Chloe Van Dorn, a sophomore honors student at Syosset High School is earning her Girl Scout Gold Award. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award a Girl Scout can earn. It is awarded to Girl Scout seniors or ambassadors who complete a project that will make a lasting difference in the world.
The Gold Award requires the completion of 80 hours or more of an individual leadership Take Action project that makes a sustainable and measurable impact on an important issue or need in the community and that serves to educate and inspire others in the community. Less than 5 percent of Girl Scouts throughout the nation earn this esteemed award. The Gold Award recognizes Girl Scouts for excellence and leadership and it is the pinnacle of achievement and recognition.
Van Dorn has been a Girl Scout for 10 years in the Jericho-Syosset Association of Girl Scouts of Nassau County. Van Dorn’s Gold Award project, entitled “Sleep Deprived Teenagers,” involves educating her peers about the issue of the severe lack of sleep among teenagers today. Research shows that 80 percent of adolescents do not receive the minimum amount of sleep required for proper growth and development. Sleep deprived teens do not function at their highest potential and suffer from physical and emotional health problems, including weight gain, poor school performance, memory loss, learning impairments, risky behaviors, anger, depression, suicidal tendencies, anxiety, lack of energy, decreased productivity and even an increase in the number of car accidents. Insufficient sleep among teenagers is a serious epidemic facing our society today.
Van Dorn’s project focuses on increasing awareness about this important issue and providing teenagers with strategies to get more and better quality sleep each night, so that they can live happier and healthier lives. The Girl Scout has been working hard to educate teenagers about the correct amount of sleep required to obtain proper growth and development and the severe mental and physical health problems associated with a lack of sleep.
Van Dorn hopes that the knowledge teenagers obtain will be carried with them through adulthood. With more sleep, teenagers will realize their full potential, work more productively and be able to contribute to our society in many positive ways.
During her freshman year of high school, Van Dorn designed an informative brochure that she distributed to teenagers at the Syosset High School nurse’s office and guidance office, the Syosset Public Library and Oyster Bay-East Norwich Public Library’s Teen Spaces, Winthrop University Hospital’s Junior Volunteer Services Department, her local pediatrician’s office and at the Waterfront Center in Oyster Bay.
In April 2015, Van Dorn ran an activity table at the Girl Scouts of Nassau County’s “Girls Go the Distance Walkathon and Activity Fair” where 800 people attended and learned about the severe health problems associated with insufficient sleep in teens.
Van Dorn also wrote a public service announcement that aired in the spring of 2015 during her weekly radio show on Syosset High School’s radio station, WKWZ 88.5 FM.
This summer, Van Dorn is holding several workshops for middle school and high school aged children at local summer camps in Oyster Bay to teach them why they require eight to 10 hours of sleep each night, how to manage their time better in order to get enough sleep and the serious dangers associated with lack of sleep.
Van Dorn is the co-captain of the Syosset High School sailing team, the vice president of the Syosset High School Robotics Club, an assistant officer in the Syosset High School Girls Who Code Club and the vice president of the Syosset High School Symphony Orchestra. In addition, Van Dorn is a member of the Syosset High School Mock Trial Team, the Cooking Club, and the Radio Club.
She also enjoys playing both the piano and viola, working as a junior volunteer at Winthrop University Hospital and as a member of the Junior Fire Department at Syosset Volunteer Fire Department.
Van Dorn is honored to receive her Girl Scout Gold Award this year and she hopes to become a doctor in the future so that she can continue to help others in many ways.
