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Miami Palmetto High School senior Yomnah Osman has more than 1500 community service hours.
Most of the hours she has earned come from her involvement in the Sudanese American Association of South Florida.
“I’ve been on the board since eighth grade,” she says.
“I’ve been in the organization since I was a child. I’ve been really committed to the organization. We all work together.”
The organization’s goal is to gather the Sudanese people in South Florida together. She says the group helps the younger crowd connect with their roots and their heritage.
“It’s like a culture club,” she says. “We do graduation ceremonies. We do picnics. We do movie nights. We do girls only events.”
In fact, Osman has organized a couple of the graduation events and hosted three.
“Each student will register, saying where they are graduating from,” she says. “We do certificates, and we will do a graduation ceremony.”
The graduation ceremonies have varied venues and festivities. For the Class of 2025, they did a picnic at a park. For the Class of 2024, they did the event at a venue with a Sudanese singer as entertainment.
“I usually find the venue,” she says. “I’ll search for the venues, and I will give it to the board. And will call to make sure they have the seats available.”
When she hosts the graduation ceremonies, she speaks in Arabic.
“Arabic is not my first language,” she says. “It helps me keep my Arabic skills going.”
Activities for the families include trivial games and games for the children that she usually organizes.
There are four or five members of the youth board who help plan events for the events that are attended by 80-100 people.
At Palmetto, she’s vice president of Key Club for the second year in a row. Previously she was the editor of the Key Club monthly newsletter.
Last year, Osman started a reading program through Key Club called Story Time.
“Once a month, we would read to the after-school kids, grades two through five,” she says.
“We would have an activity related to the book that we would get to do.”
Key Club members volunteered to read to the 43 students enrolled in the after-school program. She chose the books and trained the volunteers the week before so they could teach the activity and everything could run smoothly.
“I would be in and out of each room,” she says. “During the training, if they had any concerns (about the book) I would go back and change it. One of the books, one of the volunteers felt it would be too scary for second graders, so we changed the book for a more happy one.”
The books are chosen depending on the season or holidays. In the fall, they chose a pumpkin book. For February, they read a book about Martin Luther King. The plan is to reboot the program this month or next.
Osman is president of Photography Club.
“My pictures are not of people but of culture,” she says. “I take pictures of the henna powder, and the elements of the Sudanese culture
She’s taken Photography One, Photography Two and this year, she’s in Advanced Placement Photography. The theme of her 15-photo portfolio is The Culture that Raised Me.
Osman is a member of the National Art Honor Society, the African Heritage Club, Amnesty International and SODA, the student organ donation club.
For college, Osman’s applications list includes Florida International University, Howard University, Florida State, the University of South Florida, and Spellman. She is considering a Health Science major and a career in medicine.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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