Lipica Shah, New York, NY
Gold Award • 2005
Lipica Shah is
many things. She’s
an actress in NYC
who was named
Girl Scouts of the
USA’s National
Young Woman
of Distinction
in 2005. She’s a spokesperson for the
American Red Cross and volunteered
her expertise to outlets like The Dr. Oz
Show, The Weather Channel, and Martha
Stewart. But most importantly, she’s a
Gold Awardee who feels empowered by
the opportunities that Girl Scouts gave
her. That feeling of empowerment dates
back to Shah’s earliest Girl Scout memory,
a special encounter during an after-school
Daisy meeting. “I remember two girls
who weren’t part of our troop looking
into our room,” she recalls. “A friend and
I invited them in to join us and we told
them that everyone is welcome in Girl
Scouts.” For her Gold Award project,
she worked with her local government in
Millstone Township to stock the disaster
supply trailer she created when earning her
Silver Award. Eleven years later, her project
remains part of the Millstone community
and she looks upon Girl Scouts as a vital
part of her development. “It shaped who I
am today and how I face new challenges,”
she says. “Every place you go, you’re thrust
into a room with people you’ve never
met before. You all have the same task,
but you approach it differently. You have
to discover how to meet those goals in a
collaborative way. That’s definitely a Girl
Scout thing.”
Kathleen Donovan, Rutherford, NJ
First Class • 1967
The sense of
achievement
Kathleen Donovan
felt upon earning
her First Class has
stayed with her for
almost 50 years.
For Donovan,
her First Class meant that others in the
community saw her as a leader on whom
they could rely. “Earning the First Class
confirmed for me that I could set goals
and achieve them despite obstacles,”
she says. “It meant I knew how to teach
younger Girl Scouts and had mastered
the skills of successful camping, such as
lighting a wood fire with two matches in
the pouring rain and cooking a meal on
that fire,” explains Donovan. Currently,
Donovan is an attorney with a long career
in public service, and her roles include
Assemblywoman, Bergen County Clerk,
Bergen County Executive, and Chair/
Commissioner of the Port Authority of
New York and New Jersey. “Girl Scouting
allows girls to try, and then try again
when necessary, to reach a goal,” she says.
“I knew I wanted to be an attorney from
when I was in the fourth grade, and that
was at a time when most young girls
weren’t allowed to have those dreams. But
with my parents’ encouragement and what
I learned in Girl Scouts, I knew I could
become a successful attorney—and I did,”
states Donovan proudly.
Sophia Chirayil, Belle Mead, NJ
Gold Award • 2015
Sophia Chirayil
noticed a couple
of her friends had
joined Girl Scouts,
so she decided to
get involved when
she was in the third
grade—and she
doesn’t regret it. “Girl Scouts has always
been an empowering experience for me,”
Chirayil says. “The projects I pursued over
the years in Girl Scouts made me get out
of my comfort zone and helped me realize
that I can go beyond where I thought
I had limits.” Chirayil, who earned her
Gold Award in October 2015, wanted to
encourage more girls to get involved in
STEM-related fields—science, technology,
engineering, and math. Chirayil renovated
an old storage room in Montgomery
High School to create an innovation
Victoria Shay, Lawrenceville, NJ
Gold Award • 2016
Victoria Shay’s Girl
Scout story started
when she joined a
Daisy troop during
her time at the
Singapore American
School while her
family lived overseas
in Asia. When her family moved back to
the United States, she became involved in
a troop based in Princeton, NJ. “You could
say that being a Girl Scout was a constant
in my developmental years and part of my
upbringing,” says Shay. “My mother was
a Girl Scout and Cub Scout troop leader,
and both my father and my older brother
were Boy Scouts. We are a family that
truly believes in the scouting organization
Special Advertising Section
lab, or MakerSpace, where students could
explore their ideas and bring them to life.
Her facility provides Arduino equipment,
3-D printers, laptops, soldering and
building materials, and various electronic
engineering supplies. “My Gold Award
project emphasizes the need for equality in
STEM fields,” says Chirayil. “By creating
a safe space in a high school, we are able to
promote equality among students just as
they are beginning to explore their ideas.
The MakerSpace encourages students—
particularly girls—to pursue STEM.”
Through earning her Gold Award, she
believes her project helped her to break out
of her shell, become more self-confident,
and expressive of her ideas. “A lot of
opportunities in life come just by talking
to experienced people,” Chirayil explains.
“I think it is important for people to set
goals and figure out how to achieve them.”
“The Gold Award is a platform
that allows Girl Scouts to
dream to make a change and
go beyond their limits. They
will surprise themselves
when they see how much
they can achieve!”
–SOPHIA CHIRAYIL
