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In December 2019, Miami Palmetto Senior High rising senior Gabriel De Brito flew to Colombia for a weekend on a mission to build houses for the needy.
“They are transitional houses,” he says. “The goal is to provide them a shelter, while Techo looks for opportunities for them to find housing or a permanent home.”
The first day of trip, they laid the foundation and the second day they put up the walls.
“Since it’s like a temp home, the houses are all similar. We used nine wooden logs (for the foundation). We had to dig holes that were deep enough,” he says. “It takes really long for us to dig the holes and to make sure the logs are strong enough.”
The houses were made out of wood slabs,” he says. “The second day we spent painting it.”
They asked the folks who would be living in the homes how they wanted them painted.
Last summer, with the help of his parents, and grandmother in Brazil, De Brito taught English to Brazilian children ranging in age from approximately eight to 14.
“We got 10 students from the poor community,” he says. “We had them join a Zoom class.”
They sent tablets to the students and paid for one month of Internet so they could participate. He says the children did well.
“I was pretty impressed,” he said. “There was a variety of skill. Some would pick it up faster than others. A lot of the older kids had clear pronunciation. The older kids actually made significant progress.”
His family is from Sao Paulo and he knows the stark contrast of the world he lives in and the world the underprivileged live in. He sees education as a way for the children to break out and have a better life.
De Brito has been working on ways to expand the program. He’s looking for private funding that would allow them to expand to other parts of Latin America.
At Palmetto, De Brito is a member of the Palmetto Honor Council.
“We provide students who are caught cheating with a second chance,” he says. “Rather than get a referral, we talk to them. We work to uphold academic integrity.”
He is a member of the Science National Honor Society and has participated in Envirothon.
He was on the second team, which were the alternates. At the Regional event, he was placed on a Fusion Team made up of alternates from several schools. Palmetto’s main team did very well and ended up going to the National contest. He expects to be on Palmetto’s main team next year.
De Brito is a member of Mu Alpha Theta and was involved in the club’s free tutoring program every Wednesday.
He runs cross country and track for Palmetto. He recently had a 16:50 personal best in the tri-county series, a substitute for the State Championship that was cancelled due to COVID.
He ran a 4:41 personal best in the 1600-meter race this year. Palmetto’s 4 x 800 relay team progressed to the regionals this year.
This past year, De Brito played soccer for Palmetto. He has stopped playing because of injuries and had decided to concentrate on cross country and track, but he says the soccer coaches convinced him to play soccer again.
Now that he’s a rising senior he’s considering his college options. He’s deciding between engineering, computer science or astrophysics for his major. He’s planning on apply to Princeton, Stanford and MIT.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
