The number of girls in Girl Scouts drops dramatically in high school.
Girl Scouts River Valleys wants to change that.
This month, the organization is launching an initiative designed to help teen girls and gender-expansive youth in grades 9-12 “navigate the challenging transition from adolescence to adulthood,” said Paulette Bonneur, Girl Scouts River Valleys’ director of new strategic initiatives.
The Girl Scout Leadership Institute, which will meet once a month from October through May, will teach critical-thinking skills in a cohort-style program. Topics will include personal finance, college preparation, Federal Student Aid, résumé preparation, mental health and career development.
“We’re responding directly to the needs of post-pandemic youth,” Bonneur said. “They know this world is changing fast. Our aim is to plant the seeds of success for them to be set up for real-world wins from the moment they leave Girl Scouts.”
The institute will launch on Oct. 10 at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park; the cohort will split its time between Hennepin Technical College, St. Paul College and the University of St. Thomas, Bonneur said.
“The idea is that if we want our girls to be leaders, if we want them to be college-ready, what’s the best way that we could do that?” Bonneur said. “It’s by getting them accustomed to being on a college campus, so that when they go to college for the first time, they don’t have that pit in the bottom of your stomach and think, ‘I don’t belong here. I’m not smart enough. I’m not good enough.’ We’re setting them up to ensure their future success.”
Girl Scouts River Valleys, which serves nearly 17,200 girls in southern Minnesota, western Wisconsin and one county in Iowa, is using some of the $4.2 million it received from MacKenzie Scott in 2022 to pay for the new program. Scott has become a major philanthropist since her divorce from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, donating more than $17.3 billion to more than 2,300 nonprofits since 2020, including more than $139 million to 33 Minnesota-based nonprofits.
Many of Scott’s gifts are to organizations that work with historically marginalized race, gender and sexual-identity groups. She makes only unrestricted gifts — leaving it to each recipient to use their grants how they see fit.
“It demonstrates a level of trust and confidence that says, ‘We see you; we see your work and the deep impact it’s having, and we believe in what you’re doing,’” Girl Scouts River Valleys CEO Marisa Williams told the Pioneer Press earlier this year.
The Girl Scout Leadership Institute is building on work that the Girl Scouts have done since 1912, “equipping young women with the courage, confidence and character they need to lead,” Williams said.
Participants will have a chance to “engage in courageous conversations and explore career opportunities by learning directly from the women who lead in those fields, empowering them to envision their own bright futures,” she said. “We’re helping to cultivate the next generation of leaders that our communities need.”
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Bonneur, who was hired in February to oversee the new initiative, previously served as director of student life at North Hennepin Community College and as an admissions officer at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Bonneur is a published author, professional speaker and a Mentored Girl Scout troop leader for BIPOC Mentored Troop 18793, one of the few Girl Scout troops in the state run by women of color working to inspire young girls of color. She lives in Maple Grove with her two children: Harper, 8, and Hunter, 4. She and Harper have written six books together, including “I Believe In Myself: A Girl Power Gratitude, Doodle and Positive Affirmation Journal,” “Everybody Love Your Body” and “Everybody Let’s Get Cookin’.”
Bonneur spoke with the Pioneer Press recently about Troop 18793 — and about her quest to win a year’s supply of Girl Scout cookies.
The transcript is edited for clarity and conciseness.
Q&A: Girl Scouts River Valleys’ Paulette Bonneur
Q: How did you get involved with the Girl Scouts?
A: I was trying to win free cookies. I love food, and I’m just not even gonna lie about that. I was trying to get some free cookies.
Q: Are you serious?
Paulette Bonneur, director of new strategic initiatives for Girl Scouts River Valleys, outside the organization’s office in Brooklyn Center on Sept. 20, 2024. (Courtesy of Girl Scouts River Valleys)
A: I put an alarm on my phone for when my daughter turned 5, so I would remember to sign her up for Girl Scouts. So on a random day, my phone alarm went off. I’m, like, “Oh, yeah. Girl Scouts.” Where does everybody look (to get information) these days? I went on social media to see what was there, and the Girl Scouts had an Instagram post about a contest to win a year’s supply of Girl Scout cookies. I quickly crafted “Future Girl Scout” and “Future Girl Scout Mom” shirts, along with Girl Scout Cookie hair bows for Harper.
Q: Did you win?
A: I was sure we would win, but we didn’t. We did get a message from our local council asking if I’d be interested in leading a Mentored Troop for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) women and Girl Scouts because of our visible excitement for Girl Scouts. I hadn’t previously considered it, but at that moment, I knew it was something I had to do.
Q: Tell me about the troop. Where are you based?
A: We have 14 girls. We meet in Brooklyn Center, but our girls are from all over. The common thread is that parents saw an opportunity for their girls, and now, through Girl Scouting, we’re all connected.
Q: How long have you been meeting?
A: We’re going into year four now with our girls, and my oldest girls, my fourth-graders, they’re doing Highest Awards projects. I would never have thought I’d be doing this, ever. But I see the vision. If we can’t start to help them before they get to college, what are they left to do? One of the biggest things that we did with my troop was we did a mini-conference, and we invited everybody in the community. It didn’t matter if they were a Girl Scout or not. Each presenter hosted a different breakout room. It was active engagement, learning how to do all these different things. And that’s when I was like, “Girl, I think you’ve got something. Yeah, I think you might be onto something.”
Q: And that led to you working for Girl Scouts River Valleys?
A: Honestly, if you could write a job for me that is perfect, where I still get to meet with partners and talk to the community, but also get to be silly with the girls and talk about things like, “Let’s just be real. What you got going on, girl?”
Q: Talk about the importance of the Girl Scout Leadership Institute. Why is it needed?
A: Girls are facing so many mental-health challenges, especially post-COVID. They’re not confident in themselves, and they’re unsure of their bodies. They’re unsure of what their future has to hold. Those are real concerns. Data shows that they are lonely. So the Girl Scout Leadership Institute is really a place where girls can come as they are.
Q: How has your work in higher education helped inform your current work?
A: College students were expected to know about possible careers. They were expected to know what they wanted to do. Some didn’t know what they wanted to study in college. So how would we put those expectations on girls if we didn’t give them the resources and the tools?
Q: I like how you’ve worked out a way for the Girl Scout Leadership Institute to work with everyone’s crazy schedules.
A: Girls are busy. They have sports. They have jobs. They have school. They have all the different things. But we only need one time a month, which is really cool. The program sessions are correlated to patches and badges, but we remixed it. So that’s been really cool to look at. Hey, what can we do in terms of college preparation? Are we going on college tours? You hear girls say all the time, “When I go to college, I want to get an apartment. I’m gonna live on my own.” Well, what does that actually look like? And what does it cost? We’ll have our financial experts there to talk about, “Hey, here are the implications for what that is. Here’s what might be affected. Your credit score, right?” Those are things that girls are not being taught right now, and those are very important things because they may be life decisions that set them up for maybe success or failure in the future if they don’t do it right. We also want to talk about predatory lending. I know for me, when I went to college, it was, “Hey, free pizza if you sign up for this credit card.” That’s really not good. And it doesn’t help you for your future, and a lot of times they don’t know that, right? They get into a situation where they don’t have the knowledge. So those are the kinds of things that we’ll be teaching them, bringing in community experts and local leaders.
Q: Is this a national program, or is this just here?
A: The Girl Scout Leadership Institute is unique to Girl Scouts River Valleys. I feel like many of the things that we’re doing, like our Mentored Troop program, are unique to Girl Scouts River Valleys. We really do set the precedent in terms of “Here’s what we see as a need, and here’s how we’re going to move forward.” It’s a great thing because then, you know, our sister councils can come along to see what’s worked for us and how they can do that in their areas.
Q: So is the hope that this would then be replicated elsewhere around the country?
A: That would be great. I mean, for us, it’s a new model of Girl Scouting. It’s a new pathway of Girl Scouting, and if it works for us, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for another council.
Q: Is it just for high school students?
A: This year, we’re piloting for high school students. So ninth- through 12th-graders can join our Girl Scout Leadership Institute. The vision is that we would have a sixth- through 12th-grade program later, but for our pilot year, ninth- through 12th-graders are our focus. We have our high school girls that are like, “Hey, there’s nothing really for us. We want to do other things. We also don’t want to feel like we’re in a classroom.” I’ve talked to girls, and they’re like, “We go to school already. Make it fun, OK?”
Q: How do you do that?
A: I’m a former educator. I worked in student affairs for 14 years, and I like the concept of edu-tainment. We’re educating, but we’re also entertaining. We’re making it fun and engaging, but there’s also a lot of learning happening behind the scenes. It’s very strategic in terms of setting them up for success.
Q: I love it. They don’t even know that they’re learning.
A: That’s the best. We did it when I worked in education, too, right? Like, you have all these fun activities, and you plan them out very thoroughly. And on the front end, you’re just having a ton of fun. And on the back end, you know, maybe six months later, a year later, you’re like, “Whoa, now I know that I can step on a college campus and not be nervous because I was in Girl Scout Leadership Institute.” All of our sessions are going to be held on college campuses, so just subtle things like that really set our girls up for success.
Q: Have you been getting a good response from community members?
A: Yes. So many people have been stepping up. … We should be excited about helping girls. We should be excited about girls wanting to do better for their future. We should be excited about what our future is going to look like.
Q: Tell me about the first session.
A: Our October session is the launch, and then our program sessions start in November. Ninth- through 12th-graders is a huge range, and everyone knows that they’re not learning the same things because they’re at different levels in their lives. The ninth- and 10th-graders will be together, and the 11th- and 12th-graders will be together. We will have two simultaneous sessions that focus on what that age group needs. In November, the ninth- and 10th-graders will be studying “Slaying Fashion with Science,” and the 11th- and 12th-grade session will be on “The Beauty of Entrepreneurship.”
Q: They sound great. It feels like a really nice way to keep older girls involved.
A: Usually, we see a drop-off around sixth grade. They have all these other important things going on, but that’s the time when they need us the most, right? There’s a lot happening at school. Social media is just a lot different than what it used to be. You know, one of our sessions is talking about cybersecurity and how to be a leader in the world and keeping yourself safe, because there’s a lot happening online that we can’t even account for.
Q: What else do you want people to know about this? How will you know the program is a success a year from now?
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A: In a year from now, I’ll know that the program is a success when we are at our last session celebrating with over 200 girls, and they are ready to go off into the next chapter of their lives. They are confident in whatever it is that they want to do in the world. I also know it will have been a success when my daughter, who is currently a third-grader, tells me that she’s excited to join Girl Scout Leadership Institute.
Girl Scout Leadership Institute
Enrollment in the Girl Scout Leadership Institute for both current Girl Scouts and non-Girl Scouts is open.
There will be an Oct. 10 launch event at North Hennepin Community College.
The institute officially kicks off with programming on Nov. 9.
For more information, go to gsrv.gs/future.
