Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri Gold Award Girl Scout Honored with National Scholarship
June 09, 2025
Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri (GSEM) is pleased to announce Emily Etter, 2025 graduate of Lutheran South High School, has recently earned her Girl Scout Gold Award and a $5,000 national Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) scholarship for creating lasting change in her community. GSUSA recognizes one Gold Award Girl Scout per Council and one from the USA Girl Scout Overseas with this scholarship, which provides financial support for future education.
The Gold Award is earned by a high-school-aged Girl Scout who has dedicated, on average more than 80 hours, to address an issue they are passionate about in a way that produces meaningful and permanent change. Whether it is on a local, national, or global level, Gold Award Girl Scouts provide innovative solutions to pressing and relevant challenges.
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.
The 2025 Eastern Missouri Gold Award Girl Scout class identified issues in their communities, took action, and found or created solutions to earn their Gold Awards, addressing real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, food insecurities, mental and physical well-being, emergency preparedness and veterans’ affairs, just to name a few.
Inspired by her interests in camping and STEM, Emily designed, built and installed a giant chess board at Camp Cedarledge, a GSEM camp property located in Pevely, Mo. The giant chess board provided her fellow Girl Scouts with an opportunity to learn the challenging and strategic game of chess in a peaceful outdoor setting. Emily also partnered with the St. Louis Chess Club to organize a grand opening event to showcase the new space and teach the game to younger Girl Scouts. After completing her project, she created a website with her design plans to help others build similar chess boards. Emily plans to pursue a degree in Industrial Design.
“Through the Gold Award process, I learned that I am confident when asking for support,” said Emily. “It was inspiring to see that I could make things happen and get so many others to actively support my project.”
“Emily demonstrated extraordinary leadership skills and aptitudes through her sustainable Gold Award community service project,” said Dr. Natissia Small, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri CEO. “We are proud of her many achievements during her 13-years as a GSEM girl member, and we know she will continue to soar high as she works to achieve her future academic and professional goals.”
The GSEM 2025 Gold Awardees were honored during a special ceremony at the University of Missouri-St. Louis on Sunday, June 8.
For full details and project descriptions from the 2025 GSEM Gold Award Class, click here.
