Local scouts earn honors

Two Bloomington residents recently earned the Certification of Instructor of Trainers award from the Girl Scouts of the USA. This August the certification was awarded to Terri Tock and Donna Rinckel. \nTock, director of Program Services for Tulip Trace Council, has been a Girl Scout for 20 years. She was a leader for 13 years and because of her interest in education, she wanted to be certified. Currently, she supervises adult development and program events that the troops of Tulip Trace Council participate in.\n"It is a three-year process to be certified," Tock said. "First, we take the initial course at a national education facility and take classes about the adult learning theory, philosophy of adult education, needs assessment and evaluation. The second part of the process consists of us training others to become trainers and finally we document everything we did and are evaluated on our training." \nRinckel is also a volunteer, who serves as a council trainer and Web master for Tulip Trace Council and has been an Girl Scout for 15 years. She was a leader for eight years and her daughter, who is an IU student, earned her Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting, several years ago. Although none of her children are in the Girl Scout program now, she is still very active in it herself.\n"I've been a trainer for about 10 years and I really enjoy helping leaders learn to work with the girls. I love to do hands-on trainings, to give them all kinds of things they can take home with them to make their job easier," Rinckel said. "Becoming an instructor of trainers was just a natural extension of what I already do as a trainer. Tulip Trace had only one instructor of trainers so I decided that I could help in that area."\nIn order to train others, Girl Scouts of the USA requires instructors be certified before training volunteers to be leaders and trainers. Candidates who have the ability to plan, design, deliver and evaluate are chosen to earn this certification. To achieve this, one must be a registered adult Girl Scout, receive recommendations from supervisors and have some minimum training experience. \n"The Instructor-of-Trainers certification is a requirement for trainers who will design and provide training modules for Girl Scout volunteer trainers on a local level," said Beverly Calender-Anderson, the Communications/Public Relations manager of Girl Scouts of Tulip Trace Council, Inc. "Girl Scouts of the USA requires that each instructor be certified before training volunteers train others. Certified instructors of trainers train select volunteers who in turn train Girl Scout leaders throughout the area." \nOnce the applicants are approved, they must complete a three-stage certification process. This process includes a five-day course of study at the Edith Macy National Girl Scout training center in Chappaqua, N.Y. \nSince Tock and Rinckel were applying to earn their certification together, they were able to co-write their document and send their work together. Their application was reviewed and the Girls Scouts of the USA decided whether or not the women had filled all the requirements to be certified as instructor of trainer. \n"We were notified in August," Tock said. "But for now, we now have the ability to train more trainers who can train more leaders." \n-- Contact staff writer Katie Killebrew at kpkilleb@indiana.edu.