TEEN – SPIRIT OF JIM CHASE

Like the Eagle Scout Award in Boy Scouts, the Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive. Less than five percent of all Girl Scouts receive this prestigious award, which requires a minimum of eighty hours to complete. Seated among us are two University High Seniors, who recently received this award for their efforts to inform middle school girls of the health risks associated with and causes of poor body image. Over a two year period they worked closely with girls from Horizon Junior High to relay this message. Together, they produced a 45-55 minute lesson plan, a video, and instructions, which can be implemented by a wide range of youth instructors. This lesson includes an opening activity, a pre-quiz, discussion of issues in the video, a post-quiz, and finally a closing activity highlighting positive characteristics of each student. After surveying 31 high school students about their definition of beauty, they realized that all girls struggle with body image and that it is present at all ages. Their lesson packets were distributed to Central Valley School District and their video was shown at Lewis and Clark High School, thereby positively impacting the Spokane community.