Part of being a Girl Scout is earning your badges. There are tons of potential badges to earn: FirstAid badges, Paddling badges, Athlete badges. Starting in 2018 there will also be badges for girls who master a host of different cyber security skills. It looks like the next generation of female engineers will be coming straight from the Girl Scouts.
Sylvia Acevedo, the CEO of Girls Scouts of the USA told ABC News that the new badges are part of the organization's mission to promote science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education for girls. "To be globally competitive, girls today need to know not just how to use computers but also how to program them," Acevedo told the outlet.
Girls Scouts of the USA is partnering with a cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks to create what will be the STEM curriculum for the Girl Scouts. Mark McLaughlin, the CEO of Palo Alto Networks, said in a statement that the partnership will help to create, "tomorrow's diverse and innovate team of problem solvers equipped to counter emerging cyberthreats."
This is all a tremendous positive: It will bring STEM fields to girls who might not have access to them in other arenas — Girl Scout programs are often found in low-income areas — and will expose the next generation of girls to a world of job opportunities that they might not have even known existed. So if the year is 2037 and you're looking for a cybersecurity job watch your back, there will probably be a highly-trained former Girl Scout gunning for the role too.