If a girl has completed her Silver Award, can she begin the Gold Award immediately?

There is no prerequisite at any of the levels for an earlier award.Doing so would exclude many girls to no purpose -- especially if a girljoined Girl Scouting as a Cadette and would then be automatically barredfrom earning the Silver, even though she never would have had theopportunity to earn the Bronze Award. Same rationale for the Gold Award:neither Bronze nor Silver Awards are prerequisites. The one advantage tohaving earned one of them, however, is the value derived by the girl fromhaving experienced the process of going through the steps, planning hertimeline, and working with adults (all of which are similar, especially theSilver and Gold).

A girl must do STEPS 1-4 when she is 14-18 or in grades 9-12. She must be 15-18, or in grades 10-12, when she does STEPS 5-7. Please note that waiting until 15 to undertake the Senior GS Challenge (STEP 4) can increase success in the following step –the Project (STEP 5)-because that extra year of being in high school will have helped girls with time management skills which are critical when working on both the Challenge and the Gold Award Project.