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Miami Palmetto High School senior Cayetana Jaramillo is Palmetto’s Silver Knight nominee in the area of Digital Interactive Media. Jaramillo started her own social media-based newsletter called The Loop News. It publishes every Sunday on Instagram.
“I curate the news stories I think are important to my audience,” she says.
She writes news summaries so that her followers get a feel for what happened that week.
“If they want the full stories – I include those as well,” she says. “Also at the end, I include community service events.”
Jaramillo started a series called How to Become a Politician 101.
“My clients send in any questions they have,” she says.
Jaramillo uploads video, with summaries of the interviews in English and Spanish.
“I started that about a year ago last summer when we were all indoors,” she says. “It’s one post a week with three or four stories per post. I cover everything, national, environmental news, social justice. Localized news within my school or the community.”
She bases her choices on what the kids in school are talking about.
“It ranges from local, state and even national news,” she says.
She decided to start the newsletter more than a year ago after feeling embarrassed by her lack of knowledge. She said every day that summer there were so many different news stories.
“Every day I was waking up to new issues on top of the pandemic,” she says. “I felt the urge to inform myself. I would get up and read all these articles.”
She realized she wanted her peers to become engaged.
“The only way to get their attention was to target a platform they are already on,” she says. “With the election I offered polls. The state elections. It’s very engaging. That’s what people my age want right now, to get involved in an easy way to get involved.”
The newsletter helps because young people aren’t going to buy subscriptions to the New York Times, the Washington Post or the Miami Herald.
She tackles subjects such as the G7 Summit, the environmental crisis and the pandemic.
When Vice President Harris visited Guatemala, a lot of her readers wanted to know about that and how that visit might impact Miami. She’s written about shootings in Miami, policies brought up by the mayor of Miami Beach and a former governor trying to change gun laws.
She not only works on her newsletter, she also works as the opinion editor of Palmetto’s newspaper.
She even had an opinion piece published in the Pinecrest Tribune. As a member of the Youth Advisory Council of Pinecrest, she was able to write the article about the founder of The Pinecrest City Music Project.
Last school year, she was the social media manager for the Youth Advisory Council.
At school, she is a member of Bridge to English, a tutoring service for ESOL students at Pinecrest and Palmetto Elementary schools.
“I tutor native Spanish speakers,” she says.
She is also a member of the English Honor Society, the French Honor Society, National Honor Society and president of the Spanish Honor Society.
Her sophomore year, Jaramillo hosted a school supply drive for a school in Chincha, Peru.
“Through the honor societies I was able to collect folders, pencils, and educational games for the school,” she says.
Jaramillo has an internship at the law firm, Richard’s and Partners.
She applied early decision to Brown University. She’s also applied to the University of Chicago, Michigan, University of Florida, UCLA, UC Berkeley and the University of Virginia.
She plans to major in political science.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
