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Miami Palmetto High School senior Golden Brown is Palmetto’s Silver Knight nominee for Science. Her Silver Knight project is called Crochet for Coral Reefs.
“I crochet sea animals and wildlife, and I sell them to fund coral reef restoration,” she says.
She crochets manatees, jelly fish, and fish.
She donates to the Coral Restoration Foundation in Islamorada, where they farm the coral reef and plant them where the coral reefs are struggling.
Brown wanted to volunteer there but it’s too far away for her so she decided the next best thing would be to donate the proceeds of her crochet projects.
Brown began crocheting during the COVID quarantine.
“I got really into crafting during quarantine,” she says.
However, she never quite clicked with knitting.
“I feel crocheting is so much easier,” she says.
She’s crocheted key chains, stuffed animals, and blankets as well as hats. Key chains take her an hour or so to produce. Stuffed animals are bigger so they take two to three hours to make. When she’s finished with a project, she posts it on Instagram (CrochetforCoralReefs). So far, her sales top $900. Her best seller is the manatee key chain.
Since eighth grade, Brown has been an orchid microbiology intern at Fairchild Tropical Garden.
“I do research on the fungi that orchids use for germination,” she says. “I’m a part of the Million Orchid Project. Their goal is to reintroduce the native orchid and replant them on trees in their native areas.”
The program contacts communities such as the Village of Pinecrest to ask if they would like to participate in the program. If they agree, then Fairchild reps go and plant the orchids in their trees.
Recently, Brown attended the Summer Academy for Math and Science at Carnegie Mellon.
“We got to choose our math and science and a research course,” she says. “At the end we had a symposium where we presented all our research. I did a cosmetic chemistry class.
We came up with the formulation of the cosmetics ourselves. We had to design a line for our client. We did the line and the chemistry behind it. We created nine products, and we had to test them to make sure they would not make anyone break out.”
At Palmetto, Brown is a member of the Science National Honor Society. Through the SNHS, she participates in the Envirothon competitions. Her team won the Aquatics section of the competition, which is her area of expertise for Envirothon.
She also participates in the Fairchild Challenge.
“I produce the videos for the Fairchild Challenge for the orchid information,” she says. “They’ll give us the orchid species they decide that year and we have to plant them in various places. We find the optimal place for that orchid.”
She’s proficient in video production because she’s the executive producer for the Television Production Class.
She’s the Social Chair for the Student Council. She works on all the special events.
Brown is also vice president of the African Heritage Club. The club produces the Black History Showcase.
“Last year I hosted and produced it,” she says. “People will sing, dance, and perform the spoken word.”
Her college applications list her as an Environmental Science or Environmental Students major. At one point she had multiple offers from D-1 and D-3 colleges because of her soccer skills, but decided to go through the application process instead.
Currently, Brown no longer plays soccer and is instead rowing for the Miami Rowing Club.
Linda Rodreguez Bernfeld
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