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Sienna Lallemand and Paula Hirsch appear to be normal teenagers, but don’t let them fool you. They are anything but your typical high school seniors.
Sienna and Paula are enrolled in the School for Advanced Studies, known as SAS, a nationally recognized collegiate high school in which high-performing 11th and 12th grade students complete high school while concurrently taking a full load at one of six Miami-Dade College campuses. They graduate with a high school diploma and an Associate of Arts degree from Miami-Dade College.
Yet there is more to the story as to what sets Sienna and Paula apart from the vast majority of American teenagers.
Sienna and Paula are co-founders of “Dress the Part Florida,” a community service project that provides resume-building workshops, job interview guidance and professional attire to homeless women in Miami to give them a better chance of entering the workforce. Their organization provides its services to Lotus House, which is a shelter for homeless women and their children who temporarily live at the facility.
Through hard work and hours of outreach, the girls were able to gather more than 400 professional clothing items for dozens of women. They also coached the women on how to create compelling resumes and led them in mock interview simulations.
“Both of these young ladies have the grades and the test scores to be accepted at an Ivy League university this year, but it’s their big hearts that most impress,” said Dr. Omar Monteagudo, principal of SAS.
And if high school, college and helping to run a community service project weren’t enough, Sienna also serves as the Operations Committee chair for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, the District 2 Youth Commissioner with the Miami-Dade County Board of Commissioners, president of the Black Student Union at SAS, and committee chair for the Key Biscayne Youth Council.
She also is an intern journalist with the Islander Newspaper on Key Biscayne and an intern with the 11th Circuit Court of Florida Judicial Internship program.
Sienna is Haitian American and credits her parents and Miami-Dade County Commissioner Marleine Bastien for the inspiration to get involved in civic engagement.
“Making a difference in the lives of other people — especially those from underrepresented populations — is a love of mine,” she explained. “My goal is to major in government and minor in economics in college, then go to law school. I’m passionate about the law and human and civil rights.”
Paula, who came to the United States from Uruguay at age 7, is today a scholar and community leader poised for a career in computer science with an aim to improving education globally through technology.
In partnership with Sienna, Paula has dived deeply into community service work at Lotus House. In particular, Paula has focused on teaching English to newly arrived Hispanic immigrants. She also works for Miami-Dade College, where she is a part-time teaching assistant and tutors college students in math and statistics.
“For me, it’s very rewarding to see kids improve their English. These children are mostly immigrants like I was, knowing little or no English.”
Paula counts her parents, family and SAS students and faculty as the people who instilled in her the desire to support others going through difficult times in their lives.
“SAS is a very supportive community,” she said. “The spirit of competition doesn’t exist here because collaboration takes its place. My teachers know my name and all about me.
They have encouraged me to learn how to do something, and then to do it.”
For more information about Sienna and Paula’s community service project, Dress the Part Florida, visit www.dressthepartfl.com.
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