Girl Scout National Convention Weekend 2017

G.I.R.L.2017

Hello everyone! I hope everyone had a great Columbus Day weekend. I know I sure did. This past weekend, I went to Columbus, Ohio for the 2017 Girl Scout National Convention. It was one of the best weekends of my life because I made so many friends, got to listen to engaging and inspiring speakers give talks, and learned a lot about confidence, courage, and everything that a Girl Scout can do. It was my first convention ever and I was really excited about it. I never really knew that GS National Conventions were a thing until I met some friends on the Channel Islands Girl Scout destination trip 5 years ago who have been to convention before and they told me how amazing they are. Sadly, none of them were able to make it to this one since a majority of them are in college, but they were with me in the spirit. Now I will explain what I did each day of my wonderful weekend I had.

Thursday October 5

Well since my mom had a meeting for work in Gaithersburg, MD, I met up with her at Shady Grove Metro Station once her meeting ended which was approximately, 4 pm, and then we drove 4 hours to Morgantown, WV. The view of the mountains and the trees of Western Maryland and West Virginia were just absolutely gorgeous and so was the sunset. I ended up taking a quick snap of the sunset and it actually turned out good.

Sunset on the way from Maryland to West Virginia

Driving through the mountains in the fog and the dark was kind of scary but my mom and I managed to survive it. We arrived at our hotel in Morgantown at 8:15 pm. We checked in, relaxed, and watched Project Runway. I still had some energy and was desperate to move some after sitting down during the 4-hour car ride, so I worked out for 30 minutes at the hotel fitness center and then took a splash in the hotel pool. After that, I showered and went to bed after a long day.

Friday October 6

My mom and I woke up, quickly grabbed some hotel breakfast and then explored Core Arboretum, a park with some hiking trails near WVU Evansdale Campus. It was such a beautiful park with hiking trails going down to Monongahela River. The trails were steep going down towards the river, but my mom and I managed to watch our step and not to trip or fall. The trees were very colorful and the river was very scenic with homes and towns on the other side of it.

Hiking through Core Arboretum

Core Arboretum trees and trails

After walking through Core Arboretum, we went back to our hotel, packed our stuff up, loaded our stuff in our car, and then checked out of the hotel. We then headed to downtown Morgantown to look at WVU’s main campus and downtown Morgantown itself. Downtown Morgantown was pretty neat with lots of shops and restaurants and WVU’s campus was interesting and big.

View of the Monongahela River from WVU downtown campus

At WVU

Standing on the WVU bridge

At around 11:30, it was time to say goodbye to Morgantown and drive 3 hours and 10 minutes to Columbus, Ohio where the Girl Scout National Convention was taking place. The car ride from Morgantown to Columbus was great as my mom and I listened and rocked out to music the whole car ride and the views were really nice too, especially the view of the Ohio River as we crossed the bridge from West Virginia to Ohio.  As we entered Columbus, large buildings welcomed us, which was interesting to look at. Columbus is such a big city and it’s the capitol of the state of Ohio so that pretty much explains it.

We then arrived at our hotel and when we checked in, the lady at check in was very friendly and I noticed she was wearing a pin saying “Columbus Welcomes G.I.R.L. 2017.” I told her that I thought it was very creative and that I was there for that event. When I told her that, she gave her pin to me, which was very sweet of her. Once we checked into our room, I took a splash in the pool and hot tub before my Girl Scout National Convention festivities began.

After enjoying the hotel pool, I went to my room, showered, and then went to the Girl Scout National Convention to check in and go to the Hall of Experiences. At check in, such friendly volunteer ladies greeted me and gave me a name badge, an agenda for the convention, and a bag that said G.I.R.L. 2017 on it.  Then I headed over to the Hall of Experiences where there were so many booths for both young girls and women of all ages. I visited the “Visit Savannah” booth and talked to the volunteers there about my wonderful trip I took there last year and we had a nice talk about Savannah and Tybee Island in general. I even got my picture taken with the “Visit Savannah” sign.

Visit Savannah booth sign

Then I went to the “Our Chalet” booth and talked to the volunteers there since I also visited it when I was in Girl Scouts and we had a great talk about Our Chalet and Switzerland in general. I even got my picture by the beautiful sign and it brought back fond memories from years back.

Our Chalet booth sign

After visiting the two favorite booths of mine, I continued to walk around the Hall of Experiences and found a group of women singing Girl Scout songs and two of them were from my council, Girl Scouts National Capital Council, and their names were Julia and Jean. They easily recognized me based on my badge saying I was from Arlington, Virginia and they invited me to sing along with them and attend “Singing After Dark” too.

When 5 pm approached, it was time for me to head over to the Hilton Columbus Downtown for the Young Alumnae event for former Girl Scouts aged 18-29. At that event, everyone first got some refreshments and then headed into the meeting room to hear Julie Sygiel and Sarah Angel-Johnson talk. First, there was an opening speaker named Susan who gave an opening talk to welcome Julie to the stage and to welcome all young alumnae to the G.I.R.L. 2017.

Then Julie came to the stage and gave an interesting talk about how Girl Scouts influenced her life and how she founded the “Dear Kate” company, which sells underwear and yoga pants for women. She also told us about how “Dear Kate” products really influenced women and made them happier as individuals. That company has been featured in many newspaper articles. She even co-founded the “Lady Project” which allows women business owners to come together to serve their communities. After talking about the “Dear Kate” company and the “Lady Project”, she then talked about how Girl Scouts has a huge influence on her business, reaching out to customers, and raising investments.  What an amazing speech Julie!

After Julie’s talk, the opening speaker went back on stage and talked again and told us that us young alumnae should connect with LinkedIn to connect with other fellow Girl Scout alumnae so that we can learn from each other and become friends. She then introduced us to the next speaker Sarah Angel-Johnson, a change agent.

Sarah is an IBM executive. She gave a great talk about her career. She talked about how she works in human resources for her job and how she enjoys it and also that she is one of the leaders for careers in Girl Scouts. She even won an award for her work with underserved youth. Following her talk, she had us playing a game where we mixed and mingled by moving to different sides of the room based on how we all differentiated each other. For example, she asked questions like: “If you are thinker move to the right side of the room and if you are not a thinker, move to the left side of the room.” At one moment when we had to move to the front and back of the room based on our differential ties, I was the only person on the right side in the front of the room because I had a different opinion than everyone else on the right back side of the room and everyone waved at me and laughed, but they laughed in a nice way and I even laughed in a nice way. I really enjoyed Sarah’s talk because it was very inspiring and her activity that she had for us was great too because I got to interact with so many Young Alumnae from all around the US and there was even one woman from Singapore who attends college in Los Angeles, CA.

After the talks, it was time for us young alumnae to mix and mingle. I met 5 alums, which is better than meeting one or none. I mixed and mingled with Monica and Maddy from Montana, Megan from Ohio, Kelsey from Michigan, and Karlie from Long Island, New York. We all had a great talk and they were all very nice. Since many of them had been to previous conventions and have served as delegates, it was nice to hear from them about their experiences with Girl Scouts and with Girl Scout conventions in general. Then I went back to the convention center and grabbed a quick dinner with my mom before it was time for the Opening Ceremony.

Once 7:30 pm hit, the Opening Ceremony kicked off with the audience clapping and applauding really loudly. First, the GTEAM members gave a talk about G.I.R.L., what it stands for and what it means to be a Go-Getter, Innovator, Risk-Taker, and Leader. Some of the other speakers included Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of Girl Scouts USA;, Mae Jemison, former NASA astronaut; Stella Keane, senior vice president, talent management at Big Lots Inc.; Karen Ideno, senior executive at Toyota Financial Services;  and Anne Chow, president, national business, AT&T Business Solutions. They were all outstanding in their talks and it was inspiring and engaging to hear all of them speak. There were also special performances by the Ohio State of Mind choir, singer and songwriter Kensington Moore, and Vivienna Wolfgram. All of those special performances were fantastic and the funniest thing that happened during the opening ceremony during Kensington Moore’s performance was that during one of her incredible songs she sang, a whole group of girls and adults danced in front of the stage and formed a circle.

After such a grand Opening Ceremony, it was time to head to the ballroom for “Singing After Dark.” Before I took my seat, I ran into Julia and her mom Jean and sat next to them. The whole room was full and everyone was excited to sing. First, singer and guitar player, Frances Strickland, started playing some songs and we sang along to it. Then Melinda Carroll came in and played her guitar and we sang along too. Many of those Girl Scout songs were songs that were new, others were popular during my childhood, and some even dated back to the 1970’s. Parts of the time during “Singing After Dark”, girls and adults were allowed to go up on stage if they knew the whole song. I went up on stage for “Duck Girl” and “Moon On The Meadow” since I knew all the lyrics to both of those songs. Even though singing with other Girl Scouts at “Singing After Dark” was fun, I did have to head back to my hotel before 11:45 pm when it ended, because I wanted to get a good night’s sleep and a good workout in in the morning before my 8:30 am plenary session began the following day.

Saturday October 7

 I woke up at 7 am to be exact. I drank coffee, worked out for 30 minutes at the hotel fitness center, showered, ate breakfast, and then headed to the Convention Center for my first plenary session called Go-Getter, which began at 8:30 am. This session was all about teaching girls and adults to overcome anything. We had speakers Amy Robach of Good Morning America; activist Marley Dias, Caly Bevier, 18-year-old cancer survivor and performer on “America’s Got Talent”; Casey Lewis and Liza Darwin, co-founders of Clover Letter; and Laura Robert Rivera, former national young woman of distinction. Each one of those speakers had great things to share and they even talked about the struggles that they went through in their lives and how they can change the world so that we as individuals can be successful. Caly Bevier even sang “Fight Song” by Rachel Platten, which pretty explained what she went through when she fought through cancer. I left that session feeling very confident and empowered and I kept on thinking to myself “I can do anything.”

Then it was time for my breakout session and I was planning on attending Tiffany Dufu’s session on “How Networks and Mentors Support Women’s Leadership”, but then I later found out that that breakout session was cancelled because Tiffany had a death in her family, so I ended up attending Nancy Judd’s breakout session called “Art For Change: Recycle Runway.” During that session, she talked about how recycling of art can be used to change our world. She presented her art of recycling and then allowed us to participate in a project of hers by giving us small strips of paper and writing our hopes for our future and what we want to change about this world. I thought that her talk was amazing in that she really talked about how she made clothes out of recycled items and I sure learned a lot from her session about how to preserve our world and keep it clean.

After the Go-Getter sessions, I went over to the Hall of Experiences to meet up with my mom and explore it with her. We walked around and looked at different booths, talked to folks, and then it was time for me to trade my swaps with other Girl Scouts. I ended up trading about 90 of my pumpkin swaps with them and ended up with 85 swaps back hahaha. It was fun because I met so many Girl Scouts from all around the US while trading swaps and we had a great time mixing and mingling.

After spending some time with my mom in the Hall of Experiences, we decided to take a little break from the convention, so we went to the Ohio Statehouse. Since we didn’t have much time between Hall of Experiences and my next breakout session, we decided to take our own tour of the statehouse instead of a guided tour. First we stopped by the gift shop and the woman working there was nice enough to give us audio guides for us to take our own tour. We then went on and took our tour and walked around the statehouse. The rooms of it were really neat and it was all about Ohio’s history, woman’s rights movement, and the Senate and House buildings. The ceilings and the floors of the interior of the Ohio State capitol building were very interesting too and very colorful and I had to get a picture by it. It was great that my mom and I had a little getaway from the convention and I’m so happy I got to explore the statehouse.

Ohio Statehouse ceiling

Ohio Statehouse floor

Before my 2 pm breakout session, my mom and I went back to the convention center and had some lunch. The food court was packed with Girl Scouts but luckily my mom and I were able to get a table. Then it was time for my 2 pm Innovator breakout session where Chelsea Clinton gave a talk called “Take Action, Change the World.” Almost everyone wanted to go to that breakout session and the room was all full and totally packed. Chelsea talked about how we as individuals can build better futures; stay healthy as a whole, and how we can make the world a stronger place. She even told her about how her mom, Hillary Clinton, inspired her to be a Girl Scout and to keep at it. I thought that talk was amazing because I am similar to her in whom I believe that women are strong and that they can have wonderful futures.

Between the Chelsea Clinton breakout session and the Risk-Taker plenary session, I went back to the Hall of Experiences and did some more exploring and interacting with other Girl Scouts. Then it was time for the Risk-Taker plenary session. The purpose of that session was to have the attendees to feel willing to try new things, to be courageous, and to be strong. The speakers of that session were Barbara Pierce Bush, humanitarian and daughter of President George W. Bush; Sally Jewell, former Secretary of Interior; Amani Al-Khatahbeh, founder and editor in chief of “Muslim Girl”;  and Kathy Rodriguez, former national young woman of distinction. In addition to the speakers, singer and songwriter, Spencer Ludwig, did a special performance. That plenary session was fantastic because each speaker had a lot of interesting things to talk about and influenced me in a great way and made me feel more courageous as an individual. Spencer’s songs were also wonderful.

Then it was time for me to attend my breakout session called: “Taking the Risk to be Seen and Heard”, by Barbara McAfee. During that breakout session, she talked about the voice you have, speaking up, being heard, and expressing yourself. She started out by asking us about how we felt like we weren’t heard or if we didn’t get the chance to speak up. She then allowed us to speak tell us what songs we knew and if we know every word to that song. Each person told their songs and my song was a Girl Scout song called “Duck Girl.” When I told Barbara that, she allowed me to come up and sing it in front of her and the group. I felt confident and courageous to get in front of a group of 30 people and sing my “Duck Girl” song that I know and love. Afterwards, everybody clapped and Barbara even gave me a happy handshake and high five. Then I sat back down and listened to Barbara give her talk. She then talked about the Five Elements of Framework, which included air, metal, water, fire, and earth and we practiced each of those components through our voices. Concluding her session, she told us five ways to practice full voice, which were to notice how you shift your voice in different situations, use the five elements to enhance your message, listen to others through the lens of the Five Elements, sing, and to visit www.fullvoice.net. At the end she was giving out CD’s to everyone based on their birthdays and their capabilities. I got a music CD for my singing capability that day. I just loved that talk. I left it feeling inspired and empowered to take on voice and being heard.

After my last breakout session of the day, I went back to my hotel room, relaxed a bit, and got changed for the Saturday Night Celebration Party. I then headed over to the party where they had such great food, lots of fun, laughter, dancing, and even a “Girls Got Talent Show.” The food lines were really long since there were a lot of people at the convention and the party itself. The talent show was really fun to watch, there was a variety of performances including gymnastics, dancing, singing, and acting. At one point in the talent show, everyone got up out of their chairs and started dancing and singing along. It was so funny to watch. After the talent show, I went to the adult dancing party in the ballroom where Spencer Ludwig and his band were performing. While there was a dance party for the adults 18 and over, there was a carnival for the girls in grades 6-12. The adults danced the night away and while I hit the dance floor, I met some women from New Jersey and Minnesota and we ended up acting all silly and doing crazy dance moves. I wish someone got a picture of us acting crazy on the dance floor. After the dance, I got to meet Spencer Ludwig and get a picture with him. Getting a picture with someone famous was the dream I dreamed of since 2014 and I knew that the Girl Scout National Convention was the place I would be able to do it.

Saturday Night Celebration Party

With singer and songwriter Spencer Ludwig

Once the party was winding down, I went back to the hotel and took a splash in the pool and the hot tub where there were other Girl Scouts from New Jersey hanging out there too. Their names were Marianna and Angela, and they were seniors in high school. I chatted with them for a bit and we talked about our experiences in Girl Scouts and our Gold Awards. After we chatted and hung out in the pool and hot tub, I went back to my hotel room and went to bed after a really long and exciting day.

Sunday October 8

I woke up at 7 am, worked out at the fitness center before I grabbed breakfast, packed up all my stuff, helped my mom load up the car before checking out of the hotel, and then headed over to the convention center for my 9 am Leadership Plenary Session. The Leadership Plenary session left us off being encouraged to make a positive impact on our world and to be a strong leader. The speakers for that session were Gabby Douglas, Olympic gymnast; Sophia Dominguez-Heithoff, Miss Teen USA 2017; Anne Chow of AT&T; Yvette Donado, senior executive of Educational Testing Service; author Caroline Paul, and singer and songwriter Alyssa Michaela, who sang a new song for Girl Scouts, “Watch Me Shine.” Each of their talks were very inspiring and interesting because they all faced a lot of challenges, and they all believe in being a leader in both Girl Scouts and our world and helping make the world a better place.

After the Leadership Plenary Session, the closing ceremony of G.I.R.L. 2017 kicked off. The speakers of the closing ceremony were Sasha Cohen, Olympic figure skater; Sylvia Acevedo, and a special performance by Angelica Hale of America’s Got Talent. The song that Angelica sang at the end was Gloria Estefan’s “Get On Your Feet.” Everybody got up and danced to that song and the whole room lit up while she was performing. Not like actual fireworks but fake fireworks and fake fire. After Angelica’s performance, the Girl Scouts of the Citrus Council aka Florida came to the stage and announced that the next

Before leaving G.I.R.L. 2017, I stood online in the ballroom to meet and greet with Angelica Hale, Alyssa Michaela, and Sasha Cohen. The lines were really long as if everyone wanted to meet and greet and get a picture with all of those inspiring women. The only woman I didn’t get a chance to meet or get my picture with was Caroline Paul, which was all right because I was still really inspired by her talk. I tried to go into the Gabby Douglas meet and greet room but apparently I had to have a ticket and it was only for girls in grades 2-5 at that moment. I was somewhat disappointed about not being able to meet her, but it didn’t affect my day or my experience at convention because overall the G.I.R.L. 2017 was just fantastic.

With "America's Got Talent", Angelica Hale

Angelica Hale signing my fake orange

With singer and songwriter, Alyssa Michaela

With US Olympic Figure Skater, Sasha Cohen

After attending the closing events of the Girl Scout National Convention, my mom and I decided to explore a little bit more of Columbus, Ohio, so we ended up going to the Columbus Museum of Art and Topiary Park. The art museum had such wonderful exhibits and beautiful artwork. Topiary Park was also very pretty and it had gardens and figures of people made with bushes and leaves. It was awe inspiring to look at.

By the Columbus Museum of Art sign

By a piece of artwork

Topiary Park Garden

Topiary Park figures

Then it was time for my mom and I to get on the road and head home. After we did a little bit of exploring in Columbus, my mom and I were hungry so we ended up getting off at an exit a few miles away from Columbus to have lunch. We ended up eating at Arby’s. Not the healthiest after eating high calorie food all weekend, but it was pretty quick because had a long trip home. We drove a couple of miles after we stopped for lunch, and then stopped at a gas station in Ohio south of Columbus to get gas for the remainder of our trip home and luckily the gas station had ice cream so my mom and I ended up eating that as our dessert for the day hahaha. Then we drove the rest of the way home. The drive home went pretty smoothly since there wasn’t much traffic, but we still had to be careful while driving because we had to drive through the mountains. The only not so good thing was that it was raining while we were driving home. On the bright side, there were mountains and colored trees to look at which made up for the rain. We didn’t have much darkness during our drive and we ended up getting home at 9:15 pm.

Wow, this was such an incredible experience. G.I.R.L. 2017 has been totally real. I came home with so many swaps, so many friendships made, feeling more confidant, empowered to try new things, and really feeling like a Go-Getter, Innovator, Risk-Taker, and Leader. I have so many fond memories of this convention. I really liked the Hall of Experiences, the speakers, the party, the Young Alumnae event, and most importantly the people at the convention. The funniest thing about this convention was seeing the Long Island and New York City council wearing “Statue of Liberty” hats. My mom get a big kick out of it and wanted to wear one of them herself since she is a Long Island, NY native too. I think that my Girl Scout council, GSCNC, should do something creative like that for future conventions that represent the DC area. Now I have done so much with Girl Scouts including camping, volunteering, fundraising, the Silver, Silver Trefoil, and Gold Award, visiting Switzerland with my troop, going on the Channel Islands Girl Scout destination trip in California, visiting the Juliette Gordon Low Girl Scout Birthplace in Savannah, Georgia, and now I have done my first Girl Scout National Convention in Columbus, Ohio. I can’t wait to go to the 2020 Girl Scout National Convention in Orlando, Florida. What a great trip it was!!!