Story of Impact

“It teaches you about responsibilities and stuff that you’ll need to learn later on in life that you may not learn in other situations. It’s fun, and you make new friends, and you have so many activities that you typically wouldn’t get to do. Like when we sell cookies, 75 cents from each box goes back to us, and we get to vote on activities to do. One night we spent the night at the aquarium, and one time we got a special tour of the zoo late when nobody else was there.

But I really love camping and selling cookies the best. A lot of people, when it comes to selling Girl Scout Cookies, they’re really shy at the beginning. And once you go on, you get more and more outgoing with it. And just one of the big things is learning to accept no for an answer. Like when you’re selling cookies, a lot of people are like “no” and you just gotta keep going.”

“At the cookie booths, I’ve watched many girls over the years learn how to ask confidently, they’re able to answer questions about their product, calculate change, and learn how to be professional with many different types of people. Brianna says she learned to take no for an answer. But, really, she learned to move on and keep asking more people and not give up. Girl Scouts stresses to girls that they can change the world.”

“I’m Wattina, but people call me Tina and I’m 18. I’ve been coming here for 6 or 7 times I think. I help out with different things and I help clean everywhere, but I mainly help out with the vegetables and fruits and stuff. I clean them off for the kids, and I wipe down the tables. Sometimes I help out in the art section and see if the markers are dry and throw them out, but mainly I do the vegetables. It’s my favorite project.”

The Muse Ambassador Program provides real world experiences for special needs high school students to learn and further develop important life skills such as social skills and workforce training skills. Students gain confidence, experience, and friends through the program – and they get to have fun in the museum, as well!

“I had been making excuses for a long time why I shouldn’t do it. Work is a lot of hours, I didn’t have the time, it just wasn’t worth it. But they had a program at Ariya’s school, only seven minutes from my office – so I decided to give it a shot. That was seven years ago, when Ariya was in second grade, and we just hit it off.

And now Ariya is a very important part of my life. Not only her, but her family, as well. I don’t know if I’d say she’s like a daughter or a sister, but she’s somewhere in between. And you see how mature, how smart she is! Most of the time, I’m learning from her. I feel like she teaches me, like she’s the mentor in the relationship.”

“It’s like getting a new family member. Rosa’s the best, and you really do get this great bond, this life-changing bond. And you get to grow up with each other, and with the other pairs that you’re friends with. And I want to be a mentor when I’m older – I want to be able to make this same kind of difference.”

“We recently met a pair that got matched like 15 years ago – and they’re still so close! It makes me so happy, and so excited to see Ariya grow up and I think God will give her an opportunity to see her dreams come true. And I can’t wait to see it!”

“I’ve learned everything I know about golf here. When I first heard about it I thought I’d just see how it works out, and now here we are. I come here every day that I can. We learn about core values, too. Like integrity, sportsmanship, respect, perseverance, stuff like that. My favorite is courtesy.”

“And as his mom, I think this program is awesome. It’s just so awesome. The coaches, the staff, everyone. They make sure the kids are learning and enjoying what’s happening. And they don’t care to get out and play with them, so they have a good time all around. He loves it, and I love it because he does. I think he gets— First Tee allows him to get opportunities I don’t think he’d have had otherwise. He gets to play golf, meet people that he wouldn’t otherwise meet, and have all these great experiences. And he’s gotten so good at golf!”
“I wouldn’t say “good.” I’d say I’m decent, but not good. I’ve gotten a lot better though.”

“My favorite thing to learn in school is math. I’m in the STEM class and I’m in STEM club. And for the past couple of weeks we’ve been working on going to the moon! We have to plan what we need to live on the moon and we can build them with Legos. When we first started one of our mentors, I think it was Ms. Rachel, she made us snacks in case we get hungry so we can eat on the moon. And I made a detective in case we find different things to bring back to Earth, and my friend Edwin has been making a car spaceship so we can drive on the moon. We also made a moving satellite! So we can talk to other planets. We made the moving satellite with Legos and we can control it with the tablets over there. And last week we made our rocket ships, so I think we’re getting pretty close to being ready.”