On Thursday April 10th, West Morris Central junior, Elisa Castro, hosted a Psychology Expo as a part of her Girl Scout Gold Award project in the auditorium after school. Everyone was welcomed to attend and she got a decent turn out from the student body.
The Gold Award is the most prestigious award given to a Girl Scout. In order to earn the award a Girl Scout must create a project that will have a long lasting impact on the community. It takes a lot of dedication, time, and hard work to achieve this award and Castro has proven that she is willing to give all of these.
Castro recognized that a lot of people in the community, including herself, want to major in psychology but they don’t know exactly what they want their career to be. The expo was meant to expose and educate people about the various career paths that psychology has to offer in hopes of inspiring more individuals to pursue a career regarding mental health. “So the long term goal would be: people would hear about these careers, and then from there, they would go into these careers and that could help the shortage,” said Castro.
At the expo those attending were exposed to a variety of people who work in different fields of psychology. The panelists included a neuropsychologist, a child pediatric therapist, a social worker, and a neuroscience major who performs tests.
“It was hard to get the panelists, but, once I had a date and a group of people, it wasn’t that bad,” stated Castro.
As beneficial as this expo was for others, it also benefited Castro. “I definitely learned a lot about the different careers, because like I said, I’m interested in psychology, so it definitely helped me with the different career options that I have, and it also definitely helped with leadership skills and learning how to organize an event,” stated Castro.
For those aspiring to go for their Gold Award Castro’s advice is to go for it. ” I would recommend doing it, because I think that it’s a lot of work at the moment, but after you do it, it’s such a nice feeling to have it done,” said Castro. She added, “It’s an accomplishment and something I’m proud of, now that I’ve actually done it.
