Coral Gables High School senior Sean Valencia has more than 700 community service hours but he expects to have at least 1,000 by the end of the year.
A huge number of his hours came from volunteering at the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science. He was one of the few people who had the chance to volunteer at the planetarium.
“I really want to major in astrophysics,” Valencia said.
Working at the planetarium, he gave speeches about the constellations and he would help out with the equipment. He also met people who helped cement his desire to become an astrophysicist.
One was a student attending FIU who convinced Valencia that FIU could be a good place to go to college.
Valencia has been taking dual enrollment classes at FIU since sophomore year. He goes to school at Gables in the morning and then takes two buses to go to class at FIU in the afternoon.
Despite the rigorous schedule, he remains involved in school. He’s been involved in Interact and a club called Health Core in charge of community service.
“We embraced the idea of healthy living and healthy eating,” he said. “We’d educate the people during lunchtime about healthy eating.”
They even went to Ronald McDonald House and cooked for the children.
Toward the end of junior year, Valencia and a friend created an organization called Technocrats, for individuals who have an interest in science. Group members get together to debate, make speeches, do experiments and community service.
“Every month we have two meetings,” he said. “First, we discuss which experiment to do that month. Each person gives a speech on science.
We expand knowledge on science.”
Valencia currently is working on a project to get a new flag designated for Miami.
He plans to attend FIU for his undergraduate degree. Then he wants to attend Princeton for graduate school.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
