Ep168 Teaching Empathy and Neurological Diversity with Hannah MacLean

Hannah MacLean's Girl Scout Gold Award project focused on instilling patience, empathy, and understanding for neurologically diverse students within the Franklin Public School System . Motivated by the bullying and unfair treatment her younger sister faced, Hannah enhanced the district's anti-bullying curriculum and introduced a nuanced, Socratic-inspired curriculum focused on critical thinking . Her project involved three core components: collecting and distributing diverse books to middle schools, serving as an active student representative on local committees, and teaching her own educators how to incorporate neurological diversity into their classrooms . The curriculum she established remains a part of the school system's Mental Health Awareness Day . More from Hannah: In addition to my Gold Award, I have been a lifetime member of GSEMA since Daisies, and I recently worked as a camp counselor with the Girl Scouts of Northern California. Some of my favorite Girl Scout memories included selling cookies to fund a trip to the Grand Canyon with my travel troop, and discovering my interest in International Relations and Diplomacy through the annual Girl Scouts International Leadership Conference at Salve Regina. These successes I attribute to the incredible role models and leaders I had along the way, including but not limited to Roni Doherty, Joanna Lenahan, and Amy VanNederpelt, the lovely cookie Moms and role models of GSEMA, and the other incredible leaders who paved my way. Since this introduction to the accessible ways I could use my voice to make a change, I have graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Government and Politics with a minor in Social Justice Theory from St. John's University in Queens, NY. Partly in thanks for my work with the Gold Award and Girl Scouts, I earned over $160,000 in scholarships and the privilege of traveling the world with the Vincentian Institute of Social Action through the Ozanam Scholars program. Full transcript available on SubStack:

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Ep168 Teaching Empathy and Neurological Diversity with Hannah MacLean is an episode from Hearts Of Gold by Sheryl Robinson.

This episode is 33:51 long.

This episode was published on May 7, 2026.

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