Students Alexandra Reboredo, Dru Barcelo and Katherine Duarte are this year’s Silver Knight Award nominees from Miami Lakes Educational Center (MLEC).
While Reboredo is nominated in the New Media category, her classmate Barcelo is nominated in the Speech category and Duarte is nominated for Social Sciences.
Reboredo has an unweighted grade point average (GPA) of 3.83 and has volunteered over 250 hours. Academically, Reboredo has been part of the school’s Speech and Debate club. She also hosted a donation drive to His House Children’s Home, and she even planned a visit on behalf of MLEC’s National Honor Society (NHS). As part of her work with NHS, she also held college presentations and tutored fellow classmates.
“Upon joining NHS, I worked closely with the officers on expanding outside of our school, and into the community,” Reboredo said. “We found His House Children's Home in Miami Gardens, and since then, MLEC’s NHS chapter has maintained a close relationship with them.”
Barcelo has an unweighted GPAof 3.7, and has participated in voting registration drives, and even volunteered as part of the democratic campaign canvassing for Tim Canova and Hillary Clinton. He’s a lead coordinator in the school’s Fight Apathy Campaign; an organization where students can discuss what needs to change politically in their school.
“Civic engagement is something that I encourage my school chapter to do, making it a corner stone in what my service is centered around,” Barcelo said.
Duarte’s 3.7 unweighted GPA and almost 600 volunteer hours has earned her spot as one of MLEC’s Silver Knights. She has also participated as a coordinator in Taking Action To End Child Abuse and Neglect (TAECAN). The two-part project involved raising awareness among all MLEC students about child abuse and neglect. Duarte’s goal in participating in TAECAN is to show fellow classmates that no one is too young to take action to help children in need.
“Not only was I able to spread awareness and prevention about child abuse and neglect to my fellow classmates, but I was also lucky enough to spend time with children that are working hard to rise above their circumstances,” explained Duarte