There are moments that Sylvia Acevedo, CEO of the Girl Scouts of the USA, just can't forget.

There was the time a college counselor at her high school in Las Cruces, New Mexico, scoffed at Acevedo's desire to study engineering. "Girls like you don't go to college," she recalls the counselor saying, in a reference to her Mexican ethnicity.

Now, Acevedo is one of the most influential public figures urging girls to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math. She sat on the Girl Scouts board for years and officially became the organization's president earlier this year, after holding the position on an interim basis.

Though the initiative reflects the long-term shift toward a STEM economy, it also seems like an ambitious gambit to increase Girl Scouts membership, which dipped in recent years and stands at 1.8 million girls and 800,000 adults. Fewer volunteers and families increasingly pressed for time and money have played a part in the membership downturn.

Read the full article by Rebecca Ruiz about the girl scouts from Mashable