Were you wondering if I was ever going to get to Ambassadors? For those who are not following along, this is the fourth in a series of posts recounting the results of a survey about Girl Scouts' older girl program. Here are the other posts:
This post will cover the responses about Ambassador badges. I'll put my usual disclaimer in here: I'm not a professional survey designer and the Facebook groups I poll are almost certainly not a random sampling of Girl Scouts or Girl Scout leaders. I don't claim these results would hold up if a professional wrote a randomly delivered survey. I just noticed that the Think Like a Journeys were left off my award list, so I don't know how popular they are with this age group. Do you?
How Many Badges?
Eleven of the people who responded said that their Ambassador troop earned more than five badges per year. 31 said they earned 3-5 badges per year and 43 said they earned less than three.
What About Gold?
Seniors and Ambassadors are eligible to earn the Gold Award. Out of 168 people who responded to my question about the Gold Award 24.7% said that the troop would do a Journey; but the rest of the award was up to the girl. 23.1% said that the troop would do a Journey and get the girl started on Gold. 14.5% said they had girls working on Gold, but that none had finished. 11.8% said that the girls had been given information on Gold and about Journey programs, but that the troop was not going to do a Journey. 4.8% said no one wanted to do a Journey so no one would earn Gold. 10.2% said at least one girl in their troop earned Gold. 8.6% said they had never discussed Gold and that they had no idea if the girls knew it was an option. 2.2% said they had at least one girl in their troop whose Gold project was rejected.
Which Badges Are Popular?
As I did when looking at Cadette and Senior badges, I looked for those that stood out. Awards that over twenty people did and liked were the Gold Award, First Aid, Dinner Party, Outdoor Art, Photographer, Service to Community, and Service to Girl Scouts.
Badges that more than twenty people had not done, but wanted to were Gold Award, Girl Scout Way, Snow/Climbing Adventure, Trail Adventure, College Knowledge, Dinner Party, Eco Advocate, Good Credit, On My Own, Outdoor Art, Photographer, Survival Camper, Ultimate Recreation Challenge, Water, Safety Pin, Service to Community and Service to Girl Scouts.
Which Badges Are Not Popular?
Those which more than 20 people rejected before they tried--they said they had not done them and did not want to-- were Snow/Climbing Adventure, Coaching, all three Coding badges, Cookie Entrepreneur and Cookie Influencer, all three cybersecurity badges, Democracy, Digital Leadership, Eco Advocate, Entrepreneur Accelerator, Bliss, Justice, Your Voice, Your World, My Cookie Business Resume, P&L, Public Policy, Research and Development, all 3 robotics badges, Space Science, My Promise My Faith and Religious Awards.
Which Badges Were Disliked?
Girls can choose not to do badges because they've had bad experiences with similar badges in prior years, or because they honestly are not interested in the topic, or because they just don't like the name, among other reasons, and that's okay. Not every topic is for every girl. However by this time, girls should be picking their own badges, so except for a girl who is odd person out in her troop, I would hope that most enjoy the badges they do.
The survey showed very few dislike votes for any awards. Bliss had three people that did not like it, whereas the other two original Journeys got 4 dislike votes. The Safety Pin also got 3 dislike votes
What Did the Girls Say?
I asked people who led older girls to forward the link to their girls. I was curious about whether the leaders and girls saw things the same way. Only three girls who appear to be Ambassadors replied. If the surveyed girls and surveyed leaders are typical, I'd say leaders' responses are pretty close to girl responses.
.
Girl 1:
She is a member of a multi-level C/S/A troop.
Ambassador badges she did and liked were Gold Award, First Aid, Snow/Climbing Adventure, Trail Adventure, College Knowledge, Dinner Party, Eco Advocate, Good Credit, Outdoor Art, Photography, Research and Development, Survior Camper, Ultimate Recreation Challenge, My Promise, My Faith, Service to Girl Scouts, and Service to Community.
Those she did not want to do were Bliss, Your Voice and Public Policy. Those she did but did not like were Justice, Coaching, the Robotics badges, Space Science Master, and the Safety Pin.
She still wanted to do all three Coding for Good badges, the cookie badges, the Cybersecurity set, Democracy, Digital Leadership, Your Voice Your World, and Ultimate Recreation Challenge,
.
Girl 2:
Girl 2 is in a multi-level troop that includes younger girls. She did not mark any awards as having been done. Those she wanted to do were First Aid, Snow/Climbing Adventure, Trail Adventure, College Knowledge, Good Credit, Bliss, Justice, Your Voice Your World, On My Own, Outdoor Art, Photographer, Survival Camper, Water, Safety Pin, Service to Community and Service to Girl Scouts.
Girl 3:
Girl 3 is in a multi-level troop of older girls who have been together since Daisies or Brownies and have taken in few if any girls since then. While she had done Ambassador awards, she didn't mark any of them as "liked". She did not like My Cookie Business Resume. Awards she described as "meh" were Coaching and all three Coding for Good badges.She wants to do First Aid, Girl Scout Way, Snow/Climbing Adventure, Trail Adventure, College Knowledge, Cookie Entrepreneur, Digital Leadership, Dinner Party, Eco Advocate, Good Credit, Justice, Your Voice Your World, On My Own, Outdoor Art, Photographer, Space Science Master, Survival Camper, Ultimate Recreation Challenge, Water, Safety Pin, Service to Girl Scouting and Service to Community.
No comments:
Post a Comment