Girls from kindergarten to 12th grade gathered in late January for the annual Girl Scout Cookie College on Naval Station (NAVSTA) Rota, Spain. During the three-hour event, to prepare for cookie sales around the installation, girls learned about ethics and decision-making, customer service and people skills, money management, goal setting, and business management.
"Cookie College was to prepare the girls so they could run their cookie booths smoothly and effectively,” said Luce Brumbelow. “And have fun while selling cookies!”
While these skills are essential for cookie sales, Natalya Pykus expanded that, "the skills we taught them are skills they can use in real life later on.”
After the initial greeting, pledge, and introductions, the girls rotated between the five stations that were created and facilitated by the older Girl Scouts.
"We taught them how to manage and advertise cookies and what it takes to run your own business,” said Juliauna Meehan. “About knowing your product well and matching the customer with the product that is best for them.”
At Meehan's station, the girls were also able to taste test the cookies to help them make recommendations to future customers.
While tasting the product was definitely a hit amongst the scouts, fundraisers are meant to generate money. At the money management station, the girls were led through an engaging activity to reinforce skills needed while they were selling cookies.
"I taught the younger girls about doing math, counting by 5's and 6's when figuring out the cost of someone's cookies and giving change,” explained Fleur Eaton. “I used a cash box with fake money and the leaders of each troop pretended to be customers and the girls had to figure out what total was owed and how much change to give back."
The Girl Scout organization emphasizes girl-led activities throughout its ranks. This year’s Cookie College was the first year it was led by the older scouts, with help from their troop leaders Jean Pykus (who also led the business ethics station) and Erinn Gelakoska. This year’s cookie manager was also Senior Girl Scout, Bee Gelakoska.
“A few of them were new to the Cookie College, therefore they didn’t have a base to go by,” said troop leader Gelakoska. “It was impressive to see the girls support each other during the prep for this event.”
This included the older girls practicing their scripts in front of each other and providing feedback to each other.
"We practiced a lot and we needed to find the time to do that,” said Hannah Engle. “I had fun adding my own style to what I was reading to the younger girls. I liked making it entertaining for the girls."
The learning and cooperation continued once the event began with the scouts needing to make adjustments to keep the event moving along and adapting to lessons learned.
"In order to adapt, for our station, we needed to balance the information time and the activity time,” said Brumbelow. “We realized that we needed to make adjustments as we did it. The younger kids needed less talking time and more activity time."
Troop leader Gelakoska said that this teamwork and “being in this together” helped create a successful event, but also had a ripple effect within the older troop members.
“They may not realize it now, but the skills they taught during Cookie College will extend into their lives,” she said. “They learned about themselves. Those that tend to be quieter found their voices during the College; those that thought their portion may have been a bit dry were able to spruce up their delivery with their imagination to overhear later that their portion was some of the girls’ favorites! At the end, the Seniors and Cadettes showed pride and confidence in themselves and their abilities.”
The Girl Scouts of Rota has approximately 70 active Girl Scouts – from kindergarten through 12th grade – at NAVSTA Rota, led by a group of more than 20 adult volunteers. To join a troop or volunteer with the organization, e-mail rotagirlscouts@usagso.org.
| Date Taken: | 02.10.2022 |
| Date Posted: | 02.10.2022 10:20 |
| Story ID: | 414412 |
| Location: | ROTA, ES |
| Web Views: | 93 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Rota Girl Scouts Attend Cookie College in Preparation for Cookie Sales, by Courtney Pollock, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
