Last month, Cardozo won the Brown University Book Award at the end of the year awards ceremony at Palmetto, which goes to “the junior who best combines academic excellence with clarity in written and spoken expression.”
Some of his leadership comes from his involvement in Bridge to English, a program that tutors Pinecrest Elementary students who are learning English as a second language. He tutors children whose primary language is Spanish.
He’d go to Pinecrest every Monday from 3:05 to 4:05 p.m. The program is open to all ESOL students. He usually worked with a third grader who came from Venezuela.
“He didn’t speak English well,” Cardozo says. “At first, I had to read it for him and translate it. Now he can read the problem on his own just fine and understand it.”
Bridge to English was started by Lauren Bunce and her brother, Sean. Sean just graduated from Palmetto and asked Cardozo to take over as president. He joined on the recommendation of a friend.
“I knew a friend who was a tutor and she recommended it,” Cardozo says. “I tried it out and I really like it. Now the president is going off to college. He made me president. I’m excited for that.”
As president, he’s working on recruiting new tutors.
“The majority of the tutors were seniors,” he says. “I’m hoping to recruit a few more underclassmen.”
The program is not just for tutoring in Spanish. Last year, there was a need for tutors who could speak and read and write Mandarin.
“This year we had students that speak Portuguese,” he says. “I hope to get more Portuguese tutors and more Spanish tutors. Whatever languages may arise, I hope to help out with that.”
Cardozo feels working with the elementary students has been rewarding.
“The kid I tutored, it was good to see how he developed and speaks with me in English,” Cardozo says. “He was shy but now he’s talking to everybody.”
At Palmetto, he is a member of the varsity soccer team.
“This year we ranked second in our district and qualified for the playoffs,” he says. “This year, we had a lot of new players. I think next year will be better.”
He also plays club soccer for Pinecrest Premier.
He was recently invested in the National Honor Society and he’s a member of the Model United Nations. He joined the Model UN team his sophomore year but was not able to participate as much as he would have liked this past school year because of the concussion he suffered from soccer in late November.
He was only out for a week, but for most of December he could only go to school and go home.
“I was really behind in school,” he says. “I was cleared by the end of December, but I had a ton of homework to make up.”
When he first suffered the injury, he was not allowed to use his phone, computer or watch television because that slows down healing.
“The week I was out from school I was laying down in the dark,” he says.
He plans to participate fully in Model UN next year.
In college, he hopes to play soccer as a walk-on.
“My older brother did that,” he says. “He walked on and is playing now.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
