girl scouts of the colonial coastGirl Scout Ambassador Asia was recently awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award for her Gold Award project, “In the Eyes of a Minority.” To complete this project, she took action in her community to educate others about Black history.
She decided upon this project after registering for a new course on African American studies that her school system offered. Due to low enrollment, the course offering was canceled. Asia was surprised by the lack of interest in the course and began to research the root of this issue. According to Asia, a study from the National Museum of African American History and Culture and Oberg Research found that, on average, only eight or nine percent of history class time in US schools in devoted to Black history.
“Most of my Black history lessons have come from my grandparents or family members from the older generation,” she said. “When a Black kid comes home from school and discusses with their parent what they have learned they say slavery, segregation, and brutality. The schools should teach kids about both the positive and negatives in Black history equally like other lessons.”
This go-getter Girl Scout wanted to challenge those statistics and increase the amount and quality of Black history knowledge available to her peers. She wanted to highlight the contributions of African Americans to society, outside of the negative facets of African American history such as slavery. She addressed this issue by planning and hosting workshop lessons about African American history that she taught during lunch periods and over her school’s morning announcements during Black History Month. She surveyed peers and staff in attendance to determine the effectiveness of her sessions and to gain feedback for improving upcoming workshops. Asia's project was well received and has inspired her school’s student body association to continue the offering during upcoming Black History Months.
“The school that I go to is not very diverse in cultures,” Asia said. “I have had many personal experiences such as being pointed to and laughed at when the history teacher was talking about slavery, segregations, and the Civil Rights Movement. My Gold Award project goals were to help grow the minds of teenagers that have a mental block about learning about other cultures’ histories and to push the education system to add more African American history lessons.”
Congratulations, Asia! Thank you for noticing a challenge and taking it on!
