Miami Sunset Senior High School students are doing things that positively impact their community.
One student is creating a website so foreign residents of the United States who are here legally but are not citizens can obtain financial assistance for college. Another student is teaching fourth and fifth graders life skills to prepare them for the treacherous waters they will have to navigate through when they reach their teens.
This kind of service is just an example of some of the outstanding things that Silver Knights do.
Miami Sunset High has nine Silver Knight nominees this year. Each of them have made unique contributions to the school and community which qualified them for the highest honor a school can bestow — a nomination for the most difficult award to win in high school.
While competing with the best students in Miami-Dade County is an exciting venture, what’s far more important to these students is continuing to do the things they do every day, and that is what makes them so great.
“These kids are so humble and down to earth, but their resumes tell you how amazing they are,” said Will Cohen, Sunset Silver Knight coordinator. “They’ve done so much and have performed so well academically that it really gives me a lot of pride to send them off to represent our school.”
Sunset Digital and Interactive Media nominee Deborah Lee has done so much community service that she couldn’t fit it all on one page. She also has built a website that is helping members of Miami’s Chinese community stay connected to their culture and be more aware of traditions they may be missing. Lee’s brother was a Silver Knight nominee, so service and outstanding academics run in her family.
Laura Ramirez and Adriana Torres take their categories very seriously as they each opened their own club at Sunset. Ramirez initiated the Art Club while Torres spurred Sunset to have the Science Honors Society available for students to join. These items are just a small part of the resume for the two students as Ramirez has had her art work on display in various places in Miami and Torres has spent numerous hours volunteering at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital’s VACC camp to work with ventilation assisted children, among other things.
“What’s great about Sunset’s Silver Knights is that we didn’t manufacture them, meaning we didn’t handpick them as ninth graders and tell them what to do to win a Silver Knight Award,” Cohen said. “They did all this service on their own and now it just happens that they are eligible for the award. Everything these kids did is authentic and it comes from the heart, so whether they win or lose, our entire community should be very proud of them.”
The Miami Sunset Silver Knight nominees are: Kayla Lorenzo, Business; Melanie Orama, Social Science; Torres, Science; Ramirez, Art; Tameria Benjamin, Vocational-Technical; Alexandra Poit, Athletics; Lee, Digital and Interactive Media; Gabriela Garcia, English, and Karla Madrigal, Mathematics.
These students have done a variety of other outstanding things such as tutor their peers in math, start the first school garden, participate in multiple internships, work at the school’s credit union, start a program that rewards students for doing good deeds, spending time cleaning up the community, and assisting those in need in various ways. There is much more, but the point is, all of these students have been very busy and the Sunset community is a lot better for it.
Every year the Miami Herald sponsors the Silver Knight Awards, which is the most prestigious prize a student can obtain in high school. This awards program recognizes the most outstanding students in Miami-Dade and Broward County based on how they did academically, as well as taking into account their contributions to their school, community, and their other noteworthy accomplishments.
The awards program is open to high school seniors who have at least a GPA of 3.2, unweighted. The students can be from public, private and parochial schools. tudents can be nominated in one of the 15 set categories. These categories are: Art, Athletics, Business, Drama, General Academics, Journalism, English, Mathematics, Music and Dance, Digital and Interactive Media, Science, Social Science, Speech, Vocational-Technical and World Languages.
Each school can nominate only one student per category. If a student wishes to become a Silver Knight nominee, bhe or she is required to apply with the school’s Silver Knight Coordinator, which is appointed by the principal.
There is a vigorous application process the students must go through in order to make their candidacy official and then they attend mock interview sessions to prepare for the real interview, which happens in early April. The award ceremony is on May 17, 7 p.m., at the James L. Knight Center.
Silver Knight winners receive $2,000, a Silver Knight statue, and a medallion presented by AmericanAirlines. The three honorable mentions in each category receive $500 and an engraved plaque.
Jaime Salgado and Jake Fernandez are student journalists at Miami Sunset Hogh School.
