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Miami Palmetto High School incoming senior Aryana Motlagh is a strong advocate for organ donation. Her father received a kidney transplant that saved his life. He had suffered a genetic condition and spent time on the waiting list.
In 2022 at the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council, Motlagh pushed for a proclamation for Organ Donation Month. She also brought in a speaker for the youth series.
She volunteers for the Life Alliance Organ recovery agency at the University of Miami.
“They do organ donations and when someone is having a transplant, they send people to help,” she says. “They educate South Florida about organ donation.”
At Palmetto, she started an organ donation organization called SODA.
“It’s the first chapter in South Florida and the first chapter in the state,” she says. “We keep track of how many students we educate. We have been able to educate over 3000 students. We do some events at school, and we celebrate Organ Donation Day.”
She’s been a member of the Pinecrest Youth Advisory Council since her freshman year. Council members volunteer within the community, learn about local government and do social action work.
“Each person takes charge of what they are most passionate about,” she says.
In addition to the PYAC, Motlagh is active in HOSA. She’s been the regional president for two years. She’s been the vice president of the Palmetto High Chapter for two years and will be president her senior year.
Motlagh plans to run for regional president again if her advisor gives her approval.
“With our region, the Gold Coast, most of our job is to run the meetings and conferences with about 1000 attendees,” she says.
They have two conferences a year. One around November and the other in January or February for their awards ceremony. At the conferences, there are competitions. Her sophomore year she won second place for dental science. Last year she won second place in Clinical Specialty and plans to compete in the same event her senior year.
Her freshman year, Motlagh started an organization called STEMx.
“We would share stem topics on social media. We did STEM book drives,” she says.
The books were donated to the Miami Community Charter Schools.
This summer, Motlagh is taking two classes at the University of Miami, Introduction to Public Health and Microbiology as it Relates to Humans as part of a pre-college program.
Last summer she shadowed a pediatric dentist, which she found interesting but it helped her determine that she doesn’t want to be a dentist.
“I do want to continue as a STEM career but I’m not sure exactly what,” she says.
She works for Tutoring for Tomorrow as a math tutor. Her sophomore year she volunteered as a math tutor at Palmetto Middle School too. She’s a member of the LEO Club, volunteering at school blood drives.
And she’s a member of Women in Technology.
“We were learning about topics you normally wouldn’t learn about in the classroom, like cyber security,” she says.
Motlagh is a member of Psi Alpha, the psychology honor society.
She took two dual enrollment courses in English which helped her fall in love with writing.
“We did mostly creative writing and essays,” she says. “I really liked the creative aspect.”
Her college application list includes Florida State, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, and some Ivy Leagues.
She’s considering a double major in Biostatistics and ManageMentor data analysis.
This fall she’ll attend Florida International University for full-time dual enrollment while still participating in all her school and senior activities at Palmetto.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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