Girl Leadership Development

Program Aide, Counselor in Training (I&II), Volunteer in Training, and the Oxford Leadership Youth Program provide dynamic and inspiring leadership training and experiences for Girl Scouts in the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council.

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When a Girl Scout has the chance to guide younger girls or teach them something she knows, she is acting as a mentor. As seasoned Girl Scouts, Seniors and Ambassadors have exciting opportunities to help younger ones by sharing their skills, passions, and experience.

Seniors can earn Counselor-in-Training I (CIT) and Volunteer-in-Training (VIT) awards. Ambassadors can earn these in addition to the Counselor-in-Training II (CIT).

Counselor-in-Training I

Earning this award involves mentoring younger girls in a camp setting as you build skills toward becoming a camp counselor. Here’s how to earn this award:

Take a leadership course designed by your council on outdoor experiences.
Work with younger girls over the course of a camp session or through the Camp Leadership Experience programs offered during the year.

Counselor-in-Training II

Earning this award involves mentoring younger girls in a camp setting and continuing to build your skills toward becoming a camp counselor. Here’s how to earn this award:

Earn your CIT I award.
Work with younger girls over the course of at least one camp session while focusing on increasing your skills in a specific area–such as riding instruction, lifeguarding, or the arts.

Volunteer-in-Training

This award is for girls who’d like to mentor a Girl Scout Daisy, Brownie, Junior, or Cadette group outside of the camp experience. If you’ve completed ninth grade, you’re eligible to earn this award.

Your VIT project should span a three-to-six-month period. To earn this award, complete these steps:

Find a mentor volunteer who is currently the adult volunteer for a group of girls at the level you’d like to work with. This volunteer will help you through your training and internship, and you’ll help the volunteer with her group of girls for the three-to-six-month period.
Complete a council-designed leadership course.
Create and implement a thoughtful program based on a Journey or badge that lasts over four or more sessions. Be responsible for designing, planning, and evaluating the activities. If you’re passionate about a topic, like art or technology, you could design the activities around the area you live or in which you have expertise.

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Work with younger Girl Scouts and explore your own talent as a leader by participating in Program Aide training. Once training is complete, Program Aides are used at various council programs to assist with activities for younger girls.

To earn a Cadette Program Aide award, follow these steps:

Earn one Leader in Action (LiA) Award.

A Leader in Action award is earned by assisting a Brownie group with any of their National Leadership Journeys. There are three awards — one for each of the Journey series: It’s Your World—Change It!, It’s Your Planet—Love It!, and It’s Your Story—Tell It!

To earn a LiA, you’ll demonstrate your organizational skills, use one of your special talents (such as creating a science experiment or craft), teach Brownies something important from their Journey (such as making healthy snacks), and then reflect on your experience.
Complete requirements can be found in the Brownie Leadership Journey adult guides. For more information about each LiA, connect with the adult volunteers guiding Brownie groups in your Girl Scout community.

Complete the council-designed leadership course training.

Part of your leadership course training will involve learning to work with children and gaining a deeper understanding of a specific area, such as science, art, the outdoors, or adapting activities for girls with disabilities.

Work directly with younger girls over six activity sessions.

This might include assisting girls on other Journey activities, badge activities, or other sessions. You might work with a group, at their meetings, at a day camp, or during a special council event.

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Want to know how you can help change the world? Here it is! The Oxford Leadership Youth Program provides an integrated approach to personal leadership development that focuses on the individual, using reflective practices combined with experiential education.

This is your first step to becoming an authentic leader! During the weekend, you’ll learn how to start leading in a way that can help change the world. You'll start seeing and doing things differently.

The Oxford Leadership Youth Program will help you:

Re-evaluate your strengths, weaknesses, and priorities as a person and leader
Identify barriers and challenges to the achievement of your goals
Learn how to manage difficult situations resulting from stress about school, family, and life.
Find your compass - a guide to making all your future decisions.

Oxford Leadership Academy is of the world's foremost leadership consultancies. Over 100,000 alumni from 90 countries have followed the Academy's values-based leadership development programs.

Be sure to check back soon for upcoming opportunities to participate in this program.

History

Oxford Leadership Academy has been developing leaders around the world since 1991, teaching the skills necessary to move multi-international organizations into the future.

Oxford Leadership Academy and Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, Inc. began a partnership a number of years ago to bring this impactful leadership development program to girls in this council.