Longtime Girl Scout, 17-year-old Mackenzie Duncan, took her efforts to the next level by again this year joining the Girl Scout Global Action Team.

This is Duncan’s second year participating with the Global Action Team. After seeing the good work and awareness brought by the team’s efforts last year, she decided to return and continue making a difference for another year.

“Last year we focused on preventing violence against women, gender violence, and that topic really interested me,” she said.

This year the team looked to spread awareness about the importance of providing women’s healthcare to women and girls around the world. The team also looked at access to mental and women’s health in regions like West Africa, Western Europe and South Asia.

“I decided to return because I’m thinking about a career in healthcare and was interested in the topic,” she said.

Girl experience director for Girls Scouts of Western Washington Julie Wendell said that she has worked closely with Duncan, and believes her to be a true asset to this year’s team.

“As a returner she is definitely a leader for the team,” she said. “She has a lot of experience having previously worked as a camp counselor, and she is really knowledgeable about youth development and what it means to take action through advocacy.”

Duncan’s father, Mark Duncan, said that the Girl Scouts have helped Mackenzie develop the leadership skills that she is now putting in practice to help the scouts.

“Girl Scouts has given her a lot of opportunities to grow and to get leadership skills as well as teaching her about how to make the world a better place,” he said.

As in year’s previous, the 20-person Global Action Team’s efforts culminated with a global action summit with the goal of taking action through advocacy. Team members educated middle schoolers as to the importance of women’s health access worldwide during the summit June 2-4 at Camp Robbinswold on the Hood Canal.

“This year we had a really strong team, I feel like the topic is really relevant especially in today’s political climate and we had a lot of great discussions and the team got a lot out of the experience,” Wendell said.

Duncan thinks that this year’s summit was even better than the one she participated in last year.

“It was way smoother and really had the middle schoolers take away a lot of new information,” she said.

Duncan has been involved with Girl Scouts since she was in Kindergarten, when at the age of 5 she decided to follow her sister’s footsteps and get involved with the scouts.

Duncan said in a Girl Scouts of Western Washington press release that she is considering pursuing a career in psychology, and promoting this year’s topic will help her to be more informed on women’s health issues so she can spread awareness.

For more information about the Global Action Team, go online to http://bit.ly/2thIwFF.