Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan honors Hannah Zawaideh with the most prestigious award in the world for girls: the Girl Scout Gold Award. Hannah, of West Bloomfield, is among 13 young women who have taken the initiative to bettering their communities through sustainable community change projects. The time and commitment they’ve dedicated towards these projects prove they’re true leaders and exceptional examples for all girls to look up to.

The Gold Award is Girl Scout’s highest honor and is presented to Girl Scouts who address a community issue or problem they are passionate about. They’re required to spend a minimum of 80 hours investigating the problem, creating a plan, and implementing it.

For her Gold Award project, Hannah recognized the underrepresentation of females in the STEM field and took action! She designed a virtual STEM program that engaged both elementary and middle school-aged girls across the country. She distributed STEM kits to families across the country, and hosted sessions that included both hands-on experiments and featured 15 women in the STEM fields as guest speakers.

Furthermore, Hannah created a YouTube channel named Inspiring Future STEM Stars, where she posted videos of science experiments and recordings from live sessions. She also started a STEM Club Guide to help others through the process of getting involved in STEM and get interested in pursuing a career in STEM. She was able to do all of this with the help of renowned women in STEM, like her computer science teacher, the American Chemical Society, guest speakers from universities throughout the country, an aerospace engineer, and the founder and CEO of STEMBoard, Aisha Bowe.

“I’ve found the determination and confidence to take
on challenges and become a leader. I know that I can do anything.”