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Palmer Trinity School sophomore Alexandra Bennett participates in Model United Nations (MUN) and Round Square.
For Model U.N., Bennett attended the conference at the Hauge in the Netherlands.
“I represented the Gambia, a country in Africa.”
She had to do additional research to get enough information about Gambia, because it’s a small country and less active in the political world.
“We met with someone who had worked in the Gambian government,” she says.
At the conferences, the attendees create resolutions to be voted on. She was the main submitter of a resolution but because of a glitch, it didn’t come up for a vote. However, resolutions are often amended, and she was able to convince enough delegates to pass a couple of amendments.
So far, she’s been involved with three other conferences, one of which she chaired. She expects to go to the Hauge again next year.
“I met so many new people,” she says. “Some of the older kids in my delegation, they have a friend from Spain that they meet for dinner.”
Bennett joined Round Square because her older sister was a member.
“A group of schools from different countries meet and discuss a topic online,” she says.
“That is like a global topic. Different places have different opinions on them. We are able to stay diplomatic and respectful in both MUN and Roundsquare.”
Round Square has a couple of events annually.
“This year there was a trip to Chile,” she says. “There’s a trip to Montana coming up. And there was a trip to Australia that friends went on. This year, I have not gone anywhere with round square, but I have participated in their Postcards.”
Each Postcard covers one topic. The last one was about technology and AI.
“There was another one on terrorism,” she says. “And how terrorism starts.”
The discussions are monthly and they last about an hour.
Bennett is a member of the Palmer Trinity lacrosse team, following family tradition.
“My dad played lacrosse at Palmer Trinity,” she says.
Bennett has been on varsity since seventh grade because at the time, they didn’t have a middle school team. The team did well this year and even made it to the district finals.
Bennett is a member of Mosaic, a club that helps students understand some of the major issues of the day. Bennett says in some of the advisory periods the facilitators talked about bullying, including online bullying, hate speech vs free speech and they talked about the 2024 elections.
“Just to make them aware,” she says. “We are trained to handle opinions. And how to treat people with respect when you have different opinions than the other person.”
She’s a Student Ambassador, leading tours around the school, including fifth graders and their families and answering questions. She knows the school well since her father attended, her grandmother worked there, two cousins attended and so did her aunt. Her mom works there now.
She’s also a member of the Metamorphosis club.
“We do bake sales and stuff for women’s shelters,” she says. “We also do stuff, against FGM – a medication that people take. It’s dangerous for women. People are sterilizing women unlawfully in Asia and Africa.”
Outside of school volunteers at PAWS4You. She tries to go on Saturdays when they bring adoptable dogs to PetSmart in Pinecrest.
She volunteers at Achieve Miami at the Caribbean K-8 site whenever possible.
“It’s really fun,” she says. “Some kids go there for fun and there are some kids whose parents can’t take care of them because they have to work on Saturdays. They are learning.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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