When you think of Girl Scouts, the first image to pop into your mind is probably your favorite cookie that you buy once a year. Samoas, Thin Mints, Trefoils… once a year, Girl Scouts become cool again because we are selling the best cookies that you can get.

The rest of the time, girls face judgment from their peers who think that being a scout is not cool. They struggle because adult volunteers are hard to come by and not every girl has a consistent troop leader. Some lose their troops completely when the interest dissolves.

When I think of Girl Scouts, I think of an organization that has given me so much more than I could have imagined it would. The knowledge that I am strong, courageous, honest, and fair. That I have a law to live by from day to day that I share with my sister girl scouts.

The Gold Award is the highest award you can receive in girl scouts. This year, only 87 girls in the state of Connecticut earned this award. I stood in a room with my fellow Gold Award recipients and noticed that we made us less than a third of what my high school graduating class had been.

What would it be like, I thought, if we could empower more young girls and women to join Girl Scouts and to go for Gold? Each gold award project is meant to change one part of a girl’s community, local or global. Together, piece by piece, these projects aim to change the world. At only 87 strong, the largest gold award class Connecticut has ever had, by the way, we changed a lot. But I don’t think it was enough.

Though those of us in college may not have the opportunity to be a part of a Girl Scout troop, we can still give back to this incredible organization. We can encourage our younger sisters and cousins to join a troop. We can volunteer with local troops and help them organize fundraisers and drives for local charities. If you want to change your community, start with scouting. Boys and girls alike come together all the time with their troops to do charity work and to give back.

It is such a rewarding experience to be a part of scouting. So much so that I want to have my own Girl Scout troop this fall that I can lead through their Girl Scout journey. I have seen scouting change lives for the better. It gives the girl a place she can call her second family, a place that is safe for her to be herself, a place to celebrate who she is and what she is capable of.

In a world so focused on the empowerment of young boys and girls, I truly believe scouting is the answer to raising the next generation to be the best they can be.