Coral Gables 2013 graduate Kim Berthier will be attending the University of Florida’s Innovation Academy. She begins in the spring semester.
She also had been accepted to Loyola University and the University of Michigan. She is interested in the sciences and possibility a career in medicine.
Berthier was the Gables Silver Knight nominee for Science. Berthier enjoys teaching, which is how she earned many of her volunteer hours in high school.
“I teach little kids how to sail as a job. I really love it,” she said.
She taught at Shake-A-Leg Miami, a non-profit in Coconut Grove which caters to underprivileged children and children with disabilities.
“I like volunteering at the camp where I could work with disabled kids,” she said. “It’s the kind of a place, once you start going, you stay. It’s a great environment.”
In fact, she loved volunteering so much she racked up approximately 1,300 volunteer hours.
She also participated in after school activities through Gables Earth, eventually becoming co-president. “We’ve done murals and we’ve also done gardening,” Berthier said.
“We’ve done an organic and a butterfly garden. The cooking class uses the organic garden.”
The club was working on helping rehabilitate mangroves by growing mangrove seedlings.
“Since we live in South Florida and the mangroves flourish here, I thought it would be really cool bringing them back,” she said.
Berthier also volunteered at the University of Miami’s Healthy Start Summer Camp. There she helped teach children how to eat healthy and exercise every day.
“It taught me a lot about nutrition. I had participated in it the year before,” she said. “I went to the camp and I did all the activities. The summer going into junior year I became a counselor’s aide.”
Berthier was in the National Honor Society and the International Baccalaureate Honor Society. She also ran cross-country and track for Gables.
By Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
