Through a most challenging school year, Silver Knight Award winners have given it their all.
When the coronavirus pandemic changed life as they knew it, some Silver Knight winners were stirred to action.
Julianne Rodriguez at St. Brendan High in Miami-Dade programmed a robot that could connect families with their loved ones in senior living facilities and hospitals that couldn’t allow visitors. Madison Sullivan at West Broward High in Broward made over 1,200 fabric masks, each delivered with a note of encouragement written by children from a local elementary school, complete with their own artwork.
Some have spent their childhoods devoted to community service. Leandra Hall at MAST Academy in Miami-Dade created her service project, AfroTechie, at age 13 because she saw that low-income and minority children lacked access to S.T.E.M education. Chelsea Hernandez at Charles W. Flanagan High in Broward has been tutoring and mentoring students since eighth grade.
These extraordinary students and their peers were recognized Thursday night at a virtual ceremony celebrating the 63rd Annual Miami Herald/el Nuevo Herald Silver Knight Awards. Not yet out of the coronavirus pandemic, the ceremony was recorded live at Confetti & Fog FX, a Hialeah video production studio.
Before 2020, the over-the-top ceremony was held at the John S. and James L. Knight Center in downtown Miami.
Silver Knight winners are high school seniors who have gone above and beyond to make their communities a better place. They are well-rounded and stellar athletes, performers and scholars who have set themselves apart and earned their spot among past winners that have continued to do extraordinary things.
Like Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon, who won the Silver Knight in Science in 1982 as a Palmetto High senior. William Conti, the Oscar-winning composer who wrote the music for the “Rocky” and “Karate Kid’’ films, among others, won the Silver Knight in Music in 1959 as a North Miami High senior. And Frances Cook, a career Foreign Service officer who was the former U.S. ambassador to the Sultanate of Oman and the Consul General in Egypt, won the Silver Knight in Social Sciences in 1963, representing South Dade High.
‘Our nation is in good hands’ with these Silver Knights
On Thursday night, the best of the best of 15 categories were selected from 619 students representing 99 public and private schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. The categories range from mathematics and science to world languages, speech, athletics, drama and journalism.
Each category has one winner and three honorable mentions from each county. Miami-Dade had 406 nominees from 65 schools and Broward had 213 nominees from 34 schools.
Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald President Nancy Meyer delivered opening remarks during her first Silver Knight awards as president. Monica Richardson, the new executive editor of the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald and McClatchy Florida regional editor, presented the awards alongside Rick Hirsch, managing editor of the Miami Herald.
“I am proud to lead this vital institution and I am so humbled to be in front of such a talented, dedicated group of nominees and award winners,” Meyer said. “As you become our next generation of philanthropists, entrepreneurs, business and community leaders, I am confident our community and our nation is in good hands.”
Jessenia Castillo couldn’t believe it. She created a podcast called Flip the Switch to help her Allapattah community of working-class Hispanic families become financially literate. It earned her the Silver Knight in Business for Miami-Dade.
Castillo celebrated with her friends. Her mother was out working. The Miami Jackson senior said she couldn’t wait to tell her when she got home.
“I think I’m super excited because I didn’t expect anything out of it,” Castillo said. “I started the project because… I thought it was necessary especially for my school. I think a lot of our students don’t get the recognition they deserve. So I hope me getting this will help other students get out there and star. I feel like that’s the hardest part.”
Meet the 2021 Silver Knight winners
Aryan Ranjan founded The Last Generation, a national student-led climate research initiative that built a community of 100 activists that lobbied elected officials to support federal climate legislation.
It won Ranjan, a senior at American Heritage, a Speech Silver Knight in Broward.
“It’s just a huge honor,” he said. “I didn’t know a lot of the other nominees personally but I know that they really made a lot of huge impacts to even get to this point. To be here and to be recognized with all of them is an amazing feeling. It really gives me hope for what I’m doing.”
Longtime Belen friends take two awards
In Miami-Dade, Belen Jesuit Preparatory School had two Silver Knights in Journalism and World Languages. All 10 of the school’s nominees gathered for a watch party and celebrated their two wins and two honorable mentions with pizza and brotherhood.
Juan Tejera, Miami-Dade’s Silver Knight winner in Journalism, and David Alarcon, the Silver Knight in World Languages, have been best friends since sixth grade.
“I feel great,” said Tejera. “Honestly more than winning, it was just a special moment to share with my brothers.”
“For us to win this together,” he said of Alarcon, “it was so special. We literally grew up doing this.”
Another school, Our Lady of Lourdes Academy in Miami, held a watch party for their nominees in the school cafeteria. There, Brooke Merdjane was named an honorable mention for Mathematics.
Two other schools had two winners: Dr. Michael M. Krop Senior High for Mathematics and Science and the School for Advanced Studies, Wolfson Campus, for English & Literature and Music & Dance.
In Broward, Coral Glades High School dominated with Silver Knights in General Scholarship, Journalism, Mathematics and World Languages. University School of Nova Southeastern University had three winners in Art, Business and Digital & Interactive Media.
The winners take home a $2,000 scholarship, an AAdvantage 25,000-mile travel certificate and an American Airlines medallion. Honorable mentions receive a $500 scholarship and an engraved plaque.
Miami Herald staff writer Howard Cohen and Miami Herald freelance writer Sue Arrowsmith contributed to this report.
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