With God as her pilot, 16 year old Savannah Emerich is hoping to help teens throughout the world with her Girl Scout Gold Award Project “Strength Courage Confidence”.
Many teens these days, in both middle and high school, face so many issues without having a clear guidance on how to deal with them. “They can either witness or become victims themselves to issues such as eating disorders, drama, cliques, stress and low self-esteem,” she said.
Instead of just helping her fellow students, Savannah created a website: www.strengthcourageconfidence.webs.com where she has gained an audience through-out the United States and as far away as Canada and Germany.
A Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive.
“Being a fourth generation Girl Scout, it is monumental that I be the first one in our family to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award,” she added.
This award is received when a Girl Scout identifies an issue in their community, create a way to solve it and follow through with helping, or actually solving, the issue. For Savannah it was an easy decision.
“The main issue I found in our community, and other communities, was the lack of education on a lot of the issues that teenagers face today. I am referring to eating disorders, drama, self-esteem issues, cliques and let’s not forget stress. We (teenagers) are either victims ourselves, witnessing to others going through it, or know someone that has had it happen to them. When students start middle school, we are going from a place where crayons, construction paper and child-proof scissors are part of our school supply list to a world unknown. It’s not just our mind, but our bodies, the people around us, everything is just overwhelming.”.
Logging in over 350 hours researching, creating, teaching and promoting Strength Courage Confidence, Savannah says “I feel that God never gives us something to do, unless He has given us the ability to do it. With my project, He has opened doors that would have never been there before.”
She wants to reach out to as many teens as possible and she continues to climb milestones in doing so. She wrote and produced a series of videos as well as wrote a Christian based curriculum to be taught to youth groups and classrooms.
“The Girl Scout Gold Award is not only about helping the community, but also growing as an individual. I gave my first live radio interview this past summer, I had never even thought that I would have had such an amazing opportunity. I have also been on a local cable show which was really exciting. I often think about Proverbs 3:5-6 ‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him and He will make your paths straight’ ”.
When asked about self-esteem issues in teenagers, she explains how incredibly important it is in our everyday lives. She says “having positive self-esteem helps us to improve relationships and our grades. The better you are in knowing yourself and surrounding yourself with others that have positive thinking and morals, the happier you are and the more successful you’ll be. We are all God’s children and we are beautiful. He created each of us for a reason and a purpose. It is up to you to find that within yourself, your self-esteem is what makes you beautiful. One should never measure themselves up to someone else’s expectations….after all it takes more muscles to frown than to smile.”. With her slogan being Strength Courage Confidence she believes that “We must have the
Strength to continue, the Courage to stand up and the Confidence in ourselves if we want to make the world a better place.”
Savannah certainly has goals ahead of her in making a world a better place. After college she plans on holding a political office “Where I can be the voice of the people and make a positive Christian difference in the world.” She believes that people do not need to be afraid to do the right thing. “Our world is developing, it’s changing and people need help. I will take every step I need in order to help others; I just wish other people would do the same. If we all took just a moment to help out at least one person, the world would be a much better place.”.
