It was with a jolt that I realized on Sunday that the next step in our troop’s “Agent of Change” Journey was the following evening – and I was in charge of the meeting.

Through our Journey we’ve been talking about power – our personal power and our ability to use that personal power to make changes. My plan for this meeting was to identify women leaders, both past and present, and lead them through a conversation about what these women had in common.

To get the girls started, I created fourteen “Agent of Change” trading cards, each featuring a powerful women (of my choosing). Starting with 10 Powerful Women as identified by TimeForKids.com, I replaced some of their selections with local figures (instead of Hillary Clinton, I used our US Senator, Elizabeth Warren), and added some other more contemporary leaders, including Christiane Amanpour and Malala Yousafzai.

Using Microsoft Word, I created four cards on each page, with most of the photos and descriptions lifted directly from the sites (with attribution of course). In addition to Time for Kids, I found information on Wikipedia and HollywoodLife.com (for information about Tasha McCauley, futurist, robotics expert and new wife of actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt). On the back of each card I printed a copy of the Girl Scout mission and logo. (Due to copyright reasons, I don’t feel comfortable sharing the cards – but I promise, all the information is easily accessible through the mentioned sites).

While the girls cut out the cards, each read the biographies out loud. We then “traded” cards so each girl had a full deck of 14 powerful women:

• Tasha McCauley – Scientist
• Eileen Collins – Astronaut
• Sandra Day O’Conner – Supreme Court Justice
• Marie Curie – Scientist
• Jane Addams – Social Worker
• Angela Merkel – Politician
• Sheryl Sandberg – Tech executive & author
• Malala Yousafzai – Activist
• Elaine Chao – Former US Secretary of Labor
• Rosa Parks – Civil Rights Activist
• Mother Teresa – Activist
• Rachel Carson – Environmental Scientist
• Elizabeth Warren – Politician
• Christiane Amanpour – Journalist

Looking through the cards, we talked about the characteristics of these women.

Then ended by making one more card – their own!