Palmetto High School rising senior Sofia Mesa has become a vegan for ethical reasons. The more she learned about the meat industry, the more she wanted to stop eating meat. She became vegan the summer after her freshman years of high school. “I watched a few documentaries on Netflix,” she says. “I started doing my own research.” She says she discovered how easy the transition could be and that going vegan has health benefits. She’s started an Instagram account featuring easy vegan meals. She talked to her friend Samantha Ouertani often about the issues surrounding the slaughter of farm animals to bring food to the table.
“We always send each other links about articles,” she says. “We always send those links back and forth. We want to get more involved. We wanted to do something to get other people involved and have people ask questions, too.”
They decided to create a community service project called Supplies for a Second Chance. “We collect supplies and donate them to animal shelters in Florida,” she says. They began the collection in March, setting up bins a school and in a health food store on Bird Road and 65 Avenue. Palmetto students responded to the collection request. Mesa says the supplies were requested by the animal sanctuary, Rooterville, located in Melrose, FL, which is near Gainesville. The most popular item donated was bleach. “We’re looking to partner with more sanctuaries,” Mesa says. Rooterville was chosen because of their level of interest. They were also the smallest sanctuary of those contacted. The two will begin collecting supplies for the farm animals again when school begins. The plan is to collect from the start of school through the holidays and donate those supplies to either Rooterville or another sanctuary. They have also created an animal rights club and plan to reach out to other interested students. “We’ve organized the club meetings by month,” Mesa says. “Each month we have a theme. One month we are going to talk about animals and cosmetics and the fashion industry. We’ll do that around Fashion week.” Another month they will highlight the plight of animals in the entertainment industry. “We also want to talk about zoos that provided sanctuary for the animals,” she says, adding that the discussions will include both sides of the issues. “I try to find information from multiple sites,” she says. Mesa’s community service includes her work with Glory House in Miami, which helps girls who are rescued from human trafficking. “I’m on the junior board,” she says. “I mainly help with fundraising. We have an annual event at the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami.” Mesa says the first time she heard a story about human trafficking, she was at church and they showed a video. “The whole auditorium was silent,” she says. “It was chilling. One of the girls, Melissa, I’ve babysat her daughter.”
When Mesa goes to college, she intends to major in English. She is a member of the English Honor Society at Palmetto and vice president of the Creative Writing Club. She writes poetry and had her first piece published in the literary magazine this past school year. Mesa is vice president of the Italian Honor Society. She’s interested in attending Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, Eckerd, and New College of Florida. This summer, Mesa’s interning in her dad’s office for school credit. He’s vice president of construction. She’s been vising job sites with him – they are working on affordable housing and senior housing.
When Miami Palmetto High rising senior Lily Weinbach watched a documentary called Alive Inside, about a man who gave Alzheimer and dementia patients iPods with personalized playlists, it spurred her to action. She was inspired by the fact that those patients who received the iPods with personalized music began to sing and some who hadn’t talked before began talking. She wants to create that kind of miracle for people at the Palace Nursing Home in Kendall.
She’s collected iPods and is working to load them with music that is sung by Palmetto drama students. The playlist is determined by the music preferences of the folks at the Palace. She likes the idea that the project is so hands-on. “Donating iPods to the organization, you don’t get the one-on-one feeling,” she says. “You want to feel good and you want other people to feel good.”
Weinbach plans to visit the nursing home a few times over the summer to collect her music data. Then she’ll put a sign-up list in her drama class asking for volunteers. I know a few people who work with sound,” she says. “They can help me make up pretty professional recordings.” She’d already collected around 25 iPods before the end of the school year.
“In addition to having our playlist, we’ll go and collect data,” she says. “We’ll see what songs and what genres they like. Songs that are a part of those genres will be uploaded to the iPods.” Community service is important to Weinbach. She’s in the Social Justice Teen Fellowship at Temple Beth Am. The teens do monthly community service. “They took us to Immokalee to meet with migrant workers,” she says. “That whole world is so close to where we live. We talked to a few of them, we learned their stories.” The kids also went to Hialeah where they worked with a program that builds houses. “We painted a house for an old woman,” Weinbach says. “She was sick and she couldn’t do it and she couldn’t afford to pay to have the house painted.” Another month they went to the Chapman Partnership for the Homeless where they prepared the dinner and served the food. “That was emotional,” she says. Social Justice teens have to apply to be a part of the group. They are required to be a temple member and need a recommendation letter from a teacher, employer or the rabbinical staff.
She’s been in BBYO since eighth grade and has moved up the ranks. She is currently programing vice president. She’s attended BBYO conferences and conventions. The last convention was the Regional Convention in 2016, held in Plantation. She also attended the International Convention in Baltimore in 2016. “There were kids from all over the world,” she says. At school, Weinbach is a member of Thespians, the National Honor Society, the English Honor Society, the vice president of members and activities for the Jewish Student Union and a member of the student cabinet. This past year, Weinbach participated in the Thespians competition in the small group musical category. They sang the song Mama Who Bore Me from Spring Awakening. They did the song in sign language as well. “We got Critic’s choice,” she says. “It was the best piece I ever was a part off.”
In May, Weinbach won the PAW Award for outstanding citizenship. When she goes to college, Weinbach plans to major in English Literature. “I love to write,” she says.
A couple of years ago, Palmetto High School rising senior Jack Cruz-Alvarez went on a medical mission to Guatemala. “It was the Emmaus Medical Mission,” he says. The folks on the mission went to a small village outside Guatemala City. “We set up a makeshift hospital,” he says. Conditions were primitive. Enough so that Cruz-Alvarez ended up giving eye exams and handing out glasses. “It was a trial and error thing. They would tell us what line was blurry,” he says.
Cruz-Alvarez says it was an amazing experience.
“It was crazy what you saw. There is so much poverty,” he says. “They don’t even have toothbrushes. It was shocking. I’ve never experienced anything like that before.” Going on the mission did change him. “I think it gave me a better sense of the world and what’s happening in it,” he says. “I would love to go back if the dates do not conflict with my exams next year. It was truly a life-changing experience.” Many students who go on medical missions are interested in medicine as a career but that’s not Cruz-Alvarez’s plan. He’s focusing on journalism. He believes news coverage can help inform people of what’s happening and that can make a difference.
When school goes back in session, Cruz-Alvarez will be the online managing editor for the Panther. His job deals with managing schedules and meeting deadlines. “Next year, I’m going to try to move it to podcasting and online production,” he says. He also runs the paper’s social media accounts. “I do write,” he says. “I will continue writing for the Panther.” This summer, he participated in the summer journalism program at the University of Miami called Miami Montage. The theme of the program this year is Digital Divide in South Florida. His story is about tech businesses in Miami. Earlier this summer he took at collegiate writing class at the University of Chicago as a Neubauer Family Adelante Summer Scholar. Cruz-Alvarez was one of 26 Hispanic and Latino students participating in the program.
At school, Cruz-Alvarez is a member of the Social Studies Honor Society and the History Bowl team. “We’ve been to nationals the last two years,” he says. Cruz-Alvarez likes history because he believes it’s something we can all learn from. “When you see parallels throughout history, you can better understand the events of the present by relating them to the events of the past.
I think we can all use history to evaluate our current social, economic, and political states with greater clarity and objectivity.” He’s also been on an Odyssey of the Mind team since first grade. The Palmetto team won second place in the World Finals in May. “We’ve been to the World Finals six times,” he says. “We will not be competing again next year – as seniors we decided to dedicate time to our studies and future college careers.” Cruz-Alvarez participates in the Tutoring for Tomorrow program run by Palmetto students.
“We pair up students with tutors who can teach them for cheaper than most tutoring companies,” he says. “I hope my tutoring makes a difference. I think it does on the individual level.” He tutored from January until May, when most students finished their Advanced Placement exams and classes. He hopes to tutor more frequently next school year. “I tutor math all subjects including Calculus and below,” he says. For college Cruz-Alvarez says he’s considering the University of Chicago, UM, Duke, Columbia, Northwestern, and USC. He’s planning on majoring in journalism or pre-journalism.
