17-year Old Girl Scout Gets Recognized as the 2023 Future Woman of Distinction

Seventeen-year-old Hana Prokop, who is Co-President of the Females in Finance club at her high school and a Co-CEO of Rock the Street Wall Street, says she owes a lot to the start she got by selling Girl Scout cookies.

The Girl Scouts just named her this year’s winner of the Future Women of Distinction Award, which caps her nine year involvement with the organization–and her prolific cookie selling ability.

It all started in the third grade when Prokop’s class started a brownie troop and she has been hooked ever since. She estimates she has sold over 5,000 boxes of cookies during the group’s annual fundraising drive. Beyond the logitistics of cookie selling, she credits the Girl Scouts of Greater New York (GSGNY), with helping to teach her an assortment of skills ranging from archery to book binding.

The original list of 25 candidates for the Future Women of Distinction Award was winnowed down to five finalists and eventually Prokop was the sole winner out of the 25,000 kids in the Girl Scouts in the five boroughs, according to Meredith Maskara, CEO of Girl Scouts of Greater New York.

“Hana was just a stellar standout and applicant this year with all her contributions to the community. I got to know her when she was very young and I have gotten the opportunity to see her mature, “ said Maskara.

Each year, Prokop revealed she sets a personal goal for herself of selling a minimum 500 boxes of cookies, a goal which she has met or exceeded each year since joining nearly a decade ago. Her prolific salesmanship in the annual cookie drive has earned her a place on the cookie executive committee for eight years straight.

Despite her past success, Prokop says it is getting tougher to sell cookies these days, since Girl Scout cookies are not immune to the rapid inflation that has hit many aspects of the food and snack industry. Pre-COVID, a box of cookies sold for $4 and folks would often get five boxes for the rather convenient price of $20. Since then, prices for many Girl Scout cookies have jumped 25 percent to $5 a box and some popular brands–such as the Toffee-Tastics–rose 50 percent to $6.

But one development that came out of the pandemic era has actually made it a little easier to sell. Originally, Girl Scouts used to mainly engage in face-to-face selling and would have to personally deliver all their sales to their customers. That made it challenging to sell beyond your immediate neighborhood to individuals across the city and beyond. Addressing this, there are now online sales called “digital cookie sales” that offer shipping to points far and wide. Prokop said that “increases our access to different markets and people. Now I can sell cookies to friends and family that don’t necessarily live in a place where I can personally deliver the cookies.”

Popular television shows, including Friends, Full House, and Disney channel’s Jessie, often poked fun at Girl Scout cookie selling, depicting it as an impossible, often aggravating task, but Prokop makes it look easy-peasy. How does she do it?

“You can’t sell cookies without confidence,” Prokop said in an interview with Straus News. “The advice I’d often give younger girls would be to take a deep breath and remember you’re the one with the cookies, so you don’t have to be nervous because you’re the one who has what people want.”

Aside from guidance from Scout leaders, she said her parents have also been big influences, especially her mom who works for a non-profit.

Prokop was given the opportunity to lead a virtual cookie selling training of over 200 young girls.

Her leadership skills have been recognized beyond the Scouting world. She was elected to be the co-president of the Females in Finance club at her high school and is one of two student CEO’s of Rock the Street Wall Street–an outside organization aiming to empower women in finance that are sponsored by over 60 tech and finance groups–that provides an educational outlet to explore subjects related to business and finance. On top of those positions, outside of school she is a level 10 gymnast, training 4 hours a day, 6 days a week.

She has even been able to meet Olympic champion gymnast Simone Biles. Currently, she is leading a project aiming to bring financial literacy to middle school and high school students called, “Making Cents of Finance.” This project, along with Prokop’s many other accomplishments, was what led her to be this year’s Future Woman of Distinction.

Through GSGNY, Prokop has been able to explore other interests and meet top celebrities.

One of her fondest memories was getting to meet the New York Liberty Team because one of the players was also a former Girl Scout. “When I was younger, it was crazy because, first of all, I was very short and they were very tall. Second, also getting to see all the incredible things that Girl Scouts are doing was really inspiring.”

More recently, Prokop went on a Girl Scout “workation” to Costa Rica and Panama. During the trip, she and other Girl Scouts from across the country got to help with community clean up projects and worked at a sea turtle hatchery. At these locations, they did not have access to plumbing, air conditioning, or electricity, and had to take bucket showers. “I was longing for ice cream,” said Prokop, “we got to go in the water a lot and I got my scuba diving certification....It was a fantastic experience and something that I’d love to do again–keep exploring different places, cultures, and increase my understanding of the world.”

All and all, Prokop has earned her spot alongside famous Girl Scout alumni like Taylor Swift, Reese Witherspoon, and Hillary Clinton. “Our mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place and everything about Hana represents that,” said Maskara.