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Coral Reef High School senior Cody Knecht plans to attend the University of Florida in the fall to study biology. Once he completes his degree, he hopes to move on to med school.
“My goal is to become a plastic surgeon,” he says.
He has a specific reason for choosing plastic surgery.
Growing up, he came to realize that people can be cruel, and he wants to do something to help others.
His dad is a German American and his mom is from Hong Kong.
“I’m a mixed American child. I was bullied,” he says. “As I’ve grown up, I’ve seen the world is not a nice place for people who have atypical features. I’ve always felt it’s so horrible. I hope to help them escape discrimination and lead normal lives.”
He says he’s overcome his hurt and anger about the bullying.
“I’ve kept the sympathy and empathy,” he says. “That is my motivation for what I want to do with my life,”
He wants to help children and babies with issues such as cleft lips and help them avoid the difficulties of dealing with a society that is often unkind.
“There are so many doctors that can fix you from being sick,” he says. “Very few can fix people’s lives. As a plastic surgeon, I can help more significantly than I could otherwise.”
Knecht says that he realized that some doctors would work for a period of time and then they spend their summers in third world counties helping people. He wants to be able to do those medical mission trips.
“The sooner I can start contributing to the world, the happier I will be,” he says.
His plan is to return to Miami after he finishes his studies.
He would like to do an internship in South Korea, which is one of the top centers for plastic surgery in the world. They also do a different style of plastic surgery that he hopes to learn so he can perform more well-rounded surgeries.
Knecht is in the top one percent of his class and he’s a National Merit Finalist. At the end of his junior year, he won the Harvard Prize Book Award.
He’s a member of the Literary Elysium club which produces a magazine that’s backed by Columbia University.
“I am one of the judges who determines which pieces are submitted and published,” he says. “All submissions are anonymous and several of my submissions have gotten in. There have been six over the years.”
Five were poems and one was prose. The story that was accepted had to do with whales.
“All my childhood, I’ve loved whales,” he says. “And being part of a mixed group, I wrote a piece about searching for whales and searching for your identity in the sea around you. I love writing. It’s relaxing and also therapeutic.”
He is also a member of the Science National Honor Society and a club called Life 101 which teaches life skills.
He’s also a member of the Korean Cultural Club for fun.
Outside of school he does a Lion Dance, with the costumes. He says that he’s always been uncomfortable dancing in public, but participating in the Lion Dance has helped him because he’s not as worried now about how he appears.
He was in Best Buddies for a year.
“That was an important experience,” he says. “You are doing your best to be a friend and be engaging to people who are isolated.”
He has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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