It Starts at State
Jordan Bright, WVSU 4-H VOlunteer
Fourteen-year-old Jordan Bright has long been a part of the WVSU family - literally. Both her parents are STATE graduates, and her father, Doug, has worked as a lab manager with the Biology Department for years. While her journey with WVSU began by simply visiting her dad at his office, the innovative Jordan didn’t stop there.
In the summer of 2018, while visiting Doug’s Hamblin Hall lab, she decided to make the most of her time on campus by helping fellow young people learn about sustainability. That’s when Jordan, a Girl Scout since the second grade, began a service project that is resulting in the creation of a brand-new summer STEM camp for girls.
In pursuit of a Girl Scout Silver Award, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn, Jordan’s vision is to create and implement a new educational camp for Girl Scouts to earn badges during the summer, which will soon be implemented through WVSU 4-H and the Center for the Advancement of STEM (CASTEM).
“The purpose is to make a sustainable camp for Girl Scouts to learn, interact, and do hands-on projects,” Jordan says. “It will help girls earn badges in a fun way, using creativity, communication and other leadership skills during the summer when they are typically inactive.”
To better understand the inner-workings of a camp experience, in the summer of 2018 Jordan began researching the camps hosted by WVSU 4-H and CASTEM. She observed sessions, noting the interactions and activities that most interested the campers. The collected data not only aided her idea development but was also important research for camp planners.
“Jordan took so many invaluable notes while she observed the camps,” says Hannah Payne, WVSU’s assistant program director of 4-H and director of CASTEM. “That first summer was all about observation and volunteering, then she came back this year to get to work on her design.”
This summer, Jordan returned to continue developing her own idea. Next year, her fully formed camp - the Girl Scout Summer Time Badge Camp - will be implemented as a WVSU 4-H and CASTEM science day camp for girls ages 9 to 14, offering Girl Scouts the opportunity to earn badges in such areas as flowers, gardening, trees and outdoor art.