(LAKE OSWEGO) — Lake Oswego High School Junior Kayla Turner-Pike trusts her gut.
Whether working in the athletic training room at LOHS or leading cookie sales for Girl Scouts in West Linn, Wilsonville and Lake Oswego, Turner-Pike will do whatever she can for her community.
“I’ve learned a lot about trusting your instincts, trusting your gut,” she said. “Everything happens so fast. You have to know what’s going on. I feel like a lot of it is psychological, knowing how people’s body language works because I have to pick out if someone is distressed or hurt.”
Turner-Pike started the Athletic Training Club as a freshman at Lake Oswego. Now a junior, she hopes to pursue a career as an athletic trainer by studying sports medicine, physical therapy or occupational therapy.
She said that working with LOHS athletic trainer Dom Lee has taught her a lot about the most common sports injuries, how to prevent them and how to intervene during a game by taping ankles, wrists or knees.
“I really like being in the action,” said Turner-Pike. “I really, really love the tight-knit community of it, and I like to see how sports help people become friends.”
This dedication and care for the community stems from the Girl Scouts, an organization she joined in the second grade.
“I started selling (cookies) when I was 7. I’m 17 now, so I’ve been doing it for 10 years,” said Turner-Pike. “As a troop, we celebrated all of our achievements the same as super young kids, which was a nice feeling.”
From learning together, celebrating together or commiserating together, Turner Pike said the Girls Scouts is all about community.
“Personally, I’ve seen how much Girl Scouts has helped me with my community and learning ‘how to be a person.’ That’s kind of what being a kid is,” said Turner-Pike. “We have fun, but we also learn how to be people. I really love helping the younger girls, giving them feedback, advice and helping them become their own little people.”
Last summer, Turner-Pike worked as a counselor in the horse program at the Girl Scouts summer camp, taking on a role she looked up to when she was in elementary school.
“I feel like the older scouts, when I was younger, seemed so excited and willing to help. They were older role models, which helped the younger girls want to listen,” she said. “We had a camper who really hated horses when she came. It took four wranglers to even get her set up on a horse. Over time, I recognized that I could talk to her and (the importance of) working out how different people work differently. By the end, she loved the horses and didn’t want to leave.”
Tamara Beale, treasurer and membership growth manager for Girl Scouts service unit 9, said she’s “great at seeing the job that needs to be done and doing it.”
“I think so many people think of Girl Scouts as just kindergarten through second grade or something like that,” said Beale. “I think it is so awesome that she’s showing that you can be a teenager and not be embarrassed by it. You can really get out there. You can do so much.”
Beale added that Turner-Pike helped coordinate the distribution of 6,000 cases of cookies to all of the troops across Wilsonville, West Linn and Lake Oswego this spring.
“I learned a lot about how to be a team, how to work behind the scenes to make something so much better and make the best experience and prioritize the girls while working with this team,” said Turner-Pike.
Turner-Pike sees helping the younger girls in her service unit as an investment in the community's future, one in which her younger sister is just getting started.
“I feel like making opportunities happen is really important. Girls can’t know each other if they don’t have time to spend together,” she said. “I feel like if in Girl Scouts they burst out of their bubble, they’ll be more open to leadership in school. We like to stay in that safe comfort zone of people, but it’s really important for everyone to make new friends and to grow communities.”
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