Cadette Girl Scout Evelyn “Evie” Mathie attended Space Academy in Huntsville, Alabama for six days as part of our Destinations program. She was a recipient of D-Pass funding granted to Girl Scouts from our council.
While at camp, not only did I make many new and amazing friends, but I learned so much from them and through Space Academy. Space Academy challenged me to think outside the box. For example, the lunar simulation (in which my partner Sabine and I had positions of scientific experimentation) forced us to contend with building without gravity. The challenges were so different from ones we typically face in day-to-day life that we had to be creative.
Another task involved transforming limited supplies (a wire, a plate, two straws, colored paper, and string) into a random object chosen by our instructors’ dice—in our case, an alien that spins! In conclusion, our simulations reinforced the importance of creative problem-solving.
This destination has most of all changed how I think, how I look at problems, and how I go into new experiences. When I used to approach a problem and it was quite difficult, I would eventually give up. Now, I still try my best, and if I have difficulty and start to get upset, I try to think, “how would an astronaut handle this?”
Overall, I learned and was able to do and participate in so many things that so many people never get to do, like experiencing zero gravity, mock missions, living in similar quarters, and overall, just being able to do the smallest part of what real astronauts may do in training!
Girl Scout Destinations is the ultimate adventure program for girls ages 11 and older. To learn more about Destinations and how you can be eligible for our D-pass funding scholarship, please visit our website.
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