Real Trooper: College Girl Scouts continuing education at UNLV, CCSN

Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2003 | 8:20 a.m.

For more information about Chi Gamma Sigma, contact Stephanie McAvoy at smcavoy@interact.ccsd.net

Stephanie McAvoy is the consummate Girl Scout. She has canoed, hiked, camped, rock-climbed and roller-skated.

Patches and badges proclaim a lifetime of leadership seminars, sleep-ins, ceremonies, arts-and-crafts workshops and cookie sales.

Now in college, the former Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette and Senior Girl Scout didn't want to walk away from the organization that helped establish her values early in life.

So in April she banded with three friends and lifelong scouts to form a local Las Vegas-area Campus Girl Scout program.

Meeting sporadically over the summer, members wrote the constitution in August and are identified on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas campus by the Greek letters Chi Gamma Sigma.

"We're starting from scratch," McAvoy, 22, said during a recent meeting held on the UNLV campus. "Once we get through the beginning stage and have a membership drive, we'll be all right."

Squeezing a campus group into her schedule is a tad tricky for McAvoy, a full-time student who, in addition to leading two Brownie troops, has a full-time job working for the Clark County School District.

But, she said, "This is a way for me to be involved with something I love, with people my own age.

"Girl Scouts has taught me a lot of values. It also teaches maturity. The older you get, it keeps you out of trouble. I am really big into the outdoors. I love camping, hiking Girl Scouts really took that to another level. I have done everything imaginable."

According to Girl Scouts of the USA, there are 75 Campus Girl Scout groups nationwide. Arizona State University, Drake University, Delta State University and Western Illinois University are among schools listed on the Girl Scouts website as having Campus Girl Scout programs.

Nearly all the groups are service oriented and work with younger scouts or volunteer within their communities. Some are social groups.

"It's whatever these Campus Girl Scouts want to do," said Ursula Castrillon, spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. "If it's expanding their own skill set, that's what they'd focus on. But they'd do it through volunteerism."

Sisterhood

Campus Girl Scouts are not troops, nor do they receive award patches or wear uniforms. The most common trait among groups is that there are young women who are longtime Girl Scouts wanting to continue with the organization.

"So many girls have so many fond memories of Girl Scouts, so why stop now?," said Juergen Barbuska, spokesman for the Southern Nevada Girl Scouts of Frontier Council.

"They've already got a sisterhood. They've shared similar experiences. They can continue that bond as sister Girl Scouts. And when you've gone through Girl Scouting in any part of the country, then you move East to West you have a commonality."

But some groups form and dissipate when the college Girl Scouts graduate, move off campus or transfer from the school, said Elaine Reed, field executive for the Eureka Office Girl Scouts of Sierra Cascade in Northern California.

The Campus Girl Scouts of Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif., fell apart even though there are still eight college women active as adult Girl Scouts, Reed said.

Websites for other Campus Girl Scouts say the groups have temporarily disbanded because of lack of interest or members.

Leanne Powner, who co-founded a Campus Girl Scout group in 1998 at American University in Washington, D.C., has seen success with two Campus Girl Scout groups, and in 2001 Powner chaired and hosted the second annual 2001 Campus Girl Scout conference outside Washington, D.C.

The American University group was formed after Powner and two other students sharing the same dorm floor attended a dorm meeting where each were wearing Girl Scout T-shirts.

"We all thought, 'Hmmmm,' " Powner said.

When Powner, now 24, moved to the University of Michigan as a graduate student, she started a Campus Girl Scout group with another graduate student. Both groups are still operating.

"It's a support network," Powner, a political science major, said. "The people you meet through Girl Scouts are almost automatically friends. These are people who know where you're coming from.

But, she said, "In late '97, early '98, probably most of the councils didn't even know Campus Girl Scouts existed.

"Since the Internet spread, we were able to start e-mail groups. We were able to share a support network. It allowed a bunch of us to connect cheaply, because, you know, we had no budget."

Powner recently filed her Girl Scout lifetime membership papers.

"I got an awful lot out of the program as a girl," Powner said. "Part of what they teach is that what you get you should give back."

Lasting effort

Samara Kaufman, president of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Campus Girl Scouts, said that for spring break three of its officers are flying to Southern California to be on the game show "The Price is Right." On Halloween they dressed up and went trick-or-treating together. Later this month they'll have a holiday party.

The group also helps young Girl Scouts earn patches by holding daylong workshops.

"It's just a wonderful opportunity," Kaufman said. "I've been with it 16 years. My mother tells me I have green blood."

Kaufman's group, which spends most of its time preparing to help young Girl Scouts earn patches, has eight active members and 70 members on its list. Kaufman guesses that the group has probably been around for at least 15 years.

There has been a fear of the group dying, she said. This fall there were only three left in the group and two are graduating at the end of the year. But they've since gained five new members.

"The day before school is quad day on the campus, which is how we get all our members," Kaufman said.

"A lot of people are education majors and they want to work with children."

Getting started

As with most groups, Chi Gamma Sigma, which has five members, doesn't require prior scouting for membership. The organization is open to all higher-education students, even men.

Alicia Julia Wilson, who merely dabbled as a Brownie, is making her first full Girl Scout commitment with Chi Gamma Sigma.

At 23, she recently received honorary badges (honorary because members of Campus Girls Scouts don't receive patches in their program) for chaperoning a Camporee for 120 Brownies in the Girl Scouts of the Frontier Council. She's also garnered an honorary community service patch and slumber party patch.

At a recent meeting with an empty pizza box spread across the table, McAvoy and Wilson flipped through pocket calendars, tended to minutes from the last meeting and discussed a possible membership drive.

They talked about developing a page on the Frontier website that leads to their own web page through the council site, putting a notice in a local Girl Scouts newsletter and contacting Gold Award recipients who are still in college.

The group has already contributed a centerpiece to the Festival of Trees and Lights, a benefit for the Down Syndrome Organization of Southern Nevada. Socially, Chi Gamma Sigma would like to have a university-wide camping trip that involves all students who would bring a skill to share.

Also, McAvoy said, "Me and Alicia would like to get a mentoring program started for girls who are scared about college and don't know what to expect.

"There's a lot of questions. I had nobody sit me at a computer and say, 'This is how you fill out a scholarship application.' "

Another major goal of Chi Gamma Sigma is to get a Boy Scout fraternity on campus that they could team with for camping trips and on-campus festivities.

"If we could get that started, that would be great," McAvoy said. "There are some things we couldn't participate in because we don't have males. Boys don't want to be Girl Scouts. They just don't."

Sometimes, girls don't even want to be Girl Scouts.

Girl Scouts regularly battles the "coolness factor," representatives say. Last year it began a pilot program for Studio 2B, a current, more hip Girl Scout group for girls ages 11 to 17 who receive charms instead of badges.

"Everyone who thinks of Girl Scouts think of Brownies and little girls selling cookies," Wilson said.

Holding up a blue vest from her Senior Girl Scout troop (covered in patches), McAvoy added, "When you're 17 years old and you wear this, it stands out. Kids are mean. I went through a phase when I didn't tell people I was a Girl Scout.

"We're still trying to tackle the whole 'It's not cool' factor."

Despite the numbers that dwindle in junior high and high school, Campus Girl Scouts continues to grow. In 1982 there were only 43 groups.

McAvoy said she would have appreciated a Campus Girl Scouts troop when she was attending the University of Nevada, Reno.

"I didn't have a social life," she said. "Had there been a campus Girl Scouts, immediately I would have been involved. I actually volunteered with Sierra Nevada Girl Scouts.

"The Girl Scouts is such an organization that welcomes anybody, with an open heart."

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