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Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist

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Path to the Stars: My Journey from Girl Scout to Rocket Scientist
By Sylvia Acevedo
Clarion Books, 2018. Juvenile Biography, pp. 309

Sylvia Acevedo has had an impressive life. She earned a graduate degree from Stanford, worked as a rocket scientist, works with the United States government to further education opportunities for Hispanic people, and is the CEO of the Girl Scouts of America, an institution that she credits with much of her success. In her new memoir, Acevedo talks about her early childhood and how her experiences shaped her into the driven woman she is today. Although Acevedo talks about much happiness and encouragement in her early years and education, she also dealt with watching a sister suffer from meningitis, being both Hispanic and a girl while trying to break into engineering, and a family that was unprepared for much of what life threw at them. Through it all, she persevered and accomplished not only a great deal of professional achievement, but established herself as an authority in a position to fight for equal opportunities for others.

Acevedo balances the many difficulties she experienced as a child with the many joys she felt in her childhood home, such as close relationships with siblings, a family focused on education and learning, traditions that gave her a sense of belonging even when she left for college, and perhaps most importantly, her time as a girl scout. This balance of struggle and community that she achieves in her writing make her memoir an incredibly inspiring read. While she dealt with so much, she also maintained a strong work ethic and a positive attitude, which will be sure to motivate any readers facing similar obstacles.
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