Gulliver Prep’s Silver Knight nominee for Music and Dance is senior Paola Rodriguez. Rodriguez has played piano since she was eight. She sings in the Gulliver chorus and plays guitar. She sings alto in the school chorus but soprano for her voice teacher.
A terrific singer, Rodriguez qualified for not only the All State Chorus last year but went on to the National choir this past November.
“It was incredible,” she says. “Especially nationals. One of the best experiences of my life. Being in Texas for four days was really nice.”
At the end of Nationals, the participants put on a huge concert directed by Anton Armstrong, who is a star in the choir world.
She was able to go to nationals because she qualified for states.
“After all states, you are giving the option to audition for nationals,” she says. “You are given the song. The audition is done on video and the song is sung acappella.”
She won’t be able to go again to nationals because national auditions are not open to seniors since they will have graduated before the next national event takes place.
Singing is important enough to Rodriguez that she’s considering on minoring in music.
“Even if I don’t minor, I want to be part of a choir, or an acapella group,” she says. “Or a band.”
So far, Rodriguez has been accepted to Northeastern and is still waiting for additional acceptances that will come this spring. Northeaster is her top choice now but she’ll consider the other universities if she receives enough of a scholarship. Currently, she plans to major in biomedical engineering.
“I’ve always been interested in prosthetics or synthetic organs,” she says. “In my class, a substitute teacher had to have the bottom of his leg amputated. We are working to help make the prosthetic more comfortable. It’s a sleeve that will around the area where his leg was amputated because it’s still a sensitive area for him.”
She’s working with fellow students in her biomedical class. Gulliver has a four-year biomedical program.
Silver Knight nominees generally have strong records in community service and Rodriguez is no exception. Most of hers came from working with Breakthrough Miami, which is an academic enrichment program for underprivileged kids.
“I was a volunteer,” she says. “We set up events for them like field day, a haunted house and we had a Halloween week.”
It was the first time Breakthrough Miami has had a summer program at Gulliver.
She volunteers at Jack Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in the Bedside Music program.
“I go Wednesdays for three hours,” she says. “I bring my guitar and we go from room to room and we sing to them.
Rodriguez followed in her sister’s footsteps volunteering at Children’s Hospital.
At school, she’s a member of Health Educated Awareness Leaders (HEAL). The club organizes blood drives. They also collect hygiene supplies such as toothpaste, toothbrushes, feminine products, underwear and toilet paper and put into hygiene kits that are sent to victims of human trafficking, mainly young women.
Rodriguez is a member of HOSA, a club for future health professionals. She’s also sectary of Music Club. Music club members perform at nursing homes and volunteer at Palmetto Elementary as music tutors.
Occasionally she volunteered at Friends Forever Rescue, walking the dogs around PetSmart in hopes of getting them adopted.
“If we see a customer who is interested, we get them to play with the pet and give them more information about the pet,” she says.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
