Chicago-area teen wins prestigious award for college, university sexual assault database

A teen from Illinois won the prestigious National Gold Award from the Girl Scouts because of her college sexual assault database.

While applying for college last fall, campus safety was top-of-mind for college freshman Therese Malinowski. Last year, with the help of the Illinois Coalition Against Sexual assault organization, Malinowski created a sexual assault database for Illinois colleges and universities called Project Dandelion.

The database includes information regarding everything from the number of sexual assault cases to the resources available on college campuses.

"This database is a really important resource for perspective college students and current college students because everyone wants to go to a college they feel safe attending," Malinowski said.

Her efforts were noticed by the national Girl Scouts organization, and she was one of 10 girls given the prestigious National Gold Award.

Malinowski said she hopes her database grows to include all colleges and universities in the country.