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Recent Gulliver Prep graduate Natalia Lopez volunteered for the Miami-Dade County Teen Court for two years, going once or twice a week.
“I have always wanted to become an attorney,” she says. “I would like to go into constitutional law and eventually branch into political commentating.”
She became interested when she heard someone talking about the teen court. She called the teen court, applied and landed the volunteer opportunity.
“I usually served as a prosecuting or defense attorney,” she says.
The teen had committed petty crimes, like battery or theft.
“It’s so fun,” she says. “It’s fun but it’s very serious. This is someone’s life.”
For the cases, Lopez had to serve as an attorney, conducting cross examinations in the courtroom. The cases were presided over by a circuit court judge.
“I had the opportunity to use skills I developed from Speech and Debate or Model United Nations and employed them to be a better prosecuting attorney,” she says. “I used those skills for either side.”
Lopez started out as juror but switched to the prosecution the next trial.
“After two trials, I felt comfortable enough to be one of the lead attorneys,” she says.
The cases that are sent to the teen court are filtered by the judicial system.
“The purpose is aimed towards rehabilitation,” she says.
Over the last few years, Lopez has learned about the law through internships and working as a legal assistant for a domestic violence/family law attorney.
“My job was to conduct case law research,” she says. “Proofread and fact check legal documents. I was the liaison between the office and the sheriff’s office when communications were needed.”
She interned with a real estate lawyer at a construction company.
Lopez will continue her education at the University of Florida in the Honors College. She received the Lombardi Scholarship – only eight of the 300 plus nominees are selected to receive the scholarship.
The scholarship is awarded to the high achieving students who are eager to challenge themselves intellectually and expand competence. It includes several study abroad trips. Lopez plans to double major in economics and political science.
The first study abroad trip to the Yucatan to study Spanish and ecology began June 22.
During the five-week trip she expected to live with a host family and travel around Mexico to visit archaeological sites and locations pivotal to the program’s themes.
Other trips include studying in Peru, South Africa and one trip is sailing around the eastern seaboard. On a very tiny sailboat.
Lopez’s other major community service was volunteering for Achieve Miami at Caribbean Elementary School and Earlington Heights for two years.
“That was definitely one of my favorite community service activities I’ve done,” she says.
While at Gulliver, she was vice president of Model UN.
“I started competing my freshman year,” she says. “The first conference was at Vanderbilt.
I won outstanding delegate my first conference.”
She also participated in conferences in Montreal, Columbia University, and Boston College.
Her senior year she concentrated on her college applications, so instead of going to conferences, she mentored Model UN students.
Lopez played flute in the concert band, became section leader and she also was the only flute player in the jazz band.
She was president of National English Honor Society, and she founded “Strides,” a Women’s History Month publication at Gulliver.
“Basically, we accepted submissions and recruited the most talented writers,” she says.
She was secretary for Tri-M, the music honor society, and the co-president of the Japanese Honor Society.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
