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Palmer Trinity School junior Florencia Nieto is weaving her love of music and social justice in a concrete way that helps underprivileged children by creating the Melody Initiative.
“I love music. I have been playing cello since sixth grade,” she says. “Music is like sports.
It’s one of those things that I feel empowers people.”
She’s a member of the school orchestra and she also sings in the Miami Children’s Chorus.
A couple of years ago, from an interview her mom did, she learned about the Miami Music Project.
“Their mission – they take unprivileged kids and teach them orchestral instruments,” she says. “Every single day they teach them these instruments, they help with homework, they give them dinner and take them home.”
She believes the program empowers the kids.
“It goes to until they are 18. These are kids that might be the first members of their families that finish high school. One hundred percent go on to higher education.”
So, she started the school club Melody Initiatives, dedicated to helping the Miami Music Project in a variety of ways, ranging from fundraising to providing volunteers and creating digital content for the non-profit.
MMP also shares her interest in music and social justice.
“It was luck that I found something that was so well aligned with what I wanted to do,” she says.
So now she uses her privilege and her school connections to connect MMP with new people to collaborate with while also holding bake sales, thrift sales and supplying volunteers. One of the most important contributions is creating digital content for MMP. In keeping with her social justice focus, she heads Palmer’s Mosaic program. She coordinates ninth grade lessons, and the facilitators.
“It’s basically a DEI program dedicated to teaching young people about social issues such as cycles of poverty and systemic racism,” she says. “I love doing it. Working with the children of Miami Music Project has opened my eyes to the inequalities that prevent certain people from reaching their full potential, and I think we are ignorant to these boundaries.”
Nieto grew up in Spain. She is Colombian and is the daughter of journalists. That has made her aware of the world’s problems.
“I believe that if we erase stigmas through education and storytelling (like Mosaic), our community can become a safer place for underprivileged children that are trapped in these cycles and just need someone to take a chance on them,” she says.
Nieto was one of six students chosen to attend the Student Diversity Led Conference in St Louis, where she participated in more discourse about problems and inequalities in our country.
“It was life changing,” she says. “I think it’s necessary for our society to function and that love for debate, storytelling, and social justice /advocacy translates into about everything that I do.”
Nieto’s school activities also include theater. In the recent production of The Sound of Music, she played the Baroness, the Captain’s fiancée.
She’s a cheerleader, a member of the school orchestra, and she’s a student ambassador, leading tours for families considering Palmer Trinity as a school for their children.
Nieto is also a member of Model United Nations, a club that focuses on tackling urgent world issues at conferences such as the one last fall in India.
“I really like debates and all the opportunities for debate and critical thinking,” she says.
Her future career path bends toward the law. Potential majors to get there include history, philosophy, or public policy. She may minor in music.
Her college list currently includes Georgetown, Vanderbilt, and Fordham.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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