New Girl Scout Badges Power Girl Leadership

Girl Scouts of Central Indiana, along with Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), recently revealed 30 new badges for girls ages 5–18 to address some of society’s most pressing needs such as cybersecurity, environmental advocacy, mechanical engineering, robotics, computer science, and space exploration. Girl Scouts worked with top organizations like the Cyber Innovation Center, the Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics and the Museum of Science to design the most cutting-edge programming available to girls.

“Girl Scouts are learning how to proactively address some of the foremost challenges of today while also building skills like confidence and perseverance that will set them up for a lifetime of leadership,” said Girl Scouts of Central Indiana’s Chief Executive Officer Danielle Shockey. “Most importantly, Girl Scouts offers girls a sense of belonging and a place to find their voice.”

Girls in grades 6–12 can now earn badges in:

• Environmental Stewardship (funded by the Elliott Wildlife Values Project) focuses on environmental advocacy. Girls prepare for outdoor experiences and take action on environmental issues.

• College Knowledge for Girl Scouts in grades 11 and 12 is the first badge completely dedicated to college exploration showing girls how to research the admissions process, financial aid, and other factors.

• Think Like a Programmer Journey (funded by Raytheon) provides a strong foundation in computational thinking.

• Think Like an Engineer Journey prepares girls to pursue careers in fields such as cybersecurity, computer science, and robotics.

Girls in grades K–5 can now earn badges in:

• Environmental Stewardship (funded by the Elliott Wildlife Values Project) encourages girls to respect the outdoors and take action to protect the natural world.

• Cybersecurity (funded by Palo Alto Networks) introduces girls to online safety and privacy principles, information on how the internet works, and how to spot and investigate cybercrime.

• Space Science (funded by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate and led by the SETI Institute) enables girls to channel their inner NASA scientist as they learn about objects in space and how astronomers conduct investigations.

• Mechanical Engineering for Girl Scout Juniors, encourages girls to design paddle boats, cranes, and balloon-powered cars, learning about buoyancy, potential and kinetic energy, machines, and jet propulsion.

Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure, and success. If you would like to make a difference in the life of a girl, visit girlscoutsindiana.org today.