After a summer of hard work and perseverance, senior Anushka Jalisatgi has earned the peak achievement in Girl Scouts: the Gold Award. The highest ranks in Girl Scouts come with the completion of a Bronze, Silver and Gold Award project, all of which relate to community service, leadership and self-growth.

To earn such an honor as the Gold Award, Jalisatgi completed a project that would have a sustainable and actionable impact on her local community and demanded consideration, planning and determination to meet her goals.

Jalisatgi joined the Girl Scouts in 2006, at the age of four when she moved to Columbia from California. Her mother, who had been a Girl Guide while growing up in India, encouraged her to join as she wanted her daughter to have the opportunities and experiences that Scouting provided her. Jalisatgi completed her first Scouting milestone, the Bronze Award, in 2013 at the age of 11. To achieve this rank she planted flowers and pulled weeds at the Rothwell Heights neighborhood playground with the rest of her troop. Her Silver Award project, however, required more independence. In 2016 she earned this award by assembling care packages with different games and activities for the pediatric patients at the Womens and Childrens Hospital. This venture showcased her growing ability to take action and use creative thinking to make a positive change in her community.

For her Gold Award project Jalisatgi created positive change on a much larger scale, which would have a sustainable and actionable impact on the local Columbia community. After much consideration, Jalisatgi decided what she would do to make such an impact.

“I realized that Columbia is so lucky to have such a beautiful park system and nature trails,” Jalisatgi said. “I knew I wanted to do something for a park and I found out that a lot of these beloved parks don’t have signs and mile markers.”

Beginning in May 2019, Jalisatgi consulted the Columbia Parks and Recreation Department to determine how she could make the longest lasting impact on her local community. She decided to focus on the Kiwanis Park trails. Prior to her work, these trails had no markers or posted maps, which made it unclear to visitors where they led or how long they were. Jalisatgi wanted to make the park more accessible to visitors by adding such features and began planning how to best tackle the project.

During summer Jalisatgi worked to make her plan come to fruition. She called local businesses to gain sponsorships and supply donations. Jalisatgi revamped outdated trail maps by color coding the different trails and installing a durable aluminum composite sign in front of the park’s main shelter (pictured below).

Jalisatgi built 14 mile markers out of donated wood and painted them in colors corresponding to those on the map. She sought out family and friends to help her dig holes and install the markers point zero five miles apart on the two park trails. Jalisatgi finally completed the task in September 2019 after months of tireless work. The project, however, was not without setbacks.

“Looking back on the experience, there are some things I would’ve done differently,” Jalisatgi said. “I was so scared of getting in the thick of it, past the point of no return. I put off actually doing things of substance in this project, but this process has helped me overcome that mental hurdle. Once I got it started, the ball just kept on rolling.”

She is optimistic that her efforts will breathe new life into an underutilized trail system in Columbia. 14 trail markers and a park map have improved the clarity of the park, and Jalisatgi hopes they will draw in more visitors to enjoy the beauty of these local trails. 

“I’m feeling fantastic now that it’s done” Jalisatgi said, “and I’m proud of the impact I have made on the community.”

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