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Pathways to Joining

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience through Pathways

Girls have the freedom to choose any of the Pathways to join Girl Scouting and may participate in multiple Pathways within a membership year.

Girls are given the opportunity to explore their skills and interests and inspired to reach their personal best through a variety of fun and enriching leadership experiences.

No matter where and or how they participate, girls get the necessary guidance they need from adult volunteers and council staff to develop their leadership skills and understand how those skills can be used to make a difference in the world.

The Six Girl Scout Pathways

The six Girl Scout Pathways are the ways that girls participate in Girl Scouting. Girls can choose any one, all, or some of these Pathways within a single year; however, different Pathways may be geared specifically to different grade levels.

1) Camp: The Camp Pathway features day, weekend and resident experiences that introduce and explore the out-of-doors. A defining characteristic of this Pathway is that it is an outdoor, condensed experience. 2) Events: Events are stand-alone offerings. The primary difference between the Event Pathway and other Pathways is that different girls participate in each event, as opposed to one group of girls coming together regularly. 3) Series: Series offerings are a sequence of linked program sessions - offered by the council or community partners - that relate to a specific theme or purpose and feature cumulative, sequential experiential learning. Each girl chooses to participate in the entire series as a complete program package; a series may be short-term or longer-term. The intent is to engage the same group of girls throughout the entire series of program opportunities. 4) Travel: The Travel Pathway offers girls leadership opportunities and cross-cultural understanding through local, regional, national, and international travel. Girls prepare, plan, money-earn and participate through group travel, council-sponsored trips or nationally-sponsored excursions. 5) Troop: The Troop Pathway offers the same group of girls the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, usually over the span of nine to twelve months. Girls may join at any time during the troop year. 6) Virtual: The Virtual Pathway is an online Girl Scout community that provides girls the opportunity to participate in Girl Scouting without regard to geographic location.