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Gulliver Prep senior Emiliano Hernandez Posada is the Prep’s Silver Knight nominee in the Vocational Technical category.
Hernandez is the Squadron Commander at the Civil Air Patrol squadron based at Opa Locka Airport.
“It gives you the ability to develop your character while giving to the community,” he says.
He discovered the Civil Air Patrol four years ago and was attracted to the disciplined routine.
“And the character development part of the program,” he says. “I remember we went to a local elementary school and did rocketry at Amelia Earhart Park. It got me excited about the program.”
He continued because he liked the great community service he could do and exposure to great opportunities.
“I’ve done multiple orientation flights on Cessnas and glider flights,” he says. “They take you up to 3000 feet, and it’s up to you to find the thermals.”
He has the certification needed to be deployed in emergency situations, such as when a plane goes down. The cadets also provide support for veterans’ events and air shows.
He’s in the Color Guard for the CAP and has presented the colors at congressional meetings in Miami Lakes.
Hernandez is proud to be a mentor for the younger cadets.
“I’ve been able to see the progression of the cadets from 12 to 16,” he says.
He expects to continue his affiliation with CAP when he goes to college.
“I might transition to the senior member element of the program,” he says.
He has been accepted to Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Rice University, the University of Michigan, the University of Miami, and Babson College. He plans to study finance.
He’s interested in finance and helping people with financial education which is why he started the Personal Finance and Investing Program at Gulliver.
“It was a real need at my school. For not only students but faculty,” he says. “We host monthly speaker events. We connect them with different experts to bolster my community’s financial literacy.”
He says he started the program after his economics teacher gave him a shocking statistic – most students are not exposed to personal finance at school. And he learned that 70 percent of the teachers at Gulliver were not exposed to personal finance at their school or college.
He not only brought in speakers on mortgages and other financial topics but a crypto manager as well.
“To create excitement while building good foundations to financial literacy,” he says.
He’s also working with students to create a financial literacy pamphlet. He says he’s recognized it’s a need for the community as a whole.
Hernandez is not just a student interested in finance. He already owns a company, Sunshine Lux Rentals, that he co-founded with his brother.
“We do real estate and short-term rentals in Florida,” he says. “We have three full-time employees and two part-time employees. We have an approach called creative financing to acquire these properties.”
They have two properties listed right now and more that they are renovating.
At Gulliver, Hernandez played on the varsity lacrosse and football teams through his junior year. He had to stop to concentrate on academics and college applications.
He’s secretary of Saving Vulnerable Communities in Colombia (SVCC). The organization raises money for children in a region in Colombia. They connect the kids to students in the U.S. to build relationships and foster life skills.
He’s in the English National Honor Society, Rho Kappa, the National Honor Society, the French National Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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