By Florida Catholic staff - Florida Catholic
Staff and Miami Herald reports
MIAMI | Graduates from seven of the 13 Catholic high schools in the Archdiocese of Miami took home five Silver Knights and 18 honorable mentions in The Miami Herald’s annual tribute to students who excel at both academics and community service.
St. Thomas Aquinas High in Fort Lauderdale led the way this year with three winners and five honorable mentions, followed by Christopher Columbus in Miami with one winner and four honorable mentions. Belen Jesuit Prep in Miami also had one winner and two honorable mentions.
Other schools whose students earned honorable mentions were: Archbishop McCarthy High in Southwest Ranches (3); Carrollton School of the Sacred Heart in Coconut Grove (2); Chaminade Madonna College Prep in Hollywood (1); and Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami (1).
Ian Barnett, who plays the violin at St. Agnes Church in Key Biscayne and attends Ransom Everglades School, won in the category of Music & Dance.
A total of 750 students were nominated this year from 69 Miami-Dade and 32 Broward public, charter and private schools.
Silver Knights are given in 15 high school disciplines: art, athletics, business, digital media, drama, English, general scholarship, journalism, mathematics, music, science, social science, speech, vocational tech and world languages. There are two winners in each discipline, one each from Miami-Dade and Broward, as well as 45 honorable mentions from each county.
Each Silver Knight winner receives a $2,000 scholarship from the Herald Charities Foundation, plus the medallion and a Silver Knight statue. Winners also receive 25,000 miles from American Airlines for one round-trip flight in the continental U.S. Each of the 90 honorable mention students receive a plaque and a $500 scholarship from the Herald Charities Foundation.
Here are brief summaries of the winners’ achievements (in alphabetical order by category), followed by the list of students who earned honorable mentions. The summaries are taken from The Miami Herald’s Silver Knights site (https://tinyurl.com/ycycr9xf).
WINNERS
Art: Jordan Perez, Christopher Columbus
Jordan used his creative skills in photography and content creation to help nonprofits, schools and businesses grow via social media and the web. Among his clients: 305 Pink Pack, a nonprofit that provides services to women with cancer; Lungs for Life, a student-led nonprofit that raises funds for lung cancer research; and Kia Kidz, a martial arts dojo that works with special needs children. He also partnered with the student organization Media for Minorities to teach underserved students about photography and videography; and he worked with special needs children at the McGlannan School, teaching them the basics of broadcast journalism.
Digital and Interactive Media: Salvatore Saccente, St. Thomas Aquinas
Using Zoom and Google Slides, Salvatore partnered with Mindanao Children’s Library in the Philippines to launch a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) tutoring program for Indigenous refugee children in Mindanao, which has the highest rate of poverty in the Philippines. The lessons were uploaded on YouTube and shared via Instagram. Salvatore plays in his school’s jazz ensemble and founded the Music Makers Club, whose members create music that’s shared with video production classes and media teams to augment their content. An Eagle Scout, he also restored a prayer garden at his church.
Journalism: Brooke Simmons, St. Thomas Aquinas
On her Instagram page, @LearningAmharic, Brooke provides translation and pronunciation assistance from English to Amharic via a 300-plus term Quizlet flashcard set she created. Amharic is the national language of Ethiopia, where Brooke’s family comes from. Brooke wanted to dispel people’s misconceptions about Ethiopia and show people the rich heritage of the East African country. She also posts stories of Ethiopian Americans living in South Florida, showcasing their new lives and the culture they bring with them. Brooke also created a backpack drive to benefit children at the Halo Dora School in the Afar Region of Ethiopia, which had temporarily closed due to damage from an ongoing war. She collected over 180 backpacks, which the students used when the school reopened.
Vocational Technical: Shawn Martinez, Belen Jesuit
Shawn founded AVUS Connect in honor of his two grandmothers, who both died in 2019, leaving behind his lonely grandfathers. He recruited student volunteers to regularly visit or call older, homebound seniors, building relationships with them. But realizing not all seniors have access to mobile devices, he started AVUS (which means “grandfather” in Latin) Tech Pals to provide seniors with equipment to connect with family, friends and the world. Through partnerships with local organizations such as the YMCA of Allapattah, Sant La Haitian Community Center and Thelma Gibson Health Initiative, he distributed 1,800 tablets to low-income and home-bound seniors. He also earned the YMCA David Cash Youth Leadership Award, presented to a Miami-Dade student who embodies the ideals of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
World Languages: Andrew Sabadash, St. Thomas Aquinas
Together with a native Spanish-speaking classmate, Andrew – who learned Spanish as a second language – created a Spanish language program for fourth- and fifth-grade students at the Jack & Jill Children’s Center in Fort Lauderdale, where he has volunteered since middle school. The Spanish for Success Program offers weekly courses in beginner-level Spanish, using slideshow presentations of different Spanish concepts, including vocabulary, greetings, numbers, grammar and culture. Andrew is also a member of the English and Spanish Honor societies.
Honorable Mentions
- Art: Anna Priore, St. Thomas Aquinas
- Athletics: Olivia Torre, Archbishop McCarthy
- Business: Alejandra Gomez-Pina, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy
- Digital & Interactive Media: Alexis Vivanco, Columbus
- Drama: Arianna Rosa, Chaminade Madonna
- Drama: Sophia Janssens, St. Thomas Aquinas
- General Scholarship: Alan Munschy, Columbus
- General Scholarship: Rocco Garcia, St. Thomas Aquinas
- Journalism: Aidan Scully, Archbishop McCarthy
- Journalism: Lucas Figueroa, Columbus
- Music & Dance: Pauline Stanham, Carrollton
- Music & Dance: Miniaris Montanez, St. Thomas Aquinas
- Science: Jose Toledo, Belen
- Social Science: Diego Suarez, Belen
- Speech: Sofia Tomas, Carrollton
- Vocational Technical: Susanna Inguanzo, Archbishop McCarthy
- Vocational Technical: Armando Rubio, Columbus
- Vocational Technical: Raylee Leiman, St. Thomas Aquinas
