CRASH COURSE
PHASE 1 STEP 4 > WHAT ONE KID CAN DO
Meet Alicia
Alicia is a bright girl who enjoys everything about gardening. She loves planting the tiny seeds, watering, observing the gems ripen in their favorite mix of sun and shade, picking, plucking, preparing a delicious treat on the perfect day – yay! – and giving back to butterflies, bugs and bees. A passionate cook, she instantly applied her 1st grader reading skills to food labels, curious to find out about what her favorite foods actually contained. Oh dear.
This made life more complicated. Also life as a Girl Scout! The cookies always appeared so tasty – but selling a mix of white sugar, palm oils and genetically modified organisms … that didn’t feel good at all. And it got even worse with more research.
“GMOs can make bugs’ tummies explode. That can’t be good!”
What can one do about this? Set up a petition asking Girl Scouts to remove GMOs. Thousands of Children and moms across the country signed it.
In the meantime, she sat down with her school principal to discuss healthy lunches, and setting up a school garden. Of course, she would help with the funds, by selling a GMO-free cookbook for kids.
As she was working on the book, her petition surpassed 47,000 signatures. Time to print, pack up and hand-deliver it at Girl Scouts headquarter!
The organization responded by claiming to see no reason for making any changes, but, what a surprise, a new cookie has appeared: “the specialty-ingredient Girl Scout S’mores sandwich cookie baked by Little Brownie Bakers made with ingredients that are verified as not containing genetically modified organisms.”
Ha, a first victory! Onwards, elves and animal lovers! Everybody rise and make the right changes for our babies, bugs and bees!
Alicia does all sorts of things. Her love for gardening does not keep her from joining Girls In The Garage courses in her neighborhood.
Because girls can do and enjoy everything!
Some things like donating hair for wigs for cancer patients take only seconds.
This is important, since like every teen Alicia leads a buzy life.
She is a passionate and badass wrestler who beats older boys and scores plenty of medals.
She also has merry younger siblings.
There is Annabelle
a readathon champion. This is her … picking up books at the library.
There is Cookie
who loves to growl, sweat and wrestle like a beast. She beats older boys and you already know why.
There is Dominic
the youngest, and it looks like he’s having a gooood time with this wild bunch of sisters.
Turns out soon ...
he’s some badass that shares the love for wrestling like his sisters.
Sisters and brothers living together 24/7 can be veritable Activist Dream Teams.
There’s a family garden to bring to life and enjoy!
Then, there’s friends.
Here, they join Micah, who collects LEGO for rural children in Africa. They add their Girl Scout campaigning and FUNdraising experience with LEGO jewelry sales. As they reach 1 ton of LEGO (yes, 1,000 kilos!), they pack up for a delivery trip to Uganda. It comes with plenty of amazing experiences
It doesn’t take long until Alicia gets inspired for a next personal project. She created seed libraries as a child.
Now, she decides to go next level and create 108 Seed Libraries with 100 varieties each, to send to public libraries, community centres and schools in all 50 States of the USA – for her Girl Scouts Silver Award.
100 varieties
With info folder, neatly packed in wooden boxes
Off goes another shipment
+ 1 in front of the house
handmade
+ short info videos in english and spanish. It doesn’t take much effort or talk, but it’s always good for newbies to realize this, and to see that creating tutorial videos are no rocket science. Just do it.
As a changemaker you get around and make friends that share your passion. So Alicia got invited to co-star in a documentary film. It’s a mighty remarkable film that we highly recommend, also for children and schools.
During film production, she learned more on seeds, soils, a good land and future from experts …
which inspired her to plant an EDIBLE SIDEWALK FOOD FOREST in her street. And 9 more in her district.
It did not take long to gain permission from the town council.
+ flyers to inform neighbors
COMMUNICATION + involvement are youth leadership essentials
… joining others’ initiatives is a no-brainer.
You don’t miss out when hero*ines visit your country.
Then, there’s SUMMER HOLIDAYS. What do changemakers do?
Volunteer in Spanish Language Camp
Learn to surf
Teach others
Natural born Mentor
A buzy activist’s life doesn’t mean one doesn’t have time for other things youth love doing.
There's music to play
weights to lift
boys to beat
belts to win
Also pandemics are no reason to freeze, sulk or stay bored.
helping Khloe Kares stock the community fridge
Homeschooling - history in comic style
Home made egg roles
Seed library trainings for fellow Girl Scouts
Unaffected
on top of things
#alwayswinning
Wham, next passion, next project.
1 YEAR LIFESTYLE CHALLENGE
Zip zap! Alicia adds upcycling wrestling shoes for youth that cannot afford their own. She has fundraised to donate dozens … and continues to surprise us.
BIRTHDAY
* #fulltimeforfuture commitment like an athlete, like Babar, Emma … hero*ine spirit
There is a mommy too.
Her name is Monica. She is being pulled into all sorts of adventures by these little whirlwinds, and backs them with an enormous lot of love.
“It’s been an adventure from the beginning. What do you do when your little child starts asking big questions on GMOs, on poisons in the environment, in the food on our plates? I have never been an activist. Also, the idea of the kids being in the spotlight, of confronting school and their organizations on issues … it is not something that I would start.
I am infinitely glad and grateful that everything has been turning out smoothly. The kids definitely have an innate wisdom that safely guides them through everything they do. My role as a mom simply is to support them, and juggle the packed family schedule. It’s a lot of work, enormous fun, and I could not be more proud.”
Monica is also the one who is taking photos and sharing the family album with friends, and far away people like me and you … so that we all get to see how pre-teeners today can actively shape the local community. There’s also a daddy, staying in the background. That doesn’t mean he’s indifferent, he’s just busy doing other things.
The Serratos family is a perfect example of what's true for all young changemakers featured in YL media and programs:
- initiative comes out of young people themselves
- they define their activities 100% by themselves
- this guarantees pure spirit, maximum passion and impact
- and safe space within their own healthy limits
- often far beyond those of old school adults
- adult allies only support on demand
which makes them perfect parent role models: no worries, no doubt, no restriction, no ambitions.
Thank you for being this outstanding example and sharing it with the world to learn from it.
Hey, did you notice : being a girl, being married, having kids … does not keep you from having the BEST TIME IN YOUR LIFE. Remember this! 🙂
Meanwhile, 9-year-old bro …
Because also boys can do and enjoy everything!
REFLECTION
Essential Insight #3
CHILD AND TEENAGE YOUTH CHANGEMAKERS ACT FROM THEIR OWN MOTIVATION.
People involved in youth leadership know this
- from 50 years in civic education
- from 100 years in Girl Scouts where millions of teens have self-organized projects to score their Bronze, Silver, Gold Badges at age 11, 13, 16, many with state- and nationwide impact
and you will know it
- from watching their videos, reading their interviews, listening to them, feeling them
- from checking back with Eric and other YL folks that know them and their parents
- from meeting them live via Video, at events, summer camps and volunteer stays
Remember – we have supremely strict quality benchmarks.
A note on YL Quality Control (important)
We know of cases of teenage changemakers driven or controlled or bridled BY their parents – including some celebrated by society. There are only FEW such parent-driven chaemakers since it is hard for young people to sustain motivation and energy to spend dozens of weekly hours doing tangible good, if it does not come from their own core. It’s easier to be a loudmouth inspirational speaker gaining admiration from crowds, and once adults, people can go on auto-pilot pretending to be good. But not teens, who are emotionally fluent and ever changing.
Hence, such adult affected teenage activists … we do strictly NOT even feature, EVER, since
- that’s not the right spirit
- it’s not youth leadership
- which means it is not a useful model for others to learn from, and use
- one cannot really participate in those initiatives
- one cannot get support from them.
Summed up, our YL quality standard is considerably higher than that of common awards, media and public.
Also, we feature only TANGIBLE SOLUTIONS. Projects, not protests. Hence, eloquent talking (so popular in this society and opening doors to high paying jobs) is no qualifier for YL.
OUR QUALITY BENCHMARK OF SELECTION FOR HERO*INES
as you know from page 1 is a MIX of
- successful high impact initiative
- vividly documented online
- replicable by young people
- accessible by mail or video chat
since this mix enables replication.
Hence, the people you see in YL are hand-picked and strictly selected by pure spirit. They are FOR REAL.
With solid TRUST in YL, on yourself, your heart, dreams and judgement, proceed on your Discovery Tour.
GET A COOL DRINK. THE NEXT PAGE IS ON FIRE.