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Palmer Trinity School senior Hana Diaz is heading to Vanderbilt University for college. Diaz applied early decision to Vanderbilt’s Human Organization Development program, which includes a combination of business, communications and psychology.
“I hope to work in a company or a foundation that helps deal with climate change,” she says.
At Palmer Trinity, Diaz is finishing her senior year where she is co-president of two clubs.
One is Warm Hugs, a club that made fleece blankets that were donated to Nicklaus Children’s Hospital. Diaz started the club with a friend at the beginning of her junior year.
They’d buy fleece material and they’d knot the material together to make the blanket. She learned how to make the blankets in middle school when she helped a friend who was making them for her bat mitzvah project.
“They are children’s sized and they have children’s designs on them,” she says.
She and her fellow club members would get together at school and make them in the classroom. Last year they made around 50 blankets. Most were donated but she still has a small number in her garage that they couldn’t donate because of COVID restrictions. COVID also changed the focus of the club.
This school year Miami Children’s isn’t accepting blankets so the students were reading bedtime stories and recording them and they would play the videos for the kids at the hospital.
“That’s how we had to adapt to COVID,” she says.
Diaz is also co-president of PTS Cares. The club held a holiday drive for items that were donated to shelters. Club members also became Pen Pals to elders in a retirement home.
Last year PTS care held a challenge asking for quotes and shout outs to help unite the school community.
“I loved working on the PTS Cares’ Instagram account during quarantine since it was a way to unite all of the students while we had to stay apart,” she says.
Diaz has had an unusual high school career. She went to boarding school in Switzerland for a year. Her father had gone to boarding school and he wanted her to have the same opportunity. She says it’s common in her culture (her family is from Mexico) for students to go away for a year. While she loved being in Switzerland and wanted to stay, she decided she would miss her family too much if she stayed another year.
She got back to Palmer Trinity at the beginning of her junior year and quickly got back into being an active member of the Palmer Trinity community. She took on the job of being a peer counselor.
“I counsel other students when they have a problem and they don’t want to talk to someone older,” she says.
She’s also a Mosaic facilitator. This year she’s teaching sixth grade students on topics such as equality or anti-Semitism.
“Or anything that’s going on in society,” she says.
She applied for the position because she believes the topics discussed are extremely important and need to be talked about, no matter how difficult they can be.
“I’m proud of my school for promoting these conversations,” she says.
The students often know that the problems or difficult ideas exist but she says sometimes they aren’t aware of the gravity of the problem.
Other extracurricular activities include being treasurer of the French Honor Society, a member of the National Honor Society and Tri M Music Honor Society.
She also plays viola in the orchestra ensemble.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
