Coral Gables High School senior Mark Braun is proud of co-founding an Ultimate Frisbee team at school.
“All these kids were interested in it and we taught them how to play,” he said. “We went to competitions in Orlando.”
The team began its second season in November.
Braun likes working with kids. He has been a counselor-in-training at Camp Mishawaka in Minnesota.
“It’s where my grandparents live and my grandmother’s mother was a camp nurse there,” he said. “The camp opened in 1910. I can’t wait to get back as soon as possible.”
At Gables, he worked with his friend Julian Elortegui to collect polo shirts from outgoing seniors to give to financially strapped students who can’t afford school uniforms.
Braun and his friend took over a project his sister started with friends after she graduated.
The polo shirt collection project is just one of the ways Braun is involved in school activities. He has been the class treasurer for three years so he is a member of the Student Activities class.
He also is a member of the National Honor Society and the International Baccalaureate Honor Society.
One of his favorite community service activities is being on the board of Gables Earth, the school’s ecology club. Gable Earth promotes environmental awareness and sustainability.
“We participate in a lot of cleanups at Matheson Hammock,” he said. “We go to a lot of lectures at UM about awareness of our local community.”
Matheson Hammock is a favorite site because it has a constant trash problem.
“It’s a muddy environment. The smell is awful,” he said. “Once you get rid of the garbage, it’s great.”
Braun plans to major in environmental science or environmental engineering.
“I want to do something for sustainability for the planet,” he said.
He has considered universities such as the University of California-Berkeley, Stanford, UNC Chapel Hill, Georgia Tech, Pomona, UF, Tufts, Occidental College and Dartmouth, although he thinks he may end up at Boston College, where his sister attends.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
