Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

6 days ago | communitynewspapers.com | Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

Music is important to Palmer Trinity School junior Walker Ciorobea so he eagerly joined his friend Florencia Nieto when she wanted to start a community service organization called Melody Initiatives. “Our mission statement is serving the underprivileged youth through the arts,” he says. “Especially music.”They have partnered with the Miami Music Project, a non-profit that gives children an opportunity to play their music after school for three to four hours.

6 days ago | communitynewspapers.com | Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

Miami Palmetto High School junior Samira Moore has a passion for bees. Yep. Those busy yellow bees that buzz around collecting pollen and making delicious honey. Those bees that many of us are afraid of because they might sting us. But Moore knows that bees are actually quite beneficial. She’s a seventh-generation beekeeper. She says there are different bee species. “The Italian bees are the nice bees,” she says. “Africanized bees are aggressive. All bees will sting you.

6 days ago | communitynewspapers.com | Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

Miami Palmetto High School senior Jake Hawkins volunteers at Friendship Circle every Sunday and during school breaks. He recently spent time with the special needs children who attended Friendship Circle’s Spring Break program. “We go over and be with the kids and we go on mini field trips,” he says. Hawkins is a member of the Friendship Circle’s President’s Council. The members meet once a month with the officials that run the organization.

2 weeks ago | communitynewspapers.com | Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

With some friends, Miami Palmetto High School junior Patrick Mizrahi created a non-profit organization called Focus Impact Foundation. “We started this non-profit to spread awareness about financial literacy,” he says. “We do presentations for teachers and students about the basics of finance and give useful financial tips for real life.”The group CEO, Oliver Gonzalez, is quite interested in investing while Mizrahi is more into finances. Both have done extensive research into financial literacy.

2 weeks ago | communitynewspapers.com | Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld

Miami Palmetto High School junior Indeah Lane has started a website called I Teach Children History (ITCH). “I came up with the idea two years ago,” she says. “I started it this summer. It’s based on the Florida book ban. Florida has a book ban on the contents, which includes race, LBGTQ or Jewish topics like the Holocaust.”She says she wants to do something to bring attention to the book ban. “Even though I’m only in eleventh grade, I wanted to make some type of change on the issue,” she says.