In a city as diverse as Miami, culture, tradition and faith often intersect in everyday life. For many teenagers growing up surrounded by different languages, customs and beliefs, connecting with their own cultures and religion can become an important way for them to understand who they are. Through youth groups and faith-based communities, students across Miami have discovered spaces where they can explore their beliefs, connect with others who share their values and shape their identities during some of the most formative years of their lives.
For sophomore Gianna Gonzalez, her Catholic youth group has helped her connect with her identity. As Gonzalez grew up in a Catholic family, she frequently attended religious events with them.
“Growing up and trying to navigate who I really want to be [I just had] a moment where it was like, ‘Okay, what am I doing here?’ Like, I just decided to go all in,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez began going to Sunday school when she was just 12, describing it as a gateway for her to form and understand her own beliefs outside of her family.
“[My religion] has just been so big in my life from there on,” Gonzalez said. “I have deep dived into all of these religious topics that have really helped me navigate who I am as a person and what my relationship is with God.”
Now, as a teenager, she takes part in the New Life youth group through St. Louis Catholic Church and their weekly meetings. Through New Life, Gonzalez has found a sense of community.
For the first hour of their meetings, members typically do a social game, serving as an icebreaker and allowing them to get to know one another. In New Life, they have different categories called series. After the icebreaker, they discuss one aspect of the series.
“So for [our current series], Holy Hour, we’re going over silence and prayer,” Gonzalez said. “[We ask ourselves:] What is Holy Hour? What does it mean? What is the significance of having that silence in your life when everything around you is so noisy?”
Gonzalez stays connected to her faith individually as well as through New Life. Gonzalez says she tries to go to adoration weekly, meaning she goes to church to quietly pray in front of the Eucharist. Gonzalez also tries to pray to the Rosary as much as she can, a Catholic devotion of prayer that walks through the life of Jesus.
“I know for me, [prayer] connects me with what I believe in,” Gonzalez said. “[My religion has] really helped guide me because I know that I have something to depend on and it helps me know that things that I achieve, the goals that I want to hit and all of these things that give me strength are because of what I believe in.”
For Gonzalez, one of the most meaningful parts of New Life is the community she has built with others who share her beliefs.
“They just get me,” Gonzalez said. “It is something so profound that I get to connect with them over … Us having that same Catholic faith and being able to talk about it really soothes me as a person because I have never usually had that growing up.”
A person’s teenage years are filled with questions of identity and self-discovery. For Gonzalez, having her religion as a guiding light has helped her immensely in finding out who she is and giving her something to ground her in life.
“It helps me find that comfort in knowing that everything is going to turn out okay,” Gonzalez said. “Teenage years, it is a struggle. High school hits you like a bag of bricks, middle school is usually even worse, but just knowing that I have got my faith on my side and just knowing that there is a community of people who are going through the same thing and trying to figure out the same things as I am, it is just so comforting and so amazing.”
Similarly, junior Bella Hoch spends her Tuesday nights at her Jewish youth group through the B’nai Brith Youth Organization.
Hoch found out about the organization through friends’ older siblings who began advertising their chapter to Hoch and her friends at the end of their seventh grade year.
Their meetings typically begin with the traditional short opening ceremonies, with an activity following.
“After that, we spend time hanging out and doing whatever. We are just talking and laughing and having so much fun,” Hoch said.
BBYO is a unique organization, having over 700 chapters throughout over 60 countries. Since the organization is completely run by its members, every chapter has its own board consisting of six positions. There are also boards that advise over whole regions. For Miami, there are six chapters under the regional board and Hoch serves as the Sh’licha, also known as the Vice President of Jewish Enrichment.
Because of BBYO’s unique focus on teenage management, it allows highschoolers to act as leaders, paving the way for what they want to see in their chapters.
“Being on board has really shown me everything that I can do for the region,” Hoch said. “Going further and helping out the region and all of BBYO internationally, it has really shown me that I can have an impact and it has increased my love for BBYO.”
For Hoch, BBYO has become a pivotal part of both her connection to Judaism and her social life. Hoch is a member of the Ha’lom chapter, one of two chapters that draw the Miami Palmetto Senior High community. Many of their members are students at MPSH, helping Hoch broaden her horizons at the school.
“BBYO has furthered my friendships that I already had going in, and then it opened me up to a whole new friend group that I see every week at meetings and that I get to see every week at school and eat lunch with every day,” Hoch said.
Despite the large number of chapters, the BBYO community is extremely tight-knit. Because of its worldwide presence, BBYO hosts events all around the world for Jewish teenagers to get together and meet one another. One of these events is called International Convention and according to the BBYO website, is the largest gathering of Jewish teenage leaders and the second largest Jewish communal event in North America. Every year, over 5,000 teenagers gather in a city in the United States for typically three to four days.
BBYO also sponsors programs like the International Leadership Training Conference, which teaches teenagers leadership skills and introduces them to other Jewish teenagers from around the world, and the BBYO Passport Travel Experiences, which take groups of teenagers to other countries to explore, do community service and partake in meaningful Jewish experiences.
“Doing Jewish activities through BBYO and learning about Jewish holidays and stuff, it really helps bring me closer to my religion. Spending time with other Jewish teenagers, it gives me more of a community,” Hoch said.
For many students like Hoch, these groups are helpful in navigating the academic, social and societal pressures that come with finding their place in the world. It is a place to belong and to feel at home with others who share a similar cultural language.
“Growing up with my religion and being surrounded by my Jewish community has really made me into who I am today. Becoming a teenager with that really creates my person and my moral values and surrounding myself with other Jewish teenagers really enforces that within myself,” Hoch said.
Similar to BBYO, the Islamic youth group of the Sudanese American Association of South Florida has different ranks that members can rise through. Senior Yomnah Osman has been a part of the group since she was a child, moving up through the different levels and currently serving as their Youth Representative.
“I work with the youth trying to get us closer to our culture and our religion,” Osman said.
The group typically meets monthly, but during periods like Ramadan, they turn to weekly meetings. For special events like Eid al-Fitr, the Festival of Breaking the Fast which ends Ramadan’s fasting, the group holds large celebrations. The group also has weekly Saturday and Sunday schools with classes on Islamic study, Arabic and the Quran.
“For Ramadan, again, we meet, so it helped me build that relationship of what Ramadan is and the true meaning of Ramadan,” Osman said. “It builds my relationship with God.”
Beyond learning about her religion and culture, the organization has also helped Osman form meaningful relationships with others in the larger community.
“It has allowed me to work with people that I did not know so I got to build that relationship with them,” Osman said. “Some of my closest friends are from the organization.”
Through her involvement in the youth group and her faith, Osman has come to view her religion as a central part of who she is.
“My hijab is my identity. It is part of me, it is what has shaped the person who I am today,” Osman said.
In a city known for its unique blend of cultures and tradition, religion continues to play an important role in helping teenagers navigate their personal identities. Through youth groups, students from different religious backgrounds are able to find community and purpose within their faith. In Miami’s cultural melting pot, these spaces allow teenagers not only to strengthen their beliefs, but also to better understand who they are and where they belong.
