Isabella Lagarto

ATHLETICS: Logan Shapiro

For Miami Palmetto Senior High senior and Athletics Silver Knight nominee Logan Shapiro, balancing multiple responsibilities feels like second nature after spending almost all of high school doing consistent schoolwork, playing a demanding varsity sport and leading a nonprofit organization.

Shapiro began his service project, Turtle Team, in the summer of 2020, during the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with three other co-founders, the group set out on a mission to improve the health of local marine ecosystems through neighborhood clean-ups. After applying for and achieving its non-profit status, Turtle Team held its first official clean-up on Earth Day 2021.

“Over the pandemic, we noticed that there was a lot of garbage around the area where I used to live,” Shapiro said. “The area has a lot of mangroves, and you would just see them filled with trash. We created [Turtle Team] as a way to give people a reason to pick it up because we would issue community service hours for their help.”

During the pandemic, many high school students became desperate for ways to earn community service hours, since the requirements remained the same, but opportunities were limited. Turtle Team offered a solution to this shortage by giving students a chance to obtain community service hours through trash collection in marine and coastal environments. 

“They could take a picture of [the trash they collected] so we could issue the hours to them,” Shapiro said. “Since it was COVID, there weren’t a lot of actual organized clean-ups.”

Since their first clean-up in 2021, the Turtle team has issued over 4000 service hours and developed partnerships with organizations such as the Miami-Dade Sea Turtle Conservation Program and the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station.

“Our first donation that we made to the turtle hospital was the moment where I was like ‘Wow, we’re actually making a difference,’” Shapiro said. “Also, when we helped release some of the animals they had rehabilitated at the Pelican Harbor Seabird Station.”

Aside from Shapiro’s work through Turtle Team, he also wanted to share his love for baseball with the community. By collaborating with the Miracle League Association, Shapiro helped give children with serious physical or mental disabilities the chance to play baseball, despite their barriers. Shapiro’s contributions to the environment and local youths made a lasting impact. 

BUSINESS: Condoleezza Alexis

Condoleezza Alexis, Miami Palmetto Senior High senior and Business Silver Knight nominee, has made her mark on women in both the school and the community.

At MPSH, she serves as the vice president of the African Heritage Club, president of Women of Tomorrow, vice president of Debate and the co-vice president of Creative Writing Club. But, her most demanding activity is the non-profit she created, Bleeding Hearts Across America. Alexis spends at minimum four hours a day expanding and improving her organization.

“My project was a period pantry with Healthy Little Havana. We had a drive at school where we collected period products: pads, tampons, panty liners. We created feminine hygiene bags, which basically had enough period products for a woman for about a month,” Alexis said.

BHAA is a continuous project, as Alexis refills the period pantry every month. The project is open to donations in the form of money and period products. On occasion, Alexis partners with churches and MPSH to host drives.

“In one of my clubs we considered doing a drive for period products and the more I thought about it, the more I was like, ‘Well why should we only do one once a year when women get their period once a month?’ And, that’s what inspired me to start a nonprofit,” Alexis said.

Managing BHAA on a daily basis is much like managing a business. For Alexis, this was the hardest part of starting her organization because of the amount of business aspects behind the scenes. She needed to file for all the right certifications and partake in additional legal matters.

“Managing a nonprofit is very much like managing a business. It’s just a different legal structure than your normal business, where you’re not focused on making profit, you’re more focused on making change,” Alexis said.

Alexis hopes to take her project further by creating more period pantries, specifically at MPSH. 

“We’re hoping to set one up in school so that whenever a girl needs pads or tampons you’re not having to run down to the office, go to a teacher’s class or beg your friends for pads. It’s just right there and easily accessible,” Alexis said.