Gold Award Ceremony at the Girl Scout House

Yashica Balasubramanian, Lillian Liu,  Catherine Zhang, Brielle Phillips-Harris and Evie SchiffThe Scarsdale Edgemont Girls Scouts held their Gold Award ceremony at the Betty Taubert house on Sunday June 7, 2026.

The following dignitaries came and presented the girls with certificates: Congressman George Latimer, Senator Shelley Mayer, Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, Mayor Justin Arest, Deputy Mayor Dara Gruenberg, Legislator David Imamurra, Scarsdale BOE Vice President Colleen Brown and Morgan Slocombe from Governor Kathy Hochul’s office, LWVS President Beth Cukier and members of the Elks and GS Heart of the Hudson CEO Kari Rockwell.

The four girls who earned Gold were: Evie Schiff for her project Littles & Love - NICU Comfort, Lillian Liu Writing for Electronic Waste, Brielle Phillips-Harris Teens Against Type 2 Diabetes, and Yashica Balasubramanian VetConnect.

Senior Catherine Zhang is in the end stages of her project. She is creating a web platform for food banks to share resources.

Yashica Balasubramanian, whose project helps Veterans navigate the maze of benefits, job opportunities, and local support services. was awarded a $5,000 scholarship from Girl Scouts of the USA. This prestigious scholarship is awarded annually to just one Gold Award Girl Scout from each council, as well as one recipient from USA Girl Scouts Overseas. Scholarship recipients are selected based on projects that demonstrate extraordinary leadership, measurable and sustainable impact, and address issues of national or global significance. Receiving this scholarship is an exceptional honor and a testament to Yashica’s dedication, leadership, and commitment to creating meaningful change.

The scouts are proud of these four remarkable young women. While they had many options for how to spend their time outside of school, they chose to remain active in Girl Scouting through the end of high school, demonstrating a lasting commitment to leadership and service.

The Girl Scout mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place, and these four young women truly embody that spirit.

The Gold Award is the highest honor in Girl Scouting and represents the culmination of years of dedication and leadership.

To earn this distinction, each recipient completed rigorous prerequisites, identified a need within her community, raised funds, and designed and implemented a sustainable project with a lasting impact. Nationally, only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, making it a truly significant achievement.