Carmen Sandino, senior at American Senior High School was named as one of 30 students throughout Miami-Dade and Broward counties and selected among hundreds of applicants for this year’s Silver Knight award winners, a program created and continued by The Miami Herald to showcase the accomplishments of local students. The winners were announced at the James L. Knight Center in Downtown Miami on May 20.
Sandino reportedly asked her foster care agency for information about college opportunity and was told that less than 3 percent of foster children earn a bachelor’s degree. Undeterred, Sandino found a tutoring agency to tutor her for free, and armed with information about the ACT, SAT and college applications, Sandino passed along that information and tutored other foster children. One of those students, with the help of Sandino’s tutoring, was able to double her ACT scores and earned a 90,000 scholarship to the school of her choice.
Sandino was awarded the Silver Knight in English and Literature for Miami-Dade County. Additionally, Sandino is the recipient of a Florida Youth Shining Star Award, president of her school’s HOSA club, and the winner of American’s Outstanding Mathematics Student Award for 2013.
Several local students were also Honorable Mentions for various categories. Among those with Honorable Mention were Esteban Gonzalez from Mater Academy in Mathematics, Fabian Aristizabal from Mater Academy in Science, and Luis Fernandez from Hialeah Gardens Senior High in World Languages.