Volunteer Spotlight: Taryn-Marie Jenkins

Taryn-Marie Jenkins says her love for volunteering and helping others is rooted in her Girl Scout experience. She loves helping others and currently serves as a member of the GSCCC Gold Award Committee! She joined Girl Scouts as a Daisy in kindergarten and has been involved in the movement ever since, earning top awards that included the highest award, the Gold Award. To earn her Gold Award, she tackled an issue she cares deeply about, giving foster care kids opportunities. Her project, titled “Jumping the Hurdles – Foster Care to College,” focused on increasing the number of foster care youth transitioning to college in her community. While there were many components of the project, two important ones were building a website as a resource and distributing college kits to her community foster care teens. In 2019, she was recognized for her outstanding work on the project and earned the honor of National Gold Award Girl Scout, one of ten young women to be recognized and benefit from college scholarships.  

 

“My Girl Scout experience taught me so much,” she said. “I learned skills in project management, teamwork, fundraising, and marketing – to name just a few areas. I also learned a lot about giving back to my community through troop activities. We met at the Bethel AME Church in inner city Wilmington, Delaware.  Today, I actively volunteer, both on and off campus.”

GSCCC Volunteer Taryn-Marie Jenkins

 

 Today, she is a junior at Hampton University majoring in journalism with a cinema studies concentration.  As a member of the William R. Harvey Leadership Institute, she is also minoring in leadership studies and plans to graduate May of 2023. Her campus Involvements include the Phi Eta Sigma National Honor Society and the Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.  

 

“I am motivated to build a career in the television industry establishing myself as a storyteller,” she said. “My plans include writing and directing historical documentaries.  Additionally, I want to continue my work with foster care youth by establishing a nonprofit that promotes college readiness programming.”