Friday, January 4, 2019

Gold Award Spotlight: Promoting Awareness of Naval History in the Chesapeake Bay Area


Girl Scout Suparnamaaya has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouts.

Inspired by her four-year experience with York High School’s Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC), Suparnamaaya noticed that there was a lack of awareness and interest in naval history specifically in the Chesapeake Bay area- a region that is rich with it. She decided to take action!

“Due to the unique location of my program among other factors, I believed one possible solution was to research key naval battles fought essentially in our ‘backyards’ that vitally shaped the course of our nation, and then present the information in an engaging way to the cadets,” she said.

For her project, “Promoting Awareness of Naval History in the Chesapeake Bay Area,” Suparnamaaya created a presentation that focused on three specific naval battles: Battle of the Chesapeake, Battle of Craney Island, and Battle of Ironclads. Each of these battles played a pivotal role in their respective wars, and they each took place in the Chesapeake Bay or connected rivers. She presented to a total of 100 cadets at her high school.

She also created a visually appealing informational board containing the key points of her presentation that now has permanent residence in the NJROTC hallway at her school, allowing her project to be sustained.