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Miami Palmetto High School junior Katie Herskowitz is a peer educator for the Health Information Project. The junior and senior students are trained on health associated topics and then go into ninth grade classrooms to teach the younger students.
“We just completed the sixth one,” she says. “This one was about sexual assault and verbal abuse.”
The topics are sometimes uncomfortable and she says sometimes some kids will have a hard time listening, but they usually don’t give the educators a hard time.
“Most of the kids will come up to us after to ask questions about the module,” she says.
“They see you every two weeks. Kids who didn’t talk much at the beginning are talking more now. You see them grow through the modules. You form a relationship and that is one of my favorite parts.”
Herskowitz cares about others which is one of the reasons she participates in the HIP program. She also cares about the homeless. Since seventh grade, she and her dad have made toiletry/food bags for the homeless. They include non-perishable food, toothbrushes, baby wipes, hand sanitizer, Publix gift card and notes.
She made the bags for her bat mitzvah project.
“I remember when I was little, I would always cry, I would ask my dad, can you give them a dollar,” she says. “One day my dad said why don’t we give them bags instead. As I have grown up and started to drive, I have started to do it without my dad. Over the pandemic I would put in masks for them.”
Now, she keeps a bunch in her car and whenever she sees a homeless person, she gives them a bag or two.
“I tell them I hope you have a great day,” she says. A lot of them remember me.”
She remembers a lot of them as well. If she sees someone who mentioned that they like getting the baby wipes, she’ll put extras in the bag, or she gives an extra bag to someone she knows has a partner.
Herskowitz pays for the contents of the bag. She plans to continue and give out the bags for as long as she can.
Herskowitz is the social media manager for the Pinecrest City Music Project.
“We educate students to become holistic art leaders both in and outside the classroom,” she says. “We do this thing every year called ArtsFest. This year it is March 12th. We get art from a whole bunch of kids and there’s live music.”
The PCMP leadership team went to New Orleans for a professional development trip on funding community arts projects such as theirs.
They studied on how the private school arts system is funded there and how PCMP can implement some new tactics.
“I love the arts and think it should be implemented everywhere,” she says.
She is an editor for the yearbook.
“We get to edit spreads on what goes on at school and put our own creative twist on it,”
“I am the sports editor this year which I feel like fits me,” she says. “My dad was a baseball coach. He coached my brother growing up.”
Her sister also played softball for Palmetto.
She has a passion for graphic design, so she loves doing the layouts and design for the yearbook.
“In the future I want to work in the graphic design industry,” she says.
Herskowitz is a member of Psi Alpha, the psychology club. She’s currently taking Advanced Placement Psychology.
Outside of school she’s in BBYO, an organization for Jewish teens.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
