When it came time for Stephanie Augustine to pick a project for her Girl Scout Gold Award, there was little doubt she would help the Carbon County Environmental Education Center.

"I love this place," she said. "It's one of the few places around where you can see the animals up close and they aren't there because they were taken out of the wild. They are there because they can't be released."Augustine, 19, of Palmerton, updated the resident wildlife pages on the CCEEC website with specific facts and individual stories about the animals.The project, however, didn't stop there. Augustine made plaques to hang on the outside of the animal cages. Each plaque has a scannable QR code which, if scanned by a smartphone, will take someone directly to that animal's page on the website. It took her around four months to complete.In a bit of irony, Augustine doesn't even own a smartphone."Our world is revolving around technology and I thought this would be an excellent way to bring the center in tune with that," she said. "I was a conservation biology in college and I love graphic design, so this was a nice fit."On Tuesday afternoon, Carbon County commissioners presented Augustine with a resolution acknowledging her achievement in attaining the highest Girl Scout honor."This is incredibly unique because it is only the second time in my 16 years that we are honoring a Girl Scout for attaining this achievement," said Commissioners' Chairman Wayne Nothstein.Augustine, a member of Girl Scout Troop 33401, has been a Girl Scout for 12 years and was previously a program aide for Camp Shady Grove Girl Scouts summer day camp."I think not as many girls stick it out as Boy Scouts because maybe it just doesn't seem as cool," she said. "There is a little bit of a stigma there."What may be most unique about Augustine has nothing to do with scouting. She and her sister are the only females currently playing in the Tri-County Men's Senior Baseball League in the Lehigh Valley.She plays wherever her team needs her in the field."I can hit around an 80 mph fastball and throw in the high 60s or low 70s," she said.As a home-schooled student, Augustine graduated from high school and college early. She received her degree from Cedar Crest College last May.Franklin Klock, CCEEC naturalist, said Augustine is one of the top and most easily supervised volunteers to come through the doors of the center."You don't have to spell out every last detail for her," Klock said. "I really think what she did is important because it often feels like we're fighting a losing battle against technology here. Someone is here on their phone doing a Google search for a common raven, while a red-tailed hawk might be flying over their head. This is a way we can help people use their electronics to learn about the environment."