This past summer, Coral Gables High senior Alexis Clay spent two weeks volunteering at a Colorado organic farm. She worked seven hours a day working with the vegetables.
“I was in charge of pulling out vegetables that weren’t usable any longer,” she said. “We used them for seeds.”
She chose to work at the Colorado farm because she visits family in Boulder every summer.
“I’ve been wanting to work on a farm,” Clay said.
Her decision to investigate farming is part of a larger desire to learn more about the environment.
“I want to study environmental studies in college,” she said.
Taking Advanced Placement Environmental Science sparked her interest in the environment.
She has participated in Miami Volunteers for the Environment since 10th grade. The group focuses on the beach at Virginia Key.
“Two years ago it was covered in invasive species and trash. It was in a hostile state for animals and plants,” she said. “We helped to restore the dune. Now it’s a lush and thriving place.”
The transformation was helped by volunteers pulling out invasive species allowing native plants to come back to life.
Upon returning from Colorado, she interned with Vocalid.co.
“They personalize the voice to the person,” she said. “By combining with the voice donor. Since I was an intern, my job was to recruit voice donors.”
She continues to talk to her peers about donating their voices.
“You get matched to someone with similar voice frequency, tone, rasp,” she said.
At Gables, Clay is on the cross country team and is good enough to have gone to the state championship meet. She is on the track and field team and is president of Thespians and Gables Players.
Her top choices for colleges include Middlebury in Vermont. In fact, she plans to apply for early decision to Middlebury.
“It was the first college to open up an environmental studies program,” she said.
Also on her list is Bodine and Brown.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
