(upbeat music) - We're now joined by Ginny Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey, part of our Women Business Leader series.

Ginny, great to have you with us.

- Thanks Steve.

It's great to be here.

- You got it.

Website's up right now.

The organization makes a big difference in the lives of younger women and girls, largely around leadership.

Is that a fair assessment?

- That's a fair assessment.

I mean, girl Scouts is seen oftentimes as an activity and is measured often by parents, by what they see girls doing.

You know, whether it's arts and crafts or camping or stem.

We have a wide variety of options, but all of the programmatic experiences are intentionally designed so that girls have opportunities to build courage, confidence in character, which in turn builds leadership.

- You know, I'm curious about this.

For those who are saying the Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts still relevant?

We're moving it to 2025.

Be seen, you know, for the next several months.

This program.

Still relevant because?

- Because girls still need support and helping to build that inner voice of self-confidence, social-emotional learning is still critical for young people.

And what we do, what we have done for more than 100 years we've been around is adapt what and how we do that to meet the contemporary times.

So right now is one of those pivotal moments.

You know, we're coming out of COVID, we know families and parents are rolling differently in how they live their daily lives, and the girls need different things.

And we're in the midst of the journey to make that next adaptation.

- What's the DreamLab?

- The DreamLab.

Oh, I'm so excited to ask about that.

So the DreamLab is a really cool facility concept that started in Girl Scouts over the last year or so.

We were really excited.

We opened the third DreamLab in the nation in East Brunswick, right here in New Jersey.

And it's an experiential learning space.

And so we're doing Girl Scout activities and programs in there.

It's open to all youth, so not just Girl Scout members can come in and climb the rock wall or, you know, do another kind of an activity.

And it's really a way for us to not only have more spaces that are engaging for our youth members, but also to bring the community into Girl Scouts.

- Hey, Ginny.

This phone, not my phone.

Any phone social media.

- Yeah.

- Young girl and Girl Scouts.

Go.

- Yeah, go.

Alright, so, well, one thing we know is technology is ubiquitous with our kids, right?

And we aren't trying to fight that to a large degree because it's really interwoven into all of their lives.

At the same time, we're giving girls plenty of opportunities to unplug and get away from that technology.

And so whether it is attending Girl Scout Camp or doing an activity together in a group in the DreamLab or some other place.

And then on the other hand, you know, we have lots of cool technology programs in our STEM offerings.

Things like cybersecurity and robotics, which are really workforce skills that they're gonna need for the future.

So it's a balanced approach, but it can be, you know, it can be challenging at times.

I hear you.

- Clearly, especially with the young daughter having dinner.

We're right here.

- Yeah.

- We're not on the phone.

- Yeah.

- That's not every, everyone's dealing with that.

Hey, Ginny, how the heck did you get so connected to the Girl Scouts?

What's the connection for you?

- So, I've been a nonprofit executive now for more than 25 years.

All of my career has been in women and girl-focused missions.

I believe really strongly in the power of women's leadership.

And, you know, I'm old enough to remember when maybe some of the rights and privileges that our young women have today in the workplace, we didn't have when I first started working.

And so, I'm very passionate about the issues.

I see my role at Girl Scouts really as helping to ensure that the girls are not growing up in the same kind of world that maybe I did or my mother did, or my grandmother did.

So really, instilling the change in them.

I'm super passionate about that.

And, you know, it's a privilege to do the work I do, really.

- So the other part of it is service giving back, not just rhetoric, it's real.

Talk about it at the Girl Scouts.

- It's real.

Well, our Girl Scouts in our organization, we estimate donate about a quarter of a million hours of service every year.

And that's probably low 'cause that's the only, that's the stuff I can count officially.

But we really teach girls that, you know, to serve and to give and to make the world a better place.

Our core character values, we think that's really important.

It's core to who we are.

And there are so many ways girls can do that individually.

They do it when they design projects for their gold, silver, or bronze Awards.

They can do it as a troop, you know, gathering, you know, supplies for an animal shelter or a homeless shelter, and then they can do it as part of big initiatives.

Right now, we have national initiative, the Girl Scout Tree Promise, where, you know, girls are trying to give a positive impact on climate change and plant trees all around the country.

And so they have multiple ways they can get involved.

- Awesome.

I would be remiss if I did not ask about the connection between selling cookies and entrepreneurship, which I'm fascinated by.

Please.

- Yeah.

Well if you, I would venture to guess that if you asked any room of business women, how many of them were Girl Scouts, lots of hands would go up.

And what we know is that girls find their voice of confidence and their voice of selling and marketing at, by participating in the Girl Scout Cookie program.

And so while folks see the Girl Scouts out front of the store, you know, or get hit up to buy cookies online, behind that is a really robust curriculum.

We run a program called Cookie University where girls come ahead of when they're selling to learn sales skills, to learn how to take a no, you know, all the things that we know build business skills and entrepreneurship skills.

- And confidence.

- And confidence.

Absolutely.

- Yeah.

You know, Ginny, I appreciate you joining us and being part of this Women Business Leaders program.

And I'm glad you know, we had corporate folks on, Michele kicked it off.

We have a not-for-profit leader.

Making a difference in the lives of young women and girls is huge.

And I cannot thank you enough for joining us on this very special program, celebrating, recognizing, and promoting women in business and women in New Jersey and across the nation, leading.

Thank you so much, Ginny.

I appreciate it.

- Thank you, Steve.

- You got it.

I'm Steve Adubato, thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you next time.

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