As Girl Scouting approaches its 100th anniversary, the organization is using its expertise to create a completely new approach for what girls do in Girl Scouting, how they do it, and how they will benefit. Called the New Girl Scout Leadership Experience, this approach engages girls in discovering themselves, connecting with others, and taking action to make the world a better place.

To put it in the simplest of terms, the New Girl Scout Leadership Experience is:

• The new design for what girls do in Girl Scouts
• Set to launch in fall 2008 with full implementation by 2010
• Based on the three keys to leadership: Discover, Connect, and Take Action
• Girl-led, based on "learning by doing" and "cooperative learning"
• Serves the Girl Scout mission of building "girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place"

Here are some interesting facts on how today’s girls view "leadership" - taken from the Girl Scout Research Institute – Change It Up! What Girls Say About Redefining Leadership, March 2008.

• More than half of American girls say they don’t aspire to be leaders because girls are turned off by the conventional conception of leadership as command and control.
• Sixty-eight percent of survey respondents said they would want to be leaders who stand up "for their beliefs and values," and 59 percent said they would like to be a leader "who tries to change the world for the better."
• Girls were more likely than boys to be motivated to be leaders because they want to help other people (67 percent vs. 53 percent), share their knowledge and skills with others (53 percent vs. 47 percent) and change the world for the better (45 percent vs. 31 percent).