Tune In This Saturday to See Girl Scouts Live on the Annual Broadcast of American Graduate Day!

Girl Scout Gold Award recipient and National Young Woman of Distinction Pooja Nagpal and troop leader Rae Yan, from Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, will be appearing live on public television’s American Graduate Day!

American Graduate Day 2016 is broadcast live from New York City and airs on public television stations across the country on Saturday, September 17 from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. ET (check local listings) and on Facebook and americangraduate.org.

Rae Yan 

Hosted by Soledad O’Brien, the annual event features leading education, media, and celebrity figures who will share inspiring stories of those who help to close the graduation gap. This year the show is focusing on mentoring relationships that help students—which is why they picked Pooja and Rae to tell their story of how their relationship at Girl Scouts helped Pooja achieve amazing things.

Pooja met Rae through Girl Scouts when she was in the sixth grade. Rae served as both a role model and supporter for Pooja, encouraging her to follow her interest in math and martial arts— and to dream big! Rae also encouraged Pooja to reach for leadership, something that hadn’t been part of Pooja’s previous experience. She helped Pooja pursue courses in engineering and, ultimately, apply to the electrical engineering and computer science program at the University of California, Berkeley, where only 7 percent of students are females—and to which Pooja was accepted.

Pooja Nagpal

At Girl Scouts, Rae worked with Pooja to build her confidence and complete requirements for the Gold Award. To earn the Gold Award, Pooja taught girls in Los Angeles and India about self defense. Pooja, who has a second-degree black belt in tae kwon do, wanted to help girls in her neighborhood, sometimes the victims of violence, to protect themselves. She went on to found the nonprofit For a Change, Defend, and spoke out to raise awareness about how females can empower themselves and protect themselves against violence. With Rae’s support, Pooja became a leader in her community and helped others by becoming a role model.

Tune in to find out more about their wonderful story. You’ll learn how mentoring helped Pooja, and how being part of Girl Scouts can help girls!

Support Girl Scouts on American Graduate Day on Facebook and Twitter using #AmGrad.

American Graduate Day is part of American Graduate: Let's Make It Happen—a public media initiative supported by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to help more kids stay on the path to graduation.