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Westminster Christian School senior Felipe Londono is interested in geography and world affairs. So his sophomore year he started a Model United Nations Club. He transferred from Palmer Trinity School for high school and he had seen a robust Model UN club in action there.
“I followed their footprint to starting a Model UN Club,” he says.
Since then, the club has become one of the largest clubs at Westminster. Club members have gone to Model UN conferences at the University of Florida, and Florida International University.
In starting the club, he had an intricate plan that called for local conferences the first year, then going to state conferences the next year and then national and international conferences.
Unfortunately, the pandemic got in the way. They were able to do state competitions but not national or international ones.
Even though the club is new, the school has done well.
“The first conference we attended at Palmer, we had a student win best delegate,” he says.
“At the University of Florida, a student won most outstanding delegate.”
Londono is involved in a variety of extracurricular activities. He’s a member of the Geography Bee Club and French Club, and he’s a peer counselor. Peer counselors help fellow students who need someone to talk to.
“We hold group sessions for different situations,” he says. “There is a group for high school relationships, stress, athletes. I, as a high school student, run the high school relationships group.”
He says that in addition to the small groups they also run individual sessions if a student needs someone to talk to.
“I like to think of myself as an emphatic person,” he says. “I enjoy helping people out and helping my friends.”
Another way he helps students is through the Author Academy, an after school creative writing club for third graders, which is sponsored by the English Honor Society.
“I help tutor elementary students to become better writers,” he says. “We write poems and short stories. I volunteer in that twice a week.”
It’s a perfect activity for him because he’s majoring in screenwriting and directing in college.
Londono is a member of the student leadership team. He’s served on the student relations committee, the communications committee and this year he’s on the spiritual development committee.
“We are in charge of ensuring students in high school strengthen their devotion to God,” he says.
Outside of school, Londono volunteers with the Florida Immigrant Coalition as a hotline manager.
“It’s for immigrants who live in Florida,” he says. “We get calls from all over, who have questions on applying for citizenship or getting a green card. I’m in charge of referring them to people and helping them out.”
Being able to volunteer and help other immigrants is important to him because he moved to Miami from Colombia in sixth grade.
“I’ve attended clinics that helped these people file for full citizenship documents,” he says. “We fill them out together.”
He’s also participated in the Miami-Dade Teen Court as a jury member three times.
“The teen court is a system where underage individuals who have committed crimes, and it’s a first offense, they are allowed to stand before a teen court,” he says. “There is a defense and prosecutors. Kids my age who want to go to law school serve on the defense or prosecutors. It’s an admirable system.”
So far, Londono has been accepted to Chapman University in Orange, California, and Loyola Marymount in Los Angeles. He’s waiting to hear from USC.
“These are top programs for directing and screen writing,” he says.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
