Eighteen-year-old Sanjana Mody, a 2019 graduate of Our Lady of Peace Academy in North Park, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, reaching the pinnacle of the Girl Scout leadership experience.
For her Gold Award project, Sanjana raised awareness about human trafficking and shared information about how to avoid falling victim to it. Working collaboratively with two nonprofit organizations—the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition and Project Concern International—Sanjana led a campaign to address a root cause of human trafficking: overly informative social media content. She led multiple presentations for middle and high school students and their parents at schools, places of worship, extracurricular venues, and human trafficking conferences. Her project is now part of the curriculum for the Healthy Relationships class that began this year at St. Columba Catholic School.
She joined Girl Scouts in kindergarten. A member of Girl Scout Troop 3432, led by Angie Schouten, and previously earned the Silver and Bronze Awards, the highest hon- ors for Girl Scout Cadettes (grades 6-8) and Juniors (grades 4-5), respectively. Her other notable accomplishments include be- ing named the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition Youth Advocate of the Year and the Sunrise Optimist Club’s first place essay winner in 2018. Sanjana will be a freshman at Nova Southeastern University in Florida this fall, majoring in behavioral neuroscience, with a minor in global engagement. She has a seat reserved in the school’s medical program.
Sanjana was among 61 Gold Award Girl Scouts honored during a recent ceremony hosted by Girl Scouts San Diego at the Hilton La Jolla Torrey Pines. Hundreds of family members, friends, community leaders, and Girl Scout volunteers attended the event.
The keynote speaker was Coreen Petti, Our Lady of Peace Academy’s board chair emeritus. In addition to that volunteer position, Petti is associate vice president of advancement marketing and strategic partnerships at the University of San Diego. The Girl Scout alum is a Gold Award Girl Scout, former troop leader, and member of a multi-generational Girl Scout family. She was named one of Girl Scouts San Diego’s Cool Women of 2019 earlier this year. During the Gold Award event, she shared about how Girl Scouting experiences like outdoor adventures and becoming a camp counselor-in-training prepared her for leadership roles throughout her life.
The Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable…earned by a high school Girl Scout who works to address an issue she’s passionate about in a way that produces meaningful and lasting change. Whether it’s on a local, national, or global level, Gold Award Girl Scouts provide innovative solutions to significant challenges.
“Gold Award Girl Scouts change the world for the better, and change it for good!” said Girl Scouts San Diego CEO Carol M. Dedrich.“Our 2019 Gold Award Girl Scouts embody everything this achievement stands for.”
The Gold Award enables young women to distinguish themselves in the college admissions process, earn college scholarships, and skip a rank when enlisting in the military.
