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Recent Gulliver Prep graduate Matteo Gabriel Wakeman, the Gulliver Prep Silver Knight nominee in General Scholarship, loves humor.
“Laughing is one of my favorite things to do,” he says. “Laughing is an act that is contagious. I saw how the pandemic affected everyone. So, I created my own comedy club.”
He also loved to be involved with Breakthrough Miami, the organization that helps kids from underperforming schools improve their academics.
“I have always been someone that loves to help people learn,” he says. “And to help people laugh. I loved interacting with kids that had a wide array of interests. Hopefully it helped their academic track and their extracurricular activities.”
He coupled that love of helping the kids with teaching them about humor by teaching them stand-up comedy and improv.
“I was able to mesh that with the drama elective at Breakthrough,” he says. “I was able to instill a comedy unit. My junior year I helped teach the drama elective with my friend who is at Columbia University. It was really exciting.”
They called themselves The Four Jokers.
He says improv is a skill that involves quick thinking.
Wakeman spent much of his time volunteering for Breakthrough Miami. One summer he was named the top teaching fellow.
“It was 300 hours of service that didn’t really feel like service,” he says. “I was a math teacher and helped with a ton of electives. I was in charge of coaching soccer and helping educate children on fitness and nutrition. I also helped with the finance elective, the biology elective and debate.”
Wakeman is going to Harvard in the fall to study economics. Business has always been an interest. He took a personal finance money management class at the University of Miami while at Gulliver. He also participated in two enrichment programs at the Wharton School of Economics at the University of Pennsylvania on the future of the business world. He also took a computer program and Java program at Columbia University and a creative writing program at Amherst.
“I like writing Sci Fi,” he says.
While at Gulliver he helped design what can be considered a search engine for college financial aid. It’s called Kairos and he took it to competition, winning the Gulliver Entrepreneur Competition. They also went to the national competition for the Diamond Challenge.
As well as having high academic achievements, Wakeman was a top athlete. He played soccer throughout high school. The Gulliver team won the state championship his sophomore year. They had hoped to repeat junior year but COVID protocols kept the athletes off the field that year. Last school year they made it to the regional semi-finals.
He was also a volunteer at the Gulliver Soccer Camp the summer before sophomore year, working with 60 students on fundamentals.
Wakeman volunteered at GOALS, a club that works with children who deal with mental and physical disabilities, teaching kids how to be active and go out and have some fun as well.
While at Gulliver, Wakeman participated in peer tutoring in mathematics. He was advanced in math, taking a linear algebra course at the University of Miami.
He was the Gulliver student body president, representing all students. He worked on advancing diversity and inclusion goals and improving school spirit.
“I’m grateful this school has given me the opportunity to make a difference,” he says.
In college he wants to study economics.
“My mom is from Argentina,” he says. “I’ve learned about the ongoing financial crisis there. I’m grateful I’m able to go to school with the resources to do that.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
