Student Spotlight – Leila Iskandarani

Student Spotlight - Leila Iskandarani
Student Spotlight - Leila Iskandarani
Leila Iskandarani

A couple of years ago, Coral Gables senior Leila Iskandarani worked with her brother and sister to collect clothing for Syrian refugees.

They distributed the clothing to refugees in Lebanese camps.

Iskandarani plans to revive the project this fall for her International Baccalaureate community service project.

“The people on the refugee council said that people die in the winter because they don’t have clothes,” she said.

She also plans to collect money to donate to the cause.

“We don’t have a target for money. We’ve started making bracelets that we plan to sell to friends and family,” she said.

The last time, she and her siblings personally delivered the clothing. If she can’t go this time, she has family who have promised to distribute the donations.

“It was really depressing, to be honest,” she said. “The drive wasn’t enough. We had all the clothes and we brought them. And we packaged them up as the refugee council asked. We went to the headquarters.”

She said the refugees live in terrible conditions.

“It was sad handing them the clothes. It wasn’t enough,” Iskandarani said.

She hopes to convince the IB Honor Society to take up her project for funding from the profits of their annual Bridge for Peace fundraiser.

“We are hoping our cause will be selected because if it is, we can raise like $12,000,” she said.

At school, Iskandarani is editor-in-chief Highlights, the school’s news magazine.

“This coming year will be our third. We get to cover awesome topics and spend much more time reporting and investigating things,” she said. “There is one page of news briefs. The rest is page-long stories. I think it expands our opportunities.”

Iskandarani is a member of Future Business Leaders of America. She participated on the parliamentary procedures team which did well enough to qualify for the national competition.

She also is a member of the National Honor Scoeity.

In college, she is considering majoring in economics or political science. Her top schools are Wellesley, Northeastern and Barnard.

— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld


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