Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan honors Maansi Nema with the most prestigious award in the world for girls: the Girl Scout Gold Award. Maansi, of Novi, is among 19 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, Maansi took action to break the stigma of STEM being too “hard” or “nerdy” and get more girls involved in these careers. She created, planned, and hosted an annual STEM Night and has worked with more than 20 organizations from the University of Michigan, local science centers, businesses, and Michigan State University, to talk about STEM careers. She also implemented weekly STEM workshops at Feed the Need, a local summertime lunch program. Through this, she’s been able to reach out to more than 25,000 people in not only her community, but surrounding communities as well.

“Completing my Gold Award project helped me realize that I can achieve anything I set my mind to. I learned so many new skills that I know will serve me well in the future. I live by the motto: ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.’ This project has taught me to persevere through every challenge and be bold.”

Maansi is graduating from Novi High School and is a member of Troop 45232.