Ep167 Layla King Transcript
Thrille Media: The Hearts of Gold Podcast is brought to you by the Grow and Share Network, produced by Thrille Media.
Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today we have Layla with us. Hi Layla.
Layla: Hi.
Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?
Layla: So, my project was about restoring an historically black cemetery in my community. It's called Lincoln Cemetery, and it's in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
So I worked with an organization called Saving Our Ancestors Legacy. I was volunteering with them since around 2021, so I knew that I already had a connection with the person who runs it. Her name is Rachel. And once it got to the point where I had to start doing my Gold award, I wanted to partner with her.
So she was my project manager, and that's the project I did and, at the time, I had a leadership position in school with Skills USA, so I used that position to promote soul throughout my school, and I presented it at our school wide assembly, and then we had a donor drive and things like that.
Sheryl: What was your favorite part of the project?
Layla: My favorite part was actually the reactions to it. I got a lot more support for it than I expected to, and it was actually really fun to do. But my favorite part was actually volunteering at the cemetery because I learned a lot. Being actually involved in the project instead of just promoting it, it helped me see a different point of view.
Sheryl: What were some of the things you learned?
Layla: I learned how to clean a headstone and the different type of things that go into that. So I had to use like D three solution and then spray with water and then actually scrub it, and then I got to see it like days later how it would brighten up and how like the words on or the names on the headstone would be much easier to see.
And actually I had to had a level of headstone.
Sheryl: And what was your biggest challenge during your project, and how did you overcome it?
Layla: My biggest challenge was actually getting people to act on the cause. It's easy to spread awareness, but it's hard to get people to actually take action on it. So I would try different things to get the word out, and if I wasn't getting the responses that I wanted, then I would try something new.
So that's where I got to my school and I was like, I need to present it to everyone so everyone hears it and, actually act on it by having the drive so that it's like people would hear about it and they would hear about it consistently, and then they would have a chance to actually support it.
Sheryl: How did you build your team?
Layla: So since I had that leadership position, we were already all together. So really just in one of our meetings, I brought it up to our advisor first and she approved of it. So I started to work with different people on our teams to make the presentation, to organize the drive. And things like that. And then for the actual project, I got my project manager because I volunteered with it before and I just talked to her about it,
everything, what I that I wanted to do and what she actually needed for the cause, and that's how we ended up working together.
Sheryl: When you were doing the research for your project, did you have an initial thought and did that pivot at all with the conversations you had?
Layla: It did actually, because during my research I didn't realize that the problem that
what's happening in my community actually happens more often in other places than I thought. So it was cool to learn about and it actually made me realize that what I'm doing, like yes, it's helping my community, but it showed me the connection that it has globally. So that did help me change my point of view and how I was thinking about approaching this project.
Sheryl: How is your project impacting you now that you're done with it?
Layla: I'm still doing community service, so actually it did help me directly with what I'm doing actually next week. So at Howard, we have something called, alternative spring break. So instead of me going home, I'll actually be going to Trenton, New Jersey to volunteer in high schools and middle schools and food banks.
So during my interview with them, I got to talk about the Gold Awards that I connected directly to what I'm about to do.
Sheryl: Where else have you talked about the Gold Award, about your project that has maybe given you a step up on other people?
Layla: Firstly, even applying to college, they always look at unique community service experience, so definitely that.
And then. Right now I'm in council and my goal is to be a community rep next year. So right now I'm in the advocacy and inclusion intern. So during that interview I also brought it up and that was something unique. And it's actually a project that I learned that the cemetery actually has connections to Howard, so now I'm trying to build my way up so that I can bring that project here.
Sheryl: That's really interesting. You've mentioned Howard University a couple of times, which is where you're going to school. Can you tell us about what activities you're doing at Howard?
Layla: Besides the being an advocacy and inclusion intern and then doing the alternative spring break, i'm actually in DECA, so I'm gonna be competing at the conference in entrepreneurship.
I'm in NSBE, so that's the National Society of Black Engineers, and then I'm a computer science major, so I'm studying computer science right now and I'm trying to get my bachelor's.
Sheryl: What led you to choose computer science?
Layla: So actually in middle school, it was my last year, they had tours going to a technical school, and when I toured the school I was like, this is somewhere I would wanna go.
And then once I got into the school, they made us go through every single program. So I went through like dental, culinary. And all these different things, and the only one that really interests me that I could see myself doing in the future was web development and design. So once I went through that program, that all led to where I am now
Sheryl: In web development you also own your own company. Can you tell us about that?
Layla: Yep. I own my own web design business. It's called a Young Mindset, and it's pretty much me helping small businesses gain an online presence. So I work with a bunch of clients to figure out things like. Improving their website, designing it, implementing things called like search engine optimization and keywords and all those different things.
Sheryl: What was it like starting that business at your age?
Layla: It was really fun. It's kind of hard just because I'm learning it myself, but because of the different opportunities like the Gold Award and then co-op in clubs from high school, I've had opportunities where, people, well, I've gotten positions, like right now I work for a web design agency and she's actually showing me how things work.
So it's like I'm still working there, but I'm also building what I have myself. And then there's a lot of people who. I'm connecting with now that I'm in these different places and they're also leading me to understand how to run it better.
Sheryl: What was the hardest part of starting that business? What, what happened that you went, I don't know if I can do this on my own.
Layla: I think it's when, actually it's when I had a client that was kinda trying to take advantage of it, and that's what really showed me that I have to, like in my business, I wanna be flexible. I wanna really like be helping people. But I also realized that I have to have my own standard that I have to stick to, and even though I wanna adjust and be flexible for people, I have to stick to that so that they don't, so that they will respect my time and respect the price and all of those things.
Sheryl: What skills did you learn while you were going through your Gold Award that you're being able to use either at Howard or in your business?
Layla: The biggest thing I learned from my Gold Award is really, it was me seeing the impact that service and leadership can have together. I do wanna do volunteer work on my own and things like that, but it also pushed me to be more involved in having my own leadership because I saw how powerful they can be when they come together.
Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
Layla: Actually, one more thing I would like to share is that I got accepted to be an Amazon future engineer, so in this summer I'll be working at Amazon. Likely at one of the headquarters. So that's gonna further my web design business and skills that I was talking about earlier.
Sheryl: That's so exciting. Congratulations.
Layla: Thank you.
Sheryl: How do you make your s'mores?
Layla: I don't eat them anymore, but when I did. I would burn them.
Sheryl: Yep.
Layla: I would want the gold. That's how I like mine.
Sheryl: Yeah. Lots of people like to burn them. That is not my choice. I'm a golden brown
girl.
Layla: That's good too. So-
Sheryl: yeah.
Layla: I'll go Golden brown to burnt.
Sheryl: Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
Layla: Thank you so much for having me.
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Thrille Media: Thank you for listening. If you'd like to be on the show to share your story with how you earn your Gold Award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com.
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