Gabriel Diaz of Miami Lakes was one of two students chosen to represent Florida in the 64th Annual United States Senate Youth Program in the nation’s Capitol.
Diaz, 18, was among 104 students from around the country who gathered for what the program calls an “intensive week-long study of the federal government and the people who lead it.”
Participants were to meet with senators, President Donald J. Trump; a Supreme Court justice and other high-level officials, a news release from the program said.
Diaz, a senior at Barbara Goleman Senior High School, serves as president of the Youth Advisory Committee North of The Children’s Trust, where he created a documentary on the Key Largo tree cactus extinction, the release said.
He has also participated in the Notre Dame Leadership Seminar. During a semester at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for its Introduction to Technology, Engineering and Science, he led a team that created a mapping dashboard to study climate gentrification in Miami-Dade County.
Diaz is a Miami-Dade County Public Schools Sustainability Intern; Hispanic Scholarship Fund Scholar; president of the Barbara Goleman Senior High School Bionomics Club and the Science National Honor Society.
With Miami Waterkeeper’s Junior Ambassadors, Diaz tagged sharks; tested pH levels in the Little River and removed over 1,000 pounds of pollution, according to the release.
After graduation, Diaz plans to study data science and environmental engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
His post graduate plans include a career in public service and running for elective office.