December 20, 2021

Beyond Badges: Girl Scouts Heart of Central California (GSHCC)

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California

For over 100 years, the Girl Scouts organization has been teaching life skills. Founded in 1912, the Girl Scouts of the United States of America offers leadership programs to girls aged 5-18 in STEM, the outdoors, and entrepreneurship. The organization boasts a membership of everyone from suffragettes to astronauts to opera singers to Supreme Court justices to gold-medal athletes. Beyond badges, today’s programs now reflect the girls it serves, focusing on diversity, equity, and, more importantly, inclusion.

We sat down with the CFO, Rich Ryan, to talk about how the GSHCC has helped shape its members’ lives, as it continues to grow, pivot, and evolve.

How many members strong is GSHCC? 

Girl Scouts Heart of Central California (GSHCC) serves 18 northern and central California counties and is a community with more than 12,000 girls and 6,000 adult members sharing in the Girl Scout movement locally.

The Girl Scouts celebrates its 109th year in existence. What has changed, and what has remained the same?

The Girl Scout mission has held steady since 1912: Girl Scouts builds girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. The girl-led, female environment allows girls to thrive and creates a safe space for girls of all ages, from grades K-12, to learn and grow. Being a Girl Scout helps girls across generations succeed in five key ways. As a Girl Scout, she:

  • Develops a strong sense of self
  • Displays positive values
  • Seeks challenges and learns from setbacks
  • Forms and maintains healthy relationships
  • Learns to identify and solve problems in her community

Because Girl Scouts is girl-led, we are always adapting to the interests and needs of modern girls. Over the past few years, we have expanded our focus on STEM programming through badge earning and hands-on experimentation at the GSHCC STEM Center + MakerSpaces. Outdoor opportunities have been elevated between Girl Scout resident camp, expeditions like backpacking and white water rafting, and high adventure troops. When girls get outside, they discover they can better solve problems and overcome challenges, develop leadership skills, care about protecting the environment, and more.

The Girls Scouts recently announced the addition of 28 new badges in STEM, entrepreneurship, and digital leadership. How do you believe these skills are helping to build our future leaders?

Through these badges, Girl Scouts as an organization is opening doors for girls that tend to be closed, largely due to outdated cultural biases. We’re showing young girls that they can be mathematicians, engineers, and CEOs, and we’re showing them HOW to do it.

Tell us more about the STEM Center + MakerSpaces. 

In order to provide girls with empowering, hands-on STEM learning opportunities, Girl Scouts Heart of Central California opened the region’s first girl-led, girl-built STEM Center + MakerSpaces. Located in Sacramento and Modesto, these unique facilities host a variety of STEM, maker, and design-thinking activities that encourage girls to embrace the spirit of scientific discovery in their lives. The Mobile STEM Center + MakerSpace enables girls across our 18-county region to access these activities in their own communities.

Through a variety of cooperative learning opportunities and hands-on experimentation, girls hone STEM-related skills while having fun and gaining confidence. Girl Scouts has also introduced 30 new badges to power girls’ leadership and to prepare them for careers in emerging technologies and STEM fields like cybersecurity, mechanical engineering, robotics, computer science, and space exploration.

What is the Girls Scout Gold Award, and how does someone earn one?

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a girl can earn as a Girl Scout. High school-age Girl Scouts earn the Girl Scout Gold Award by identifying and addressing issues that are dear to them and driving lasting change in their communities and beyond. Gold Award Girl Scouts spend an average of 1-2 years on their projects, more specifically 80+ hours.

We cannot discuss the Girls Scouts without talking about the famous cookies. How did the pandemic affect The Girl Scout Cookie Program?

The Girl Scout Cookie Program—the largest entrepreneurial program for girls in the world—gives girls hands-on practice with a variety of skills, including goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics as they learn to think like entrepreneurs. Through the program, they learn from setbacks, collaborate with other girls to reach common goals, and, over time, take on more responsibility for their cookie business as they progress through Girl Scouts.

Of course, the pandemic threw troops’ plans for a loop! But nobody was better prepared to innovate than our girls. Girls used the pandemic as an opportunity to run a digital business. Digital had been a component of cookie selling in the past, but in 2021 girls found themselves learning about digital marketing and partnering with big names in the digital sphere, such as GrubHub. Local residents will definitely see more of a girl presence in the upcoming cookie season that was missing last year. But with all their new digital skills, girls are positioned to be more successful than ever this year.

What is your favorite Girl Scout cookie?

My favorite cookie has been the thin mint, but I’m looking forward to trying the new cookie for 2022 called Adventurefuls. It’s a brownie-inspired cookie with caramel-flavored crème and a hint of sea salt.

To learn more about the Girl Scouts Heart of Central California, visit their website at www.girlscoutshcc.org.

March 8, 2020

Client Profile: Innovative Education Management (IEM)

Innovative Education Management
Innovative Education Management logo

Founded as Horizon Instructional Systems by Randy Gaschler in 1993, and later renamed Innovative Education Management (IEM) in 1998, IEM successfully develops and operates charter schools throughout the state of California. The company works with the local school districts to gain charter approval and is responsible for every aspect of managing the school. With three charters schools and approximately 6,800 students, currently under its umbrella, IEM’s mission is to ensure that every student has an individualized learning plan, and every parent has the opportunity to make as many decisions as legally possible that directly affect their children’s education.

We caught up with IEM’s CEO, Jodi Jones, to talk more about IEM and the future of charter schools.

What obstacles, if any, were encountered when IEM was first getting off the ground?

In the beginning, cash flow and public misperception due to a lack of knowledge about charter schools were a challenge. While increasingly more parents are choosing charter schools for their children, there are still many myths regarding school choice– and charter schools in particular– that continue to circulate.

What are the differences between charter schools and the traditional brick-and-mortar schools?

Charter schools are tuition-free public schools that are approved by a local school district, county office of education, or the State Board of Education. Charter schools range from pure personalized homeschooling models to traditional brick-and-mortar. Each charter school is unique based on the local community needs. Some charter schools have a specialized curriculum focus, such as performing arts, STEM, Montessori, homeschooling, and individualized hybrid models.

Front view of the South Sutter Charter Resource Center
South Sutter Charter Resource Center is slated for completion in July 2020

What percentage of charters schools in California are “independent-study” schools?

Nonclassroom-based charter schools account for approximately 22% of all charter schools in California. That’s around 290 schools of the 1350 charter schools. IEM constitutes roughly 5% of all nonclassroom-based students in California. The beauty of charter schools is that they are born out of a desire of parents, teachers, and community members to develop a school that meets the needs of their students in a way they felt was not offered elsewhere.

“Independent-study” charters like IEM have become havens for families who don’t want their children in traditional brick-and-mortar schools. What are the main reasons for their decision?

One reason could be is that the neighborhood’s public school is too hard, too easy, or just too crowded or impersonal. Along with wanting to control the pace of instruction, parents have become more and more concerned with bullying and safety in traditional schools. They have turned to independent-study charters to help alleviate these worries.

In the case of nonclassroom-based charter schools, parents are always looking for an innovative approach to education. They want flexibility in where and how their children are educated, and they want the ability to seek out experts to provide instructional support rather than relying on a single teacher to provide instruction in all academic subjects. This model of public education has also gained momentum with the rise in concerns about school safety, social issues, and behavioral health needs of students. IEM’s schools provide parents an environment where the academic needs of their children can be addressed without worrying about the social issues they faced in a traditional school. By delivering multiple tools, resources, and programs, IEM helps teachers and parents develop a personalized student success plan that will address their academic and social-emotional needs.

How many states permit charter schools?

As of 2018, all but six states allow charter schools. It is important to note that charter school operations look very different from state to state, based on the charter laws and education code of each location. Currently, under California law, the current cap on charter schools is 2,250 statewide, but the cap is raised by 100 schools each year.

What is currently in the works for IEM?

In Sutter County, a learning resource center is under construction for our South Sutter Charter School. The building will house meeting spaces and rooms for additional activities needed for our students, including science labs. We worked closely with the district to secure vacant land to build the Resource Center.  The building is set to be completed by July 2020.

Why did IEM choose River City Bank?

We believe that local small banks provide more personal customer service. River City Bank is no exception.

IEM believes that by combining the concepts of parent decision making and individualized plans, it can help the student truly “experience learning.”  To learn more about IEM, visit https://ieminc.org/.