Area graduates earn Girls Scouts’ scholarships

Five Girl Scouts in Nebraska are the recipients of scholarships from the Grant & Berenice Olson Memorial Fund.
Dawson Anderson of Pender, Hailey Baker of Blair, Emily Brodd of Ames, Skyler Prokop of Thurston, and McKenna Shonka of Osmond will receive $500 for higher education expenses at an accredited college or university.
Anderson is a Pender High School graduate and plans to study graphic design and play softball at Iowa Western Community College before transferring to a four-year college. She is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award project, making dignity bibs for the local nursing home.
Baker attended Blair High School and intends to study middle school education at Wayne State College this fall. She also will be on the Wayne track and field team as a thrower. This year, Baker earned her Girl Scout Gold Award by focusing on literacy. She built a Free Little Library and renovated a room inside her church to serve as a library.
Brodd (pictured) graduated from North Bend Central and will attend Wayne State College in the fall, focusing on elementary education. Brodd recently completed her Gold Award project by restoring the North Bend community building, which was damaged by flooding in 2019.
Prokop, also graduated from Pender High School, and plans to attend Northeast Community College in Norfolk to earn a degree in early childhood education. In Thurston, she is a member of the Volunteer Fire Department and competes in demolition derbies. With Anderson, Prokop is currently working on her Gold Award project, making dignity bibs for their local nursing home.
 
Shonka attended Pierce Senior High School, will study nursing at Northeast Community College and plans to transfer to the University of Nebraska Medical Center to become a nurse practitioner.
 
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest achievement in Girl Scouting — earned by high school Girl Scouts who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing meaningful and lasting solutions to local, national and global challenges.
 
About the Grant & Berenice Olson Memorial Fund
In the mid-1990s, Grant and Berenice Olson established an endowment fund for the former Prairie Hills Girl Scout Council to support Girl Scouting in northeast Nebraska. The fund supported financial assistance for girls, improvements to Camp Crossed Arrows and the Columbus Service Center, and scholarships.
 
When the Nebraska Girl Scout councils merged and the Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska Council was formed in 2008, the fund continued to provide scholarship awards, support to girls and improvements to camp properties in that area.