|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Miami Palmetto High School senior Dylan Goldstein is in the top one percent of his class. Last spring, he won the Tulane Book Award in the Palmetto Awards Ceremony. He’s won numerous other awards throughout his high school career.
Goldstein has put a priority on community service. His goal going into this year was to top 1,000 community service hours.
Over the summer, he teamed up with Jesse Weingarten to raise more than $10,000 to help feed children who are part of Achieve Miami. The money was raised through online donations and was donated to a food bank to keep Achieve Miami children fed.
Goldstein has been an Achieve Miami volunteer since seventh grade. He started working with students at a school in Homestead, then moved to a school in Midtown and now Caribbean Elementary. He volunteers every other Saturday. The children read to him and he helps them with writing and reading exercises.
“We have a special connection to the kids at our school,” he says.
He also volunteered at the summer programs until this past summer when it was suspended because of the coronavirus.
He’s also on Achieve Miami’s Junior Advisory Board.
“We have junior advisory board meetings once a month,” he says. “I love talking to people.
I love making new friends and learning about new cultures.”
Goldstein hopes Achieve Miami is able to re-start before he goes off to college.
If the coronavirus is brought under control, he hopes to run the annual poker tournament held at Bet Shira. The money raised at that tournament funds wheelchair accessibility.
“I’ve been in discussion to run that event this year. I love poker, that’s what my college essay is about,” he says. “I love the socialization aspect of poker; I love teaching people to play.”
A large amount of Goldstein’s volunteering is done at his former elementary school, Temple Beth Am.
“I attend the morning services and watch the kids so the parents can enjoy the religious experience,” he says. “We teach them about the holiday while the parents are at the service.”
He used to work at the summer camps until he aged out.
At school, he is the Social Science Honor Society vice president of political action.
He has organized political debates where students are brought in to debate issues on stage. He hopes to be able to do the event again this year.
“Many kids enjoy watching and participating in the debate,” he says.
Goldstein is vice president of the Jewish Student Union, along with being a member of one of the Palmetto History Bowl teams, the National Honor Society, Psi Alpha, Mu Alpha Theta, Key Club, the Capstone program, the class cabinet and the senate as the chair of the teacher appreciation committee.
The summer of 2019, Goldstein attended the Alexander Muss High School in Israel. He learned history and visited historical sites. His favorite place was the Dead Sea. He also loved the field trip to the Save a Child’s Heart house. He and the other teens spent the day hanging out with children with heart problems.
“The kids are brought from countries all around the world for heart surgery in Israel. They speak very minimal English,” he says. “We played basketball with them.”
He reached out to the program seeking to do something similar here.
“That was probably one of my favorite community service projects I’ve ever done,” he says.
Goldstein is planning to apply to Tulane, USC, the University of Michigan and the University of Florida. He plans to major in business.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
