Palmetto High School senior Kamryn Berman collected more than 5,000 dental related items that will be given to needy children in Mexico and Haiti. She started the process in January, researching out to dentists who do mission trips, interviewing the dentists to see which one she felt most comfortable with.
She took her time before deciding on working with a dentist in California. She began the collection with the help of the National Honor Society. She collected toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss and mouth wash.
“Four weeks through school, and even afterward, people would call me, ‘can I donate?’ We put it on Facebook,” she says. “People offered to donate. Everyone participated more than I thought. It was amazing.”
She had expected to do well because toothbrushes and toothpaste aren’t expensive. Her original goal was 2,500 items. “When it kept coming in, it was awesome,” she says. She made up little bags with one of each item because she thought it would be more meaningful. Then she boxed them up and shipped four boxes to the California dentist in mid-August.
She plans to organize another collection again this year, working once again through the National Honor Society. She is the club secretary this school year.
Berman says her own dentist, Michelle Smitley, inspired her to take on the project. She’s spoken often to her dentist because Berman is interested in a career in dentistry. She plans to apply to the University of Florida’s seven-year dentistry program. “I toured it. It fits me,” she says. “It’s a really good program. When you are accepted into the school you are automatically accepted into dentistry.” If she does not go to UF, then she will take her undergrad degree in another university and apply to UF for dentistry school.
Other schools on her list include the University of Central Florida, Florida State, Wake Forest and the University of Miami. She’s toured UM and NYU but decided against NYU because she’s not a fan of cold weather. In April, Berman visited South Africa on a trip organized for Palmetto students. While there, she had a chance to hang out with local teens. They talked about many things, but one thing that stuck with her was their dental care needs. “They didn’t have money to go to the dentist,” she says.
That South Africa trip taught her a lot about South Africa history and the lives of teens on the other side of the world. “We visited a village there and we visited a witch doctor,” she says. “It was interesting. They would pick one person in the village to send to medical school to become a witch doctor. They actually have a certificate.” It was the furthest she ever gone away from home. “It was a great experience,” she says.
At Palmetto, Berman was a member of the Chatonettes for three years. She is a member of the 8 Habits of the Heart club. Only juniors and seniors can teach the 8 Habits of the Heart, so last year was her first year in the club. “You would go to classrooms and talk to them about integrity,” she says. “We talk about being positive in school. If they need to talk, our club is always there for them.” The response is generally good, and many kids do pay attention and care about what she’s teaching. “Freshman year is a scary year. I think it’s a great program,” she says.
Berman expects to join more clubs this year now that she is no longer in Chatonettes.
Incoming Palmetto High School junior Katherine Diez is working on her Girl Scout Gold Award. Her plan is to record audio books of plays that would go in the Palmetto High School library.
“I would involve other people in the recording of the CD’s,” she says. “The arts are not really promoted much anymore and the theater is expensive these days.” Students would be able to check out well-known plays that would be interesting and exciting to listen to. She hopes to involve fellow students in providing the voices for the plays. The project has been in the planning for months. She originally considered developing audio books for kids in elementary school.
“Then I wanted to do something that related more to me. So, I came up with this, and it took off,” she says. “I wanted it to be unique and something that no one had done before.” Once the Girl Scout Council gives approval to the proposed project, she needs to meet with Palmetto’s principal for permission to put the audio books in the library. Then she plans to work on having the CD’s donated by an electronics store.
“I wanted to start by doing plays that are commonly read at school,” she says. So high schoolers can hear what the characters are like and make it exciting.” As a drama student, Diez has gone to Thespian competition both her freshman and sophomore years. “Freshman year I did a small group musical that won Critic’s Choice,” she says. “We won Critic’s Choice at the district level. We earned a Superior at the state level.”
Last year she participated in a large group musical that won a Superior and the district level and a small group musical that won a Superior at both at districts and states. Over the years she’s been in several plays for Palmetto, starting in seventh grade when she played young Fiona in Palmetto’s presentation of Shrek. She’s also been in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in the ensemble, and Cinderella in Into the Woods.
“Over the summer, I participate in Miami Children’s Theater,” she says. This summer they worked on a production of Les Misérables. At Palmetto, she’s a member of Thespian and the National Honor Society. She’s also on the cross-country team. She’s been on the junior varsity squad but continues to run because she likes running and loves her teammates. “It’s a really fun sport to do,” she says, adding she likes to run to keep in shape.
“I’m planning on trying out for the soccer team this year,” she says. “In middle school, I played on a recreational team. For the past three summers, she’s volunteered at the University of Miami’s Mini-Canes Sports Camp. “I am a program aide. I play with the kids,” she says. “We teach them how to play, the rules of the game and proper technique.”
This year the sports were softball and volleyball. The kids also do arts and crafts and at the end of the camp they have a dance performance. “It’s always a quest to get them to do anything,” she says. “I love working with the kids. They are so funny and enthusiastic and they want to do all the activities. They make the day fly by.” When she goes to college, she hopes to major in theater and follow a pre-med track at the same time. She’s considering becoming a doctor – possibly specializing in Ears, Nose and Throat.
At the end of ninth grade, Palmer Trinity senior Shaunak Mishra noticed that his fellow students were throwing away books as they cleaned out lockers and backpacks. It seemed like such a waste, so with his sister he started a collection drive and club called Light the Way.
“What we do, we collect all types of books, not only from my school, but my elementary school Leewood K-8,” he says. They also gather books from Somerset Academy, where a friend’s mom works. So far, they have collected approximately 5,000 books. The reading books were first donated to the Children’s Home Society of Florida.
“We created a library at CHSF’s Hands In Action Center and after we filled that, we started working with Read to Learn Books for Free the Center @ MDC,” he says. He learned about Read to Learn Books for Free program from the newspaper. “I saw an ad. It seemed like the perfect fit,” he says. “They give gently used books.”
Through the book collections, Mishra has become connected to the Children’s Home Society. He brought in his other club, Hoop Dreams, to organize special events for the foster home children. Club members have conducted holiday gift drives at school, organized holiday parties, Easter egg hunts, and Halloween events.
“And we always like to have the end of the year school awards,” he says. “We definitely like to encourage the children to go to school. For perfect attendance, we will give them a toy or a gift card. And for good grades. We encourage the kids to be engaged in school.”
Club members also go to play basketball with the kids each week. “The CHSF program manager, Lorna Fletcher, is very happy to see us there,” he says. “She sees improvement in their behavior and their willingness to go to school.” The visits began when they went to CHSF for a book delivery.
“I noticed they had basketball courts, but the hoops were missing nets,” he says. “I said let’s clean this place up. We put new nets on the hoops, got new balls and started weekly visits to play basketball with the kids. We also play soccer and tutor the CHSF children.” To be fair, Mishra made sure that at least two girls went each week so that the CHSF girls didn’t feel neglected. “We also brought hula hoops, jump ropes and art supplies,” he says.
Mishra says interacting with the kids has impacted his life. “I look forward to it, the same way they do,” he says. “I’m learning from those kids as well.” At school, Mishra is captain of the varsity basketball team. Last year the team won districts and he hopes to repeat as district champs this coming year.
This summer, he volunteered in a lab through a Howard Hughes Medical Institute program. He worked on a study dealing with posture. “We studied yoga practitioners and non-practitioners,” he says. “We did it through bio mechanical analysis. We didn’t find any significant differences in posture.” At the end of the eight-week program he wrote and presented an individual research paper. A group research paper will be published later.
He’s also volunteered at Baptist Hospital doing data analysis on a study on Squamous Cell Carcinoma. Last summer, Mishra was a research volunteer at West Kendall Baptist Hospital on a study on gall bladder surgery. Although he’ll soon send out college applications, right now his list has only one sure-fire possibility – Duke University. He wants to go into a pre-med track while majoring in math.
