IT TAKES A VILLAGE
By Dr. Melissa Bahamonde, Ph. D.
II consider
myself a modern
working mother of a young
ern m
can be anythin
daughter. I tell
my daughter “you
can be anything you want to be
when you grow up!” As such, I try
to set an example for her and have
worked hard to ensure that she has
a vision of all the things that women
can achieve. My daughter Isabel
attended my doctoral graduation
when she was two years-old, and
understands that Dr. Mommy is a
school psychologist that helps children
at school. Like any modern
Dr. Melissa Bahamonde
working mom, I want the best for my daughter. I want her
to thrive, be a leader, develop positive friendships and break
through more glass ceilings if she chooses. You may think
that because I am a developmental psychologist that special-
modern world and as much as I read books, study research,
out. I began to feel a sense of urgency when my daughter
started kindergarten in August 2018. Further, as much as I
understood that it takes a village to raise a daughter, I didn’t
-
gan looking at programs and organizations in my community
that promoted the leadership skills, morals, positive female
friendships and opportunities for STEM (Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Math) enrichment. I knew that women
are widely underrepresented in STEM professions and that
the earlier you begin enrichment in STEM the better. Would
you be surprised that my research led me to Girl Scouts of
West Central Florida (GSWCF)?
Before you ask, this is not an advertisement for GSWCF
or a ploy to sell cookies. I am writing this article to tell you
that modern Girl Scouting is so much more than learning the
economics of selling boxes of cookies. If you do some online
research on the GSWCF website (www.gswcf.org) or via your
preferred search engine, you will quickly discover how many
prominent women are former Girl Scouts (see Katie Couric,
Venus Williams, Melinda Gates, and Sally Ride, to name a
few). My introduction to Girl Scouts came from an information
meeting at my daughter’s local public school. The representative
from GSWCF, a local troop leader, shared her passion
for Girl Scouting and discussed all the leadership skills,
sense of personal responsibility, and friendships that she had
helped cultivate in the girls she mentored in her Troop. I saw
this as an opportunity for Isabel to develop positive peer relationships
with girls that have like-minded mothers. I quickly
raised my hand and asked, “how do I sign up?” The reality
was that there was not an existing “Daisy” or entry level
Troop, and it would have to be created by a parent volunteer
Troop Leader. Herein lies the bottom-line with Girl Scouts and
other volunteer-based organizations, you get out of it what
you put into it. Despite my reservations about my available
time, I reluctantly jumped into my odyssey of Girl Scouting
as the leader of my daughter’s Girl Scout Troop. What I found
was amazing and inspiring. I was not a Girl Scout as a child
and my general perception was that the organization focused
on home economics and selling cookies. My misconceptions
of Girl Scouting were quickly shattered as I discovered that
GSWCF had created STEM activities and partnered with businesses,
colleges, museums and other organizations to enrich
girls and young women in these areas of study.
I quickly began putting together the activities and events
that developed into a STEM focused Girl Scout Troop. I had
the audacious goal of enriching girls from kindergarten to
high school graduation. The only problem was that I did not
have the village yet and this goal seemed daunting as I began
to pursue it without other supportive like-minded women.
However, my village began to appear one mother and daughter
duo at a time. Over the past nine months I have focused on
sharing my vision with these mothers until it was no longer my
vision, but the evolving collective vision of the women/mothers
in my Girl Scout Troop village. A phenomenal elementary
math and science teacher stepped up to be the Co-Leader of
the troop and she has taken the lead in developing our STEM
focused lessons. Another mom, a nurse and hospital administrator,
signed on to seek out and schedule STEM activities and
events in our surrounding area. A seasoned saleswoman has
now taken over our product sales (yes, cookies) to help teach
our girls how to fundraise to be able to put on STEM events
in our community. Two mothers that currently work within
the home and have professional backgrounds also joined, and
they are the backbone of our parent/volunteer support team.
Collectively, we are women from different backgrounds
that hardly knew each other when the Girl Scout Troop was
formed. I can honestly say that they have become my village
and some of my closest friends. As our Troop progressed, the
unexpected happened. We unconsciously developed a model
of value-driven friendship for our daughters, which is a rarity
when looking at what is being projected from the media
about female relationships (see any Real Housewives show as
a reference). The comradery has led to some amazing STEM,
leadership, cultural and social emotional experiences for our
daughters.
focused troop in our local community and began networking
with other Troops to share our vision. For reference, Girl
Scout Troops belong to larger communities, usually within a
Connued on next page
14 • JULY 2019 813.682.9364 FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE
/(www.gswcf.org)