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Over the past six or seven years, Palmetto High School senior Vasti Iglesias has spent a lot of her free time volunteering at Turning Point Baptist Church.
“Every year we do Vacation Bible School for children from 5-11ish,” she says.
Iglesias is usually in charge of the music team.
“We guide the children through the program. They learn new songs. And the Bible,” she says.
The church volunteers also go out into the community to help. A few years ago, they went to a homeless shelter in Little Havana to feed the homeless.
“We prepared the food for them and cooked for them,” she says. “I worked on my social skills. Every day for a week straight. We are trying to plan to go again.”
She says that was very different from other volunteer events and was one of her favorite experiences ever.
At the same time, they put on a Vacation Bible School for the kids at the shelter. They not only fed the kids, taught them about the Bible, but they also arranged for a fun water day for the children.
“It’s about developing trust,” she says. “A lot of the kids come from broken homes. It reminded me how much I love working with kids. It’s such a blessing.”
She went with the church to volunteer at the Big Bear Academy, a non-profit that works with children who have disabilities.
“All the kids whose parents don’t have money to go to doctors,” she says. “Something that we all have in common, we all love music. We sang a few songs and we sat down and talked to them.”
Iglesias says they went to the academy twice and it was so important to her that she talked to the owner about continuing as a volunteer.
At school, Iglesias is in the psychology club, Psi Alpha. One of their past projects was making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to distribute to women who had been abused who are now in shelters.
“We made posters about ending human trafficking,” she says. “We put the number to call if you are being human trafficked.”
The club also conducted a toy drive.
She is a member of Health Occupation Students of America (HOSA). Iglesias participated in the HOSA Bowl, where her team came in second. She’s been a member of the Leo Club, which coordinates the blood drives at school.
Her interest in the health field led her to join the HIV Club. Club members learn about the dangers of HIV and how to prevent exposure, what to do if someone is worried about HIV and then they were going to go and teach other students about HIV. However, the COVID-19 shutdown last spring kept the club members from being able to go to other classrooms to teach.
Through school, Iglesias has done a couple of internships, including the South Dade YMCA.
“I was an office clerk and I worked at the summer camp,” she says.
She did a variety of jobs, including photographing children for their parents, helping serve lunches, office work and helping on field trips.
This summer, she interned at the National Karate Academy and Hypnotic Dance Studio.
“That was my favorite internship. I really enjoy working with kids,” she says.
Her ability to connect with children will help her in her quest to be a pediatric surgeon. For college, she hopes to stay in Miami and go to the Florida International University Honor College, where she plans to major in Biology. She’s also applying to the University of Miami and Florida State.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
