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Westminster Christian School senior Madeline Newcomm recently started her own community service project related to her passion for dance. Called 2nd Turn, once a month, Newcomm goes to the Chapman Partnership for the Homeless in Homestead and teaches children to dance.
“I put together a dance combination to teach that is easy for the children to learn,” she says.
She’s working on a dance that the kids can perform for Christmas.
Approximately 10-20 children of all ages attend her dance sessions.
At school, she’s the co-captain for the Warriorettes, the school dance team. Newcomm also dances outside of school at the Miami Dance Project. She participates in competitions with both the Warriorettes and her studio.
“Last year Westminster won first place in States at the American Dance Alliance for a small group dance,” she says.
With her studio dance team, Miami Dance Project, she has done competitions not only in Florida but across the country for the past seven years. She dances in group and solo categories.
“I self-choreographed my solo routine last year and this year,” she says.
Newcomm considers dance important enough that dance is her major on some of her college applications. The other applications were for a health sciences major. She’s applied to the University of Florida, Florida State University, Texas Christian University, the University of Virginia and Southern Methodist University.
At Westminster she’s in the Bio-Medical Science Signature Program. The program has made it possible for her to earn her CPR Certification, First Aid and ACL Prevention.
At Westminster, Newcomm is a member of seven honor societies, including the Science National Honor Society, where she is treasurer. The other honor societies are National Honor Society, Rho Kappa (Social Studies), Dance Honor Society, National English Honor Society, World Languages Honor Society and Mu Alpha Theta (Math).
Outside of school, she’s on the general board of the community service club, Twenty Little Working Girls. The girls participate in an event once a month to raise money to be donated to local charities.
She’s also a member of Symphonettes, a music related community service organization.
Her commitment to service shines through with her membership in Bake a Wish Miami.
“It makes such a difference,” she says.
Every few months she bakes 12 or more cakes to donate to children who don’t normally get birthday cakes on their special day because their families can’t afford to buy cakes or even spare the money to buy the ingredients.
“You have a course, they teach you to make all the cakes,” she says. “It’s a vanilla bundt cake. You glaze it with a chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top.”
Newcomm is an Agape Teen Ambassador. She and her friends go to the women’s shelter to serve food and give donations. They also talk to the women who live there.
“They will tell us their stories of how they got there,” she says.
The past two summers, Newcomm has flown off to the Dominican Republic on Blue Mission trips. The teens on the first trip built the piping to bring water to the remote village. Those on the second trip-built latrines for another remote village.
“Those trips are always very eye opening,” she says. “I feel like when I go there, these kids and families are the happiest people I’ve ever met, and they have so little. You don’t need all these other things to make you happy.”
This summer she did an internship with Compass Real Estate. She went with the agents to open houses and took pictures to put them on social media.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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