Girl Scouts Discover Their Dreams at Barnard
 Jaicy John, a Barnard graduate who majored in psychology, draws on a wide range of practical experience and wisdom on how young people can best develop their potential as director of a program that brings over 500 middle and high school girls to the Barnard campus for academic enrichment on Saturdays during the school year.
John leads the New York Life Foundation Girl Scouts Scholars program, a college and career-oriented program for girls from grades seven through twelve held at Barnard every Saturday throughout the school year. The program runs this year Nov. 20 through March 19.
Because the aim of the Girl Scouts Scholars is to prepare girls for higher education and professional careers, John, as program administrator, believes the college environment is an ideal place to help them explore their dreams.
" By having an educational program situated at such a reputable all women's college like Barnard," John says, "girls gain a strong impression of the value of higher education and a greater respect for the choices and opportunities afforded to women in a modern age."
John knows first hand the impact classes at Barnard can have on a young life. Though she was initially attracted to Barnard because it was a women's school, it was the well-rounded liberal arts emphasis that gave John what she was looking for when she graduated from high school. As a first year student, she quickly discovered that the topics she explored in her classes were relevant in the real world. By her second year, the career center led her to a paid three year internship at a not-for-profit organization known as Hospital Audiences, Inc., an agency that delivered the performing arts to the disabled and gave John the opportunity to apply what she was learning in the classroom. And during her junior year, Barnard's study abroad program sent her to the University College of London where she continued taking courses in psychology while traveling and learning about Europe.
When she graduated in 1997, she applied her experiences to the MS. Foundation where she worked in research and programming for young women for the next three years. She earned her master's degree at New York University and is presently
earning her Ph.D. in social psychology at the City University of New York. During graduate school, she learned of the Girls Scouts Scholars program and felt a natural connection with the program.
It is this wide range of opportunity and experience that John draws on in helping shape the Girls Scouts Program today. John says the program is designed after the college model, where girls are given a variety of courses to choose from and register for. Classes range from writing and technology to science, fashion and even step dancing, which John says is one of the more popular. Girls enroll in the program with the goal of fulfilling their requirements for Interest Project Patches, and spend each Saturday from November to March in a combination of three classes
"The program allows girls to be a part of the college environment," said Alexandra Nestoras, class of '89 and the Barnard administrator who coordinates the girl scouts on campus. "It shows them that the transition from high school to college is a natural one."
As the girls participate in the Scholars Program, they have the opportunity to witness college activities on campus and take advantage of the resources available to college students. Girls learn of the program primarily through the Girls Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNY) as well as recruitment efforts at schools and youth organizations. Any girl is eligible. Once they enroll, they experience what John calls an exciting but demanding Saturday schedule: At nine a.m., girls board one of 10-11 busses that are sent by GSGNY to Staten Island, the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn. (Girls from Manhattan are encouraged to take the subway). They arrive at Barnard around 10 a.m., attend their first two-hour long classes before breaking for lunch. Then the girls gather for an assembly where they hear guest speakers from a variety of professions and careers talk about their experiences. They're dismissed to their final class, board their bus, and arrive back home by 3 p.m. Class size ranges from 20-30 students per class and are taught by some 45 instructors from other non-profit organizations, corporations or academic institutions.
"When I started coming back to Barnard with the Girl Scout Scholars program, I had wonderful flashbacks of my days as an undergraduate," John says. "Now it's a great blend of memories between my experiences and the girls'. They're so excited to be here, and even though it's on Saturdays, they love coming."
Former Girl Scout Scholar, Christina Mesk, couldn't agree more. She was 12 years old when she first learned of the program and she recalls arguing with her mother because she did not want to give up her Saturdays. They struck a compromise: if she tried the program for a year and didn't like it, she could quit. But Christina was hooked the first time she set foot on the Barnard campus and spent the next six years taking classes like College Prep, Visual Arts and Creative Writing. She graduated from high school and the Scholars Program four years ago and is studying English Literature and Education at the College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, New York.
"Without the Scholars program, my life would be drastically different," Christina says. "I would probably still be living at home, bouncing around from part-time job to part-time job without any goals. Through Scholars, I learned that I can dream bigger than that and that the opportunities for the future are endless."
John knows that the academic careers of hundreds of girls like Christina have been greatly influenced through their time at Barnard because of the partnership program with the Girls Scouts Scholars program.
"Long after they finish the program, they remember what happened for them at Barnard," John says. "It's a powerful message about higher education, about choices, and about dreams, and I'm glad I get to be a part of it."
— Jo Kadlecek
For more information about the Girl Scout program at Barnard, please contact Alexandra Nestoras, anestoras@barnard.edu
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