Ep 167 Restoring History and Building a Digital Future with Layla King

Layla King discusses her impactful Girl Scout Gold Award project to restore Lincoln Cemetery, a historically Black cemetery in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Partnering with the organization Saving Our Ancestors Legacy (SOAL), Layla took a hands-on approach to preservation, learning to clean and level headstones using specialized solutions to ensure the names of those buried there remain visible to future generations. Beyond the physical labor, Layla utilized her leadership role in SkillsUSA to launch a school-wide awareness campaign and donor drive, successfully bridging the gap between spreading a message and inspiring community action. Her project not only honored local history but also paved the way for her current success as a computer science major at Howard University and the founder of her own web design business.

More from Layla:

I'm Layla King, a freshman Computer Science major attending Howard University. I've been involved in Girl Scouts since I was little (about 2013), starting as a Daisy and working my way up, then finishing as a Juliette to earn my Gold Award in 2025. Outside of Girl Scouts, I own a web design business called A Young Mindset, where my long-term goal is to build an agency that values more than profit. I want to invest in community service projects and provide unemployed people with the opportunity to learn web design through a training program and eventually work at my company. I want my business to be a tool for lifting others up. In college, I'm involved in Howard's Inaugural DECA Cohort, the College of Engineering & Architecture Council as an Advocacy & Inclusion Intern, and the National Society of Black Engineers. In high school, I played soccer and ran track, participated in FBLA (won 1st in PA for website design and 10th nationally), SkillsUSA as Vice President (placed 3rd in PA for web development and design), the National Honor Society as Co-President, the National Technical Honor Society, and Four Diamonds. Lastly, I became an Amazon Future Engineer Scholar.

Personal Portfolio Website: laylaking.com/

Business Website: ayoungmindset.com/

Instagram: @lay.kin9

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/layla-king/

Lincoln Cemetery SOAL Website: lincolncemetery.org/

Full transcript available on SubStack: https://substack.com/@sherylmrobinson