Scout inspires girls to dream big

Lena Demas may be several years away from starting a career, but being in junior high school doesn’t mean she’s too young to start thinking about it. Nor are her peers.

Demas, for her Silver Award project, hosted a career fair for fellow Girl Scouts at Holy Name of Mary School last Saturday. Six women came to talk to girls about their professions. Among the careers represented were television production, the military, nursing, optometry, speech pathology and education.

Attendees at her fair were able to talk with the women and learn about various career options. “It was pretty successful,” Demas said. “The girls all told me they learned something.”

Demas, 13, is a member of Cadette Troop 2124 in Valley Stream. She has been with the Girl Scouts since kindergarten.

For the Silver Award, a scout must complete a community service project and spend at least 50 hours working on it. Demas said she definitely exceeded that, as organizing the fair was a huge undertaking.

Demas will now move on to her Gold Award project, which requires at least 80 hours of work. She plans to organize another career fair for girls, but on a much larger scale. Demas would like to open it to all junior high and high school-aged girls in Valley Stream, and also have more careers represented.

Dawn Samuel, co-leader of Troop 2124, said the purpose of the Silver Award, in addition to preparing girls for the rigors of the Gold Award, is to have the scouts research an issue and take action.

For Demas, she looked into misconception that many girls have that they have fewer career choices than men. “I think the issue is real,” Samuel said. “I think girls, especially high school girls, don’t know what’s out there and available to them.”

Samuel said she was very impressed with the work Demas did to organize the fair and bring in a nice array of professional women. The troop leader was particularly impressed that Demas sought feedback after the fair, so she could make it better for next time.

Demas, an eighth-grader at Memorial Junior High School, said she learned a lot from her Silver Award project. She found out how much work it takes to put on a single event, and picked up some leadership skills along the way as she assigned tasks to other Girl Scouts. The biggest challenge for Demas was getting speakers and ensuring a good turnout. “I couldn’t control who was going to come and who wasn’t going to come,” she said, adding that she was pleased with the end results.

In addition to running the fair, Demas got to spend some time talking to the various professionals and it helped cement her decision that she wants to become a teacher.

In addition to the Girl Scouts, Demas plays volleyball and softball, is a member of the Student Council and National Junior Honor Society, and volunteers at a dance studio. Girl Scouts is one of her most rewarding activities, because she makes a lot of friends, learns various life skills and gets to help her community.

“I feel it helps build character,” she said, “and in the end, it’s all worth it.”