Elise Towle earns Gold Award
Elise Towle earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for her work
October 03, 2023
FAIRFAX, VT – Having experienced depression herself, Elise Towle wanted others her age to know that there is help for anyone needing to address their mental health. Towle created a program called “Mental Health in Adolescents” that is now being incorporated into the health curriculum at BFA Fairfax Middle School and Georgia Middle School. She earned Girl Scouting’s highest honor, the Gold Award for her work.
Towle, 18, of Fairfax, was one of the many students whose mental health was negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That is actually when I started having my own mental health issues,” she said. “Just being trapped in a house all day with my family.”
For years, Towle was either isolated from her friends at home, and then kept from sharing her school days with them as the school moved to a split schedule where she attended BFA Fairfax Mondays and Wednesdays and her friends attended Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“I think it really affected all of our social lives,” she said. “A lot of a lot of people I know really don't know how to communicate, or they're just a lot more used to staying in their room and being by themselves all the time. It definitely affected our education, too.”
An earlier bout of depression in middle school resulted in her family arranging for therapy, which she was not receptive to. Even at a young age, she fell victim to the negative stigma of mental illness and did not want to get therapy. In high school, as depression hit again, she was finally able to accept that she needed help.
“This entire project is because I refused to go to therapy, and then, like two years later, I tried it again, and I've been in therapy since, because it's so helpful, and I avidly will recommend therapy to anyone I speak to,” she said.
To help young people understand what concepts like depression, anxiety, and body dysmorphia are and how to get help for them, she created a slide presentation as a video and a mental health awareness patch that Girl Scouts may earn.
“The video will be shown every year in health classes at these schools,” she wrote in her Gold Award report. “Both parts of my project will achieve an aspect of sustainability through keeping the knowledge I’m spreading alive from year to year, along with addressing my root cause by educating these kids and de-stigmatizing mental health.”
Psychologist Leita King worked closely with Towle, and said Towle absolutely achieved her goals and was impressed with her project, maturity, and research.
“We discussed my experience in the mental health field and Elise was extremely engaged asking innovative questions,” she said. “Elise’s project was well researched, written and provided excellent information for adolescents. Elise is an extremely mature young lady with admirable goals for her future career in mental health services. She shows dedication to assist youth and families.”
Towle’s patch program should soon be available to Girl Scouts on the council’s website.
Despite her difficulties, Towle was encouraged to earn her Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards by her mother, Kathryn Towle, a Gold Award Girl Scout herself, and the leader of Elise’s Girl Scout troop. Elise began Girl Scouts as a kindergartner and enjoyed her experiences over the years selling cookies, doing community service projects, volunteering to watch children on Town Meeting days, and more.
“Girl Scouts is really a lot more than just selling cookies, which I wish people would know more about because it's about like caring for your community and like just doing good things,” she said. “I think it really made me feel like I was doing something for the world, too.”
Earning the highest award possible for a Girl Scout in high school taught her leadership and responsibility, and how to see a challenging project through, she said.
“I had to be the one reaching out to everyone and doing everything, managing the whole project,” she said of her Gold Award. “Because if I wasn't keeping things together, nobody else is going to. So it definitely taught me a lot about how to work with people, how to be a leader and how to manage a team.”
She’s rightfully proud of her accomplishment and encourages other Girl Scouts to go for the Gold. She especially encourages younger Girl Scouts to stick with it, even if it seems embarrassing or childish at the time.
“It also just feels so good to actually accomplish something that makes the world a better place,” she said. “It's a feeling that you're not going to get anywhere else. And Girl Scouts is really good at helping teach you how to do that.”
Towle graduated from high school last spring with distinctions in music and humanities; and was involved in the jazz band, concert band, pep band, and marching band on baritone saxophone. She’s also earned a green belt with brown stripe – nearly black belt – in Shaolin Kempo karate.
Currently Towle attends the College of Saint Rose in Albany, New York, majoring in forensic psychology. She is not sure of her career goals, but is interested in working in the court system, helping to hire police officers, or using psychological skills to solve crimes.
Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good. The Gold Award is earned by girls in grades 9–12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions to local, national, and global challenges. Since 1912, Girl Scouts have answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change. They earn college scholarships, demonstrate high educational and career outcomes, and are active in their communities.
Elise Towle has answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change, and her Gold Award is a testament to her remarkable dedication to improving her community and the world.
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About the Girl Scout Gold Award
- Gold Award Girl Scouts on average spend one to two years on their project.
- A Gold Award project must be sustainable after the girl’s involvement ends.
- The average age of Gold Award Girl Scouts is 17.
- Since 1916, more than 1 million girls have earned the Gold Award or its equivalent.
- Gold Award Girl Scouts are entitled to enlist at a higher pay grade when they join the military.
- University research indicates that noting you are a Gold Award Girl Scout on a college application is influential in the admissions decision-making process.
- Twenty-nine young women from New Hampshire and Vermont have earned their Gold Award in the 2022-2023 membership year as part of Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.
- The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable.
We Are Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.
Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains serves girls throughout New Hampshire and Vermont through volunteer-run troops, events, and virtual programs. Visit www.girlscoutsgwm.org to learn more.
