HOLLAND, Mich. (WOOD) — A Hope College student is among this year's recipients of the Girl Scouts’ highest honor.
Haley Whitmore is currently studying political science and psychology at Hope.
Earlier this month, she was named a national Gold Award Girl Scout. Girl Scouts of the USA only chooses 10 people nationwide for the honor each year.
Whitmore earned the award because of a suicide prevention program she started in Oakland County’s Huron Valley school district, where she was a student.
Whitmore launched the initiative after learning 12 students from the district died by suicide within five years.
"I feared that if I didn't get up and do something, if I didn't start to make a change, then no change will be made and that's just not something that Girl Scouts taught me to do," Whitmore said at the award ceremony this month.