Niles Miller, a senior at Gulliver Prep, is the school’s Silver Knight nominee in the business category.
“I’ve been involved in business at my school for quite some time,” he says. “I did an entrepreneur project for the competition.”
For that competition, he and his team developed the concept for a parking app. The team made it through the qualifying rounds into the finals.
“We didn’t finish developing it (the app),” he says. “But we had all the steps of the business plan.”
The app would help someone find parking spaces in malls.
He’s in the Gulliver International Business program.
“We talk about real world events,” he says. “It’s like a college seminar. We’ve been discussing the economic impacts because of the Trump presidency. We’ve discussed things from Brexit. We’re not restricting it to the US. We are thinking on an international scale.”
Miller has also participated in DECA competitions in the hospital management category. He qualified to go to the state level competition for but was unable to attend because he went to a music competition instead.
“It was mandatory for my level of music,” he says. “We made it to the highest level for concert band. We received superiors there.”
Miller plays percussion with the concert band and the drum set with the jazz band.
“I’ve been playing since I was in fourth grade,” he says.
The Gulliver band also went to a national competition in Orlando, the World Stride National Music Festival.
As a member of Music Club, Miller goes to Palmetto Elementary School to teach second and third graders. Most of them are just starting music.
Club members also collect musical instruments that are donated to Miami music schools.
His main club is Charitable Arts. He’s a past co-president but remains heavily involved.
“We go to paint with homeless children at the Chapman Partnership for the homeless,” he says. “What we do with the paintings is that we take them to local arts festivals and sell them to raise money to be put back to Chapman.”
Miller says the children love doing the paintings.
“They are all really happy when we come over,” he says. “It’s pretty exciting for them to do that.”
He’s also been co-chair of the Make a Splash Foundation. It’s a Gulliver fundraiser started seven years ago, to raise money for the arts program and the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis. The money is raised through a swimathon.
Niles is also a member of the Chinese Club. The club raises money for a Chinese orphanage.
The club hosted the Florida Chinese Competition, an annual event, at Gulliver last year. Students came from across Florida.
“We had everything set up for the different levels of students,” he says. “From level 1 to AP and IB levels.”
Throughout high school, Miller has been involved in the swim program. His main events are the 100 butterfly and the 50 freestyle, the 100 freestyles and the medley relays.
“I made it into the regionals this past year and my junior year with butterfly,” he says.
He also plays water polo. In ninth grade, he competed with the team in the water polo championships which they won.
In college, he plans to take business management or finance as a major. He’s already been accepted into the Kelly School of Business in Indiana, the University of Colorado at Boulder, FSU, and Loyola Marymount, the University of San Diego and Chapman University in Orange County, CA. He’s still waiting to hear from a more few schools.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
