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Miami Palmetto Senior High School rising senior Brooke Young is a dancer. She’s been dancing since she was two. She’s spending the summer working at her dance studio while teaching and shadowing the directors of the studio. She’s teaching younger dancers in two classes a day through the first week of August.
This year, she started her own community service project called Brooke’s Costume Closet.
She’s collecting both dance costumes and Halloween costumes.
“I’ve been collecting costumes for the past six plus months,” she says. “I have tons and tons lying around and I thought could put them to good use.”
She contacted Lotus House, a women’s shelter in Overtown about donating the costumes.
Because of COVID restrictions, they requested Young donate the costumes in the fall.
She put flyers around the dance studio and by mid-June she had collected 150 items to donate.
“Most are dance costumes but we did get both types,” she says.
The costumes are for young kids all the way to teens.
Young is a junior officer for Palmetto’s dance team, Variations. Variations does pep rallies and this year they were able to put on a spring show this year, after a year of reduced events because of COVID restrictions. Variations is not only a dance team, it’s a dance class held fifth period, and it’s a club and an honor society.
Although students had the option to attend school virtually this year, Young opted to go to school in person. This year was different not only because of COVID and everyone having to wear a mask. The school construction meant that the class was held in the gym instead of the dance room. They finally moved back to the dance room in April. And in just a month or so, the dance team choreographed a spring show, which took place June 2.
The show had 18 dances and she was in six of them.
“I was performing,” she says. “I’m a junior officer. I, along with the captains, was in most of the dances. Next year I’ll get a solo.”
She’s expecting to be either the captain or a co-captain of the dance team next year.
This year she got involved in Achieve Miami, the program where teens help elementary school children improve their reading and writing. She heard about it through Temple Beth Am.
She would work with a Little Buddy one or two times a week. She would have liked to do it more often but couldn’t because of schedule. She plans to continue next year.
“I really enjoy working with the kids,” she says.
She’s the incoming President of Palmetto’s Jewish Student Union.
“I actually just joined this year and I ended up getting involved,” she says. “In my interview I listed new activities and games to continue learning about Judaism. Teens don’t tend to keep on learning after bar and bat mitzvahs. I think it’s important to continue your education.”
She was actually surprised to learn she was elected president. She was on her way home from school one day and people kept texting her, telling her to get on Zoom. Then when she did, it was, “hey, you’re president!”
She’s on the Class of ’22 student cabinet and a member of Interact. She’s also in the Dance Honor Society.
For college she plans to stay in state so she’s applying to Florida State, the University of Florida or the University of Central Florida.
She’s considering a health science and nutrition major with a possible minor in education.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
