold Award Quick Start Guide
• Volunteer Essentials - The Gold Award Basics
• Parent Guide
• Proposal Checklist
• Gold Award Proposal Rubric
• GoGold FAQs for Girl Scouts
• 2022 Award Yearbook

You can pursue your Girl Scout Gold Award if:
 

Girl Scout Gold Award Steps

• Sign up to complete the Gold Award course via gsLearn (required) 
• Attend a Gold Award Workshop (optional; not required)
• Read the Gold Standard
   

• Read the Girl Scout Gold Award Guidelines and complete the Included Gold Award Toolkit:
              English |  Spanish
   

• Including ALL Girls: Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital is committed to ensuring that girls of all abilities are able to achieve the Gold Award. Please email HigherAward@gscnc.org to request reasonable accommodations.
• Reach outside of our Girl Scout community to find a project advisor–a content area expert, and identify community organizations that could help you reach your goals
• Money-earning for your Gold Award can be daunting, but you can be creative in how you do it, as long as you follow the money-earning guidelines. Council-approved proposals may also be eligible to use the Council’s NEW crowd-funding tool! Find out if you're eligible by emailing HigherAward@gscnc.org. See current Gold Award campaigns!

• Create a plan and submit your complete Gold Award Project Proposal through GoGold Online. Make sure it meets the Girl Scout Gold Award Rubric. 
• Make sure you notify your Troop Leader and Project Advisor of your Gold Award Proposal submission! You cannot send your proposal to the Council before receiving verification and confirmation from your Troop Leader and Project Advisor.
• GSUSA recommends a minimum of 80 hours to complete the Gold Award. Be sure to outline your timeline in chronological order in GoGold. Use the Gold Award Hour Percentages resource as a guideline. 
• Check out GoGold Online Tips and Tricks and GoGold FAQs for Girl Scouts for helpful information.
• Make sure to complete and upload the Gold Award Checklist to your GoGold Online account under Step 5, section 5.
• If you are having issues accessing your account, or the site gives you an error message, please send an email to gogoldonline@girlscouts.org and mygoldaward@gscnc.org to notify GSUSA as well as Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital that the website is not functioning properly.

• Sign-up to review your proposal with a Gold Award Panel (optional; not required) This is an opportunity for the panel to ask questions about your Gold Award Proposal after they have reviewed your paperwork.
• The Gold Award panels will review your proposal whether you present to a panel or not and you will receive a panel mentor to work with throughout the process.

An example of what your proposal process may look like:

• Once approved, begin your project!
• Keep track of your hours worked after approval, you will need to enter this in to the Final Report.
• Take pictures! Submit them to us:   
              Facebook
              Twitter
              Instagram
              Troop News

• Complete your Gold Award Final Report by September 30th of the year you graduate from high school.
  • Make sure you notify your Project Advisor of your Gold Award Project submission! You cannot send your Final Report to the Council before receiving verification from your and Project Advisor.

• To be included in the Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital Higher Awards yearbook and invited to the Annual Awards Ceremony, girls need to submit their Gold Award final reports by 5 pm on March 15, 2023. High School seniors who are interested in applying for the Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital Gold Award Scholarship must also submit a final report by this date.

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