Ohio teen achieves rare Girl Scout accomplishment

COLUMBIANA, Ohio (WKBN) – Girl Scouts is about more than just selling cookies. A Columbiana County teen joined the group during kindergarten and just achieved the top award.

Elizabeth Seimbida can show you what she’s done in Girl Scouts and where it’s taken her: fun patches, service patches, and trips to Switzerland and Italy. She also has Bronze and Silver awards.

Next year, the 18-year-old will get to add a Gold version.

“It means making a huge accomplishment and being an inspiration for other girls,” Seimbida said.

Siembida is a 2024 graduate of Columbiana High School.

She is the first Girl Scout in 20 years from Columbiana County to earn her Gold Award. It means she’s completed a trifecta of top awards, which only 5% of girls achieve.

“It was difficult but if you put the work into it, it’s very rewarding, and it’s worth all the work you put in,” Siembida said.

Her projects included research for a trail sign that was put in at the Fairfield Township Government Building. Her Silver award was a reading library bench at Firestone Park.

Reaching the Gold award was aided by putting together a project that installed a gaga ball pit at Columbiana Middle School to help the student’s physical and mental health.

“As soon as I finished it, within an hour, there were kids already wanting to play and they were having so much fun, and I loved seeing that,” Siembida said.

Siembida is a Girl Scouts ambassador and national delegate. She’s aged out of Girl Scouts but being a leader could be the next possibility.

“I’m just going to let life take me where it wants me to go,” she said.

Siembida has also raised money so Gold Star mothers would get bronze markers at their headstones in Firestone Cemetery. That completed the trifecta of Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

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