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Miami Palmetto High School senior Sophia Roque expects to finish high school with 999 in community service hours.
She created two community service projects. One is called Dance It Forward.
“I collect dancewear, costume shoes, used or new,” she says. “I donate them to the Boys and Girls club, the Armor Theater, and I even travel to Colombia to donate to communities there as well.”
The project reflects her passion for dance. She’s been dancing since she was three and danced competitively until this year. She’s also a member of Variations, the school dance team. She has been collecting the dancewear since her sophomore year.
“My family is from Colombia,” she says. “I started collecting my own dancewear and my friend’s dancewear. I would take it to Colombia. I would have collection boxes at different studios. I tried to go at least four times a year.”
Her uncle has a theater group in Colombia, so she donates the dancewear to the kids there. She expanded the donations to local organizations.
She has also worked with the kids and taught them how to dance.
“I used to have a job at True Movement, where I would teach kids three to five years old,” she says. “When I would go to Colombia, I would have a class with the kids teaching them moves.”
She usually donates every month or when the boxes get full.
The second service project is called Boxes of Love.
“In that one, we collect essential items, like socks, nail polish, make up lotion, hygiene products and we donate them to homeless shelters, rehab centers, recovery programs,” she says.
She and her friends started that non-profit during the summer.
“It was something me and my friends came up with,” she says. “We thought it was a good idea to provide items of comfort for those experiencing homelessness or recovery.”
Initially they tapped family and friends for donations.
“I left one of the boxes for donations at a studio as well,” she says. “We put it on social media (@Boxesof.Love on Instagram) and they DM us. We’ve donated about three or four times so far.”
This Fall she planned to donate again to The Caring Place, a homeless shelter in Coral Gables.
The donations are placed in individual boxes, usually 20 per gender.
At school, she’s a member of Interact, a club that is geared to community service. Roque is hoping to work with Interact to collaborate with her on one of her Boxes of Love drives, for
underprovided kids and kids with autism.
“I would work most with the kids. I would sometimes help in the classroom with the autistic kids, but I would be the most with the underprivileged kids.”
She is applying to colleges with strong nursing programs, including Florida State University, Florida International University, the University of Alabama, and the University of Tampa.
This year she’s been doing an internship with the vice president of the Sunshine Bottling Company.
“They bottle sodas like Iron Beer,” she says.
About a month ago, Roque began working full-time after school at Spotlight Dance Academy teaching privates and groups from ages two to eight.
“I love it so much!” she says. “Being able to teach kids something I am so passionate about is really beautiful to me and I love doing it, especially since they are so young.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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