By Naomi Kruh
Staff Writer
The mission of Girl Scouts of America is to build courage, confidence and character. Senior Pooja Nagpal personifies these qualities in her Girl Scouts Gold Award.
Every year, Girl Scouts of America selects 10 girls to honor with the National Young Women of Distinction Award, which recognizes them for exceptional Gold Award projects. This year, Nagpal was chosen as one of the 10 recipients of the award. As a recipient, Nagpal will receive $10,000 in scholarship money toward the college she attends next fall.
“Some of these other young women [recipients], many of whom are in college, have done such unbelievable things and helped so many people,” Nagpal said. “It’s so amazing to be amongst them.”
Nagpal was nominated by Girl Scouts of Los Angeles for the award. According to Nagpal, she has been a member of the Girl Scout community for eight years. She likes what the Girl Scouts’ values of building courage, confidence and character in young women have taught her.
“I knew that what she had started via her Girl Scouts Gold Award had the propensity to be something fabulous,” Nagpal’s troop leader, Rae Yan, said. “She took a great idea and not only saw it to fruition; she went on, worked hard and brought it successfully to the next level.”
Any Girl Scout who has achieved the Gold Award status through her projects is eligible to receive the National Young Women of Distinction Award. For her Gold Award project, Nagpal traveled to India in 2013 to teach girls at Arya Samaj School self and street defense. As a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do, Nagpal incorporated her skills into the defense that she taught the girls. Along with teaching defense skills, Nagpal also hosted discussions about women empowerment with the girls to take a stance against gender inequality.
“The experience was truly phenomenal,” Nagpal said. “The girls were so motivated to learn the techniques, and honestly, they became so strong. It was so cool to see the girls taking a stand to break down the cultural barriers of patriarchy and inequality.”
After being nominated by the Los Angeles Girl Scout Council, Nagpal had to go through an application process for the award, which involved making a one-minute-long video explaining her Gold Award project about teaching women and girls self-defense and empowerment.
“I’m very passionate about the elimination of violence against women,” Nagpal said. “I strongly support activism rather than advocacy: actually doing something about a cause rather than campaigning or just talking about it.”
Since completing her Gold Award in 2013, Nagpal has created a non-profit organization called For a Change, Defend. Nagpal has partnered with several domestic violence shelters and worked with the Los Angeles Police Department and homeless shelters for women.
“I started For a Change, Defend because I wanted to create something sustainable in which I could raise money for the school girls in India, raise awareness and inspire other youth to pursue activism in causes they are passionate about,” Nagpal said.
Nagpal went back to India this past summer and taught self defense to 600 women and girls from rural areas.
“Helping these people and seeing how happy they are has brought me so much happiness,” Nagpal said. “I’ve had my deepest connections with some of the girls in the villages.”
Nagpal received the National Young Women of Distinction award in New York on Oct. 7. She will give a TEDx talk on Nov. 14, during which she plans to speak about the power of youth activism, her experiences in India and how physical strength manifests as mental strength.
“It’s a wonderful thing to share her passion,” Yan said. “I’m most proud that she reached so many people and continues to teach others the abilities of empowerment.”
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