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Miami Palmetto High School senior Jordis Markowitz is the Chief Operating Officer for Volunteering Miami, the student-run organization that helps organizations and volunteers find each other.
She and the other current officers were able to take the non-profit to the next level and turned it into a 501c3.
“We were able to triple what they brought in,” she says. “What we do is recruit organizations and list them on our website. We have roughly 70 organizations. We are opening a chapter in Orlando. It was one of my ideas to expand north and south.”
Her goal is to expand into all the big cities in the state and even beyond the state boundary line.
“We have new staff coming in for our successors,” she says. “It would be great to go to other states.”
The organization has branches at Coral Reef High School, the New World School of the Arts and Cutler Bay High School.
Markowitz trained for her role with the founders of Volunteering Miami. She started out working on outreach to organizations for volunteer opportunities while being trained to take over when the founders stepped back. She took over her sophomore year and when the founders graduated, things really started changing.
The leadership has added Volunteer fairs. They’ve organized two so far and there are plans for a third one on Oct. 14 at the Palmetto Bay Library.
“I’m excited for that one and slightly nervous,” she says. “It’s our new staff and Lorenzo Castillo and I have been pushing them to do outreach.”
The leadership has expanded to include a diversity and inclusion leader. That student checks the diversity and inclusion policies of the organizations they work with.
Volunteering Miami now helps fund passion projects proposed by students.
In addition to her strong commitment to Volunteering Miami, Markowitz spends much of her time on Student Council. Her freshman year she was a member of the Class Cabinet.
Her sophomore year she worked on special events and student involvement for student council.
“We were trying to recruit new people so we would have a more diverse group of kids,” she says.
She’s now the chief of staff, working closely with Palmetto’s activity director.
“I also oversee staff and update our calendar and school website,” she says.
Her commitment to Palmetto includes playing on the girls’ lacrosse team. She was the junior varsity lacrosse team captain, a varsity player (dual roster) and the varsity team manager.
Breaking her wrist last season gave her a different perspective on her leadership skills.
“It didn’t stop me from showing up and being there for the younger girls,” she says. “I’m excited to get back this year.”
This past summer, she worked for six weeks for an internship at her great uncle’s firm, Markowitz, Ringel, Trustey, and Hartog.
“My uncle is a bankruptcy attorney, but they also do real and law,” she says.
She started out doing research for a couple of lawyers. Including Alan Rosenberg, who does research for CNN on cryptocurrency.
She worked on a pro bono case with a judicial bypass case for a minor who was pregnant and seeking an abortion.
Markowitz also sat in on a deposition.
For college, she applying to primarily Florida universities, including Florida State University, the University of Florida, Florida International University, the University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University, the University of North Florida, the University of South Florida and the University of Tampa.
She plans to major in communications on a pre-law track.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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