Community research, proposal writing, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, project management, project evaluation and public relations are activities that might crop up during an adult’s career.

Lindsay Boettner, 15, condensed that experience and used an even wider range of skills in less than a year.

As a member of Girl Scout Senior Troop 26172 in Butler, she developed a peer-tutoring program at Portersville Christian School where she will be a sophomore in the fall. The project ended with her receiving the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, the Gold Award.

The award, presented to Lindsay by Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania, recognizes high school girls who demonstrate extraordinary leadership.

According to Sharon Enslen, Lindsay’s Gold Award assigned mentor from the Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania Council, projects are based on leadership.

“All of the girls’ projects have a special component, and they all touch the community in some way,” she said.

“We want them to help come up with a solution to a problem,” Enslen said. “We don’t expect them to cure all the problems of the world but you can help fix a local problem or help give the education, so others can fix the problem.”

While investigating options for her project, Lindsay met with Lee Saunders, her school’s principal, who suggested a tutoring program.

“I loved the idea,” Lindsay said.

Sharon Schaming, resource coordinator at Portersville Christian School and Lindsay’s project adviser at the school, said the school did not have a peer tutoring program before Lindsay’s project.

Schaming thought it was needed. She also thought it was a big undertaking and admitted she was skeptical since Lindsay was in ninth grade.

“At the outset I thought she might need quite a bit of guidance from me. But as it transpired, Lindsay spearheaded the project and I just oversaw the general program,” Schaming said.

Once she received approval for her proposal from a group of Girl Scout Gold Award mentors in January, Lindsay took action.

By telephone, she recruited tutors — about one-third of the school’s students in grades nine through 12 — and had them approved as tutors by the principal and teachers.

She asked classroom teachers to identify elementary and junior high students who could benefit from extra help. The teachers also identified students who could benefit from enrichment activities.

With the list of tutors and the teachers’ lists, Lindsay paired the students, coordinated and scheduled tutoring sessions during the school day and identified locations for each tutoring session.

To train the tutors, including herself, Lindsay enlisted her mother, Linda Boettner, a retired teacher with 30 years of experience from the Moniteau School District and Slippery Rock University.

“I put together a manual of what I considered common sense for working with students,” Linda Boettner said.

All together, 25 tutors helped about 40 younger students with math, reading, spelling, history and science, both individually and in group sessions.

“Some of the kids we were tutoring had in common that they needed a more individual approach to learning,” Lindsay said. “If you sat down and worked with them for even 15 minutes, they really understood the concept of what we were working on.”

As enrichment, tutors offered extra challenges for younger students with strong reading skills. They also prepared students for the Math Olympics, a competition between area Christian schools.

Schaming said, “The fact that she got so many students and they sustained it all spring was remarkable.”

The peer tutoring will continue next year.

“One of my favorite parts of this was getting the older and younger kids working together,” Lindsay said. “It was nice for other students to see they were role models to these little kids.”

“It’s one thing for you to understand the material but when you have to teach someone else, you have to impart it in such a way that the child is going to understand. Then you have to get creative,” Schaming said. “Both sides benefit.”

To receive a Gold Award, the Girl Scout must give at least 80 hours of her own time to the project. Lindsay’s fellow tutors invested more than 200 hours beyond her own hours.

“I had a wonderful team behind me,” Lindsay said.

After Lindsay graduates, Schaming expects the project to be sustainable with another student leading the program.

“Lindsay did an exceptional project,” Enslen said.

“Everyone has been so supportive of this program,” Lindsay said. “I knew I’d have a positive response, but I didn’t expect the response to be this big.”