Westminster senior Amanda Maier is a top-notch volleyball player who has just committed to Stonehill College in Massachusetts.
She is an outside hitter who was nominated for and played in the Miami Herald All Star game. She’s also been nominated for All Miami-Dade team. Her signing ceremony was to take place shortly after the Christmas break.
“I’ve been in volleyball since sixth grade,” she says.
She plays club ball and has played with Miami Elite and Miami Hype.
Maier is Westminster’s Silver Knight nominee in the area of music. She plays violin in the orchestra. Since sixth grade, Maier has received superiors every year for her solos at the solo and ensemble music competition at the district level.
She’s president of the Heart Strings Orchestra Club. As club president, she organizes small concerts by orchestra members at the Eastridge Retirement Village. She plans events for every couple of months and is currently planning a concert in January.
They go to Eastridge because it’s close to the school and they have gone there with the full orchestra. She also volunteers at the retirement village whenever she has free time.
“I go on my own,” she says.
While there, she helps the nurses by running errands or spends time talking to the residents.
Maier is also passionate about volunteering at His House Children’s Home. She’s president of the His House Club at Westminster, which she started after volunteering at the home and becoming a His House Ambassador.
“I started volunteering there the summer before my junior year,” she says. “I fell in love the place. I contacted one of the people who are in charge of service. I asked if I could bring it to Westminster.”
Last year, Maier raised $900 to help pay for a His House Christmas party for the residents.
“It gave them money to do the party, buy decorations, some gifts, and snacks,” she says.
She raised the money by asking friends of the family and her fellow students to donate.
She also raised money to buy water bottles.
“They needed water bottles for each kid,” she says. “I went around and talked to my mom’s friends, kids at my school. Any donation they could give. I was able to raise the money for them.”
This Christmas season, she and the club members provided the hot chocolate for 200 children at the His House Christmas Deck the Halls Christmas party.
At Westminster, Maier is a peer counselor.
“I started doing that this year,” she says.
Peer counselors help students who need to talk to someone but don’t feel they can open up to a teacher.
She’s a member of Mu Alpha Theta, the National English Honor Society and Tri-M Music Honor Society.
This past summer, Maier completed an internship with the Florida Villager. During her time there, she wrote several articles that were published. She published stories on The Top Issues Facing Students Right Now and Summer Prep Tips for College Applicants.
“It gave me an insight into the journalism world,” she says.
This year she had a story published in Westminster’s Literary Magazine.
“I did a summer program at the University of Florida for journalism communications,” she says. “I got an inside look at what I would pursue in college if I studied broadcast journalism.”
Maier hopes to follow her mom’s footsteps and work toward a career in broadcast journalism.
“My mom (Liv Davalos) was a news anchor for CBS 4,” she says. “Watching her inspired me.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
