Twin sisters become the 1st Asian American girls to make Eagle Scout in Brooklyn
By Lucy Yang
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BROOKLYN, New York (WABC) — Selena and Alison Zhang are 17-year-old identical twins. They are the first girls and the first Asian American girls to make Eagle Scout in Brooklyn. “I tried so hard to get Eagle Scout,” Alison Zhang said. “Proud of myself.”
“Even though I got Eagle Scout, it’s not the end of my scouting career. There’s high adventure camp,” Selina Zhang said.
Three years ago, the Boy Scouts of America allowed girls to join, and the name was changed to Scouts of BSA.
The twins did not really like girl scouts and all the arts and crafts, but they love all the outdoor activities offered to boys. “I was able to shoot a gun, I was able to go camping, kayaking, water rafting,” Selina Zhang said. “At the same time, it taught me a lot of leadership skills like how to become a leader.”
“For cycling, we had to ride a bike for 60 miles at the Poconos,” Alison Zhang said. “Hiking. We had to do a lot of hiking. One was to hike 20 miles in a day.”
They have earned more than a hundred badges each. They are competitive, strong and humble.
For one project, they tackled the very pressing problem of Asian hate.
“It’s really sad to see on the news how the elderly are being pushed down the track, getting punched in the face, set on fire. Really sad,” Alison Zhang said. Selena is older by five mins. Alison still has braces, but they’re coming off soon.
They are both straight A students, athletes and now Eagle Scouts with badges up and down their sash.
“We kind of come as a pair,” Selena Zhang said. “Everything we do we’re kind of connected. People know this. If they see us, they see both of us.”
The young teens were bullied when they first moved here from China, but now they have found their passion and look forward to leading a new generation of younger scouts.
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