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GSOC Program Focus Areas

Program Focus Areas

At Girl Scouts, your girl will prepare for a lifetime of leadership, success, and adventure in a safe, no-limits place designed for and by girls!

How? Through the Girl Scout Leadership Experience—a collection of engaging, challenging, and fun activities like earning badges, going on awesome trips, selling cookies, exploring science, getting outdoors, and doing community service projects.

At Girl Scouts, she’ll get to lead her own adventure (it’s her world!) and team up with other girls in an all-girl environment to choose the exciting, hands-on activities that interest her most.

The idea is to learn by doing, and at Girl Scouts, she’ll do lots of it.

She’ll be inspired to discover her talents and passions in a safe and supportive all-girl setting. She’ll join with other Girl Scouts and people in her community—and together, they’ll take action to change the world.

Here are a  few of Girl Scout of Orange County’s areas of focus with  examples of badges, journeys, and activities.

Four Focus Areas of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience

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Entrepreneurship

 

Girl Scouts offers girls of all ages the opportunity to build their business savvy and hone their entrepreneurship skills through badge programs, online learning, and, of course, through the Girl Scout Fall Product and Cookie Programs. As girls learn to handle money and become self-reliant, they are also learning how to bring their own values to the business world and how to use their time, talent, and resources (including money!) to make the world a better place.

Girl Scout Fall Product and Cookie Programs

The Girl Scout Cookie Program focuses on 5 essential skills: goal setting, money management, decision making, people skills and business ethics. Girls can earn a variety of financial literacy and business badges for every level.

And now with Digital Cookie, girls can do and learn even more—and have more fun than ever before—all while giving cookie customers more ways to support them and their goals.

Remember: smart cookies don’t just improve their own lives—they have the vision to change the world.

Entrepreneurship Badge Examples

Cookie Business: Meet My Customers
Cookie Business: Marketing

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S.T.E.M.

 

Girl Scouts introduces girls of every age to science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) experiences relevant to everyday life. Whether they're discovering how a car's engine runs, how to manage finances, or completing an energy audit for a building, girls are developing STEM skill that will help them, no matter what path they follow. More about STEM

Program-In-A-​​Box Reservations
A Program-In-A-Box is a packaged program activity that GSOC troops, groups, and individual Girl Scouts can check out from our Irvine office. These activities include materials and instructions for girls to do a self-guided activity to help complete badge steps or enhance other programming.

Tell Us About Her Girl Scout STEM Experiences
Has your Girl Scout gone on a STEM field trip or activity with her troop, earned a STEM badge, or attended a STEM event? We want to hear about it! Her feedback helps us evaluate our STEM programs on a national and local level so we can develop the best experiences and badge opportunities for all Girl Scouts.

Leadership Journey Examples

All Levels: It's Your Planet: Love it!

S.T.E.M. Badge Examples
My STEM Life - Cadettes
STEMsational ME! - Juniors

Home Scientist
Entertainment Technology
Science of Happiness

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Travel


In Girl Scouting, travel presents girls the opportunity to learn about themselves, other cultures, new places, and the outdoors as they prepare, plan, budget for their trip, and engage in Take Action Projects. Through these once-in-a-lifetime experiences girls will continually expand their horizons by sharing ideas with women and girls globally by participating in regional, national, and international trips. View here all of the opportunities for travel
 

Trip Categories by Level

All Levels: Field Trips
Brownies+: Overnight Trips
Junior+: Extended Overnight Trips
Cadette+: National & International Trips

Leadership Journey Examples for Travel

Brownie: A World of Girls
Senior: Mission: Sisterhood

Travel Badge Examples

Digital Photographer
Trailblazing
Traveler
 

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Outdoors
 
 

Girl Scouts benefit immensely from their time outdoors: they experience personal growth and empowerment, try new things, overcome fears, and learn teamwork and leadership skills. The open space of the outdoors, combined with the calming effects of nature and the opportunities for new experiences and growth, constitute an ideal setting in which girls can explore, observe, learn, and give back to their peers and their communities.

Leadership Journey Examples for Outdoors
Brownie: WOW! Wonders of Water
Cadette: Breathe
Senior: Sow What?

Camping
Day camps in locations throughout Orange County, weekend and resident camp at Camp Scherman.

G.A.M. (”Gathering of All Mariners”)
Annual event for Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors to demonstrate their nautical skills.

Cadette-o-Rama!
Annual event for Girl Scout Cadettes to test outdoor skills and knowledge.

New! Trailblazers
Levels: Cadettes, Seniors, Ambassadors
The Trailblazer program provides teen Girl Scouts an opportunity to engage deeply in outdoors activities in a broad range of modalities, geographies, and climates. Trailblazers meet the 2nd Tuesday of each month at 7:00 pm to plan activities. 
Activities include: All items relating to Hiking, Backpacking, Camping, Safety, and more.
GSOC Trailblazer Interest Form
More Information
For more information: Trailblazers Guidelines

For questions: gsoctrailblazers@gmail.com

New! Mariners
Levels: Cadettes, Seniors, Ambassadors
The Mariners learn to sail & paddle, tie knots, and preserve marine life. Mariners meet the 4th Monday of each month at 6:30 pm to plan activities. 
Activities include: All things related to water! Boating, land skills (knots, code flags, compass), marine science & conservation, field trips, overnights, and more!
Learn More
For questions: gsocmariners@gmail.com

High Adventure
Check out the  High Adventure Approved Vendors List and the High Adventure Activity Application.

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Life Skills

 

Girl Scout badges, beginning with Civic Engagement and expanding to Healthy Living, Communication Skills, Practical Skills, and Global Citizenship, form the foundation of activities that help girls grow as Girl Scouts.

Whether it’s by exercising and staying healthy, developing strong relationships with family and peers, advocating on behalf of others, protecting our environment, or exploring careers that can truly change the world for the better, girls gain the skills and the inspiration to accept challenges, overcome obstacles, and take the lead.

Life Skills Journeys

As a Girl Scout, she’ll team up with other girls to identify a problem she wants to do something about, come up with a creative solution that will make a difference, and create a team plan to make that solution a reality. Then she’ll put her plan into action, talk about what she learned, and celebrate her achievements. That’s a Girl Scout Journey, and here are just a few of the areas she’ll explore:

Civic Engagement: With a focus on preparing girls to be active and informed members of their communities, Girl Scouts offers Citizen badges for all grade levels (including Daisies!), along with the Silver Torch and Gold Torch awards for Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors.

Community Service: Whether it’s through planting a garden, painting a mural, or launching a letter-writing campaign, the It’s Your World—Change It! Journey inspires Girl Scouts at every grade level to take on unique leadership and advocacy challenges and discover what it means to be a leader who makes a difference in the world.

Healthy Relationships: At every stage, from Daisy to Ambassador, Girl Scouts form stronger connections with family, friends, and their communities. Younger Girl Scouts (grades K–5) make new friends as they strive to be considerate, caring, and kind. In middle school, girls learn how to cope with bullying and relational aggression. And as a Senior or Ambassador, she’ll hone her people skills with her peers and her community, as she makes the world a better place.

OC Girl Scouts C.R.E.A.T.E. Healthy Relationships with the NEW Healthy Relationships Patch Program.

Financial Literacy: Grounded in real-life situations, Financial Literacy badges give girls a deeper understanding of financial issues, providing them with insight, skills, and practical knowledge in areas such as budgeting, philanthropy, making smart buying decisions, financial planning, and more. 

Leadership Journey Examples for Life Skills

Daisy: Welcome to the Daisy Flower Garden
Brownie: Brownie Quest
Junior: Agent of Change
Cadette: aMaze!
Senior: Mission: Sisterhood
Ambassador: Bliss: Live it! Give it!

Life Skills Badge Examples

College Knowledge
Healthy Living
Practical Life Skills

Life Skills Special Programs

Be a Friend First (BFF)
World Thinking Day Award
Global Action Award

Highest Awards
 

Girl Scouts' Highest Awards – the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards - give girls an opportunity to make a lasting difference and set the stage for a lifetime of achievement. The Girl Scout Research Institute found that girls who engage in Take Action projects report that these projects helped prepare them to play an active role in their communities in the future.

Gold Award

Highest award in Girl Scouting, unique girls identify community needs, become problem solvers, advocate for an issue, educate and inspire others to act and create sustainable change.

Silver Award

Highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve, girls demonstrate that they are organized, determined, and dedicated to improving the world around them.

Bronze Award

Highest award a Girl Scout Junior can achieve, girls work as a team to plan and complete a project.