DASH senior Bryce Donner cares about his fellow classmates. As the junior class vice president, Donner created a fundraiser to help financially needy students pay for the school’s mandatory art fee.
“We started a car wash, the junior class president and I, for the students to pay the art fees,” he said. “We raised enough for five students, a little over $250.”
The funds were distributed by the PTSA.
“We didn’t know personally who would get the funds.”
He expects both the junior and senior classes to have art fee car washes this year.
Donner belongs to the National Honor Society, and the French Club. He is fluent in English and Spanish and can speak some French.
He also is in the Environmental Club. His interest in the environment led him to volunteer at the Tropical Audubon Society of South Florida.
“They protect the environment of South Florida and monitor urban development,” Donner said. He helps when they have outreach activities at the Doc. Thomas House in South Miami.
“I live super close and it was something that really interested me,” he said. “I’d ride my bike and help setting up for the concerts. I’d also help when they have native plant sales. I’d get to learn about the native ecology.”
This summer, Donner interned at the USDA’s Sub Tropical Horticulture Research Station.
“I was research assistant for Dr. Amy Roda; she is an environmental ecologist,” he said.
He worked on the Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).
“The project is the eradication of the giant African snail,” Donner said.
He interned there because he is interested in biology as well as the arts.
“I wanted to experience what the science world would be like and what a career in science would be like,” he said.
Donner has volunteered with the Red Cross Learning to Swim program at Venetian Pool, where he assisted the instructor in teaching children to swim.
For college, Donner is considering colleges such as Washington University and UNC Chapel Hill. He will take courses in biology, photography and zoology with the idea of being a wildlife photographer.
