On Nov. 13, Miami Palmetto Senior High announced the 2024-25 Silver Knight Nominees. The Miami Herald Silver Knight Award is one of the most distinguished recognitions offered to high school seniors in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, rewarding their significant efforts and impacts in the volunteer world throughout their four years of high school. Eligible students can be nominated in 15 categories: Art, Athletics, Business, Drama, English & Literature, General Scholarship, Journalism, Mathematics, Music and Dance, Digital and Interactive Media, Science, Social Science, Speech, Vocational-Technical and World Languages.
Nominees are selected from private, public and religious schools. Students from across the two counties have excelled academically and through helping their communities in various ways. The award is extremely selective and nationally recognized, with only 30 winners and around 90 honorable mentions. Each Silver Knight recipient receives a $2,000 scholarship, an American Airlines medallion and a Silver Knight statue, while honorable mentions receive a $500 scholarship and an engraved plaque.
Around this time every school year, AP Literature and Composition teacher and Silver Knight Coordinator Andrea Spivak proposes to select MPSH students to be in contention for a Silver Knight Award. Alongside her, College Assistance Program Advisor Linda Dwyer plays a crucial role in this selection process. Although many students have service projects they are dedicated to, only one or two students can be nominated per category per high school.
“Palmetto has an incredible history of success with the Silver Knight program, and that’s why I continue to do it because I think it’s important to highlight the students in the school who represent commitment to service, and to community and to school. Really, the greatest gift is working with such wonderful students,” Spivak said.
Over the next week, The Panther will break down each MPSH Silver Knight Nominee’s service project, accomplishments and motivation propelling them to work hard and excel throughout their academic years. Check The Panther daily for more information on the 2024-25 nominees.
ART: Jack Martens
Moving from his hometown of Bucharest, Romania to Miami, Fla. is a big feat, yet senior and Silver Knight art nominee Jack Martens’ fair share of travel has inspired his creativity and passion for art.
Having attended an International Baccalaureate school system in Romania, Martens lost that sense of structured learning when he entered MPSH’s magnet optional curriculum. However, he found comfort during this transitional period through his art, which features different landscapes of his home nation.
“[My passion for art] started … in middle school, where I was in the IB system in Romania first, and that’s where we started experimenting with art and studio work. So that’s where my passion really started. And it started from mainly 3D artworks, and then I developed my 2D artworks later in Palmetto,” Martens said.
Additionally, Martens was able to adapt and connect more with his new life with the start of his Unity and Diversity Project. Martens began the initiative when his aunt, who resides in Toronto, Canada, wanted a figure who could bring a unique activity for the people at the Vaughan Community Center of Recreation to partake in. Martens was motivated by this and traveled to Toronto to help, thus spreading his love of art to a new group of people. During this project, he worked with people with disabilities of all different varieties.
“This is where I created a collaborative mural project, so we could all work together on this one project to express what is something special to each individual person about this community center, and what makes it special. And then we took everyone’s opinions and put them all together into one big- I mean, it is a mural, but it does look a lot like a tapestry, where we are kind of just weaving all of every person’s artwork together to create one big map of the community center,” Martens said.
Martens leaped at the opportunity to share his love for art while showing another community the freedom that art provides. Synthesizing each art piece from the participants in the community center was vital in showing each different perspective and emotion. In Miami, Martens often found himself being affected and inspired by the artistic people and displays throughout the city.
“I think [the project] was mainly focused around all the cultural influences in Miami and all the different diverse ideas offered. For example, Wynwood, the District of Wynwood, really helped me with my influences, and it really pushed me to do all these textural artworks and landscape artworks,” Martens said.
Role models such as Nicole Gonglewski, the 2023-24 Silver Knight art nominee for MPSH, have helped encourage Martens to explore different art mediums and approaches to differing art styles. Gonglewski also motivated Martens to apply for the Silver Knight Award, showing him the rare recognition this award offers and that art can truly push people from all walks of life, out of their comfort zones.
Aside from guiding his Silver Knight project, Martens’ love for textures and cultural influences in his art has paved a path for his future career. Martens plans on pursuing a degree in architecture as a way to express his art.
“I really want to explore biophilic design. So basically, it’s the mixing and incorporation of nature in a very modern building or structure, and that really amplifies its specialty and uniqueness,” Martens said.
MPSH’s community played a significant role in expanding his love for art.
“I think it was also all the great people in my [MPSH] courses that I’ve met and worked with that was a great form of influence. I think without them, I don’t think I would have, I wouldn’t be the Silver Knight nominee,” Martens said.
Whether it was through his scenery art in Romania or the prominent art culture in Miami, Martens has always found a way to adapt to his setting through his art. He believes his Unity and Diversity Project helped those in Toronto see this for themselves and understand that art can propel them into pursuing their passions. He believes that his project has helped people look beyond their normal perspectives and find something they are passionate about to incorporate into their lives.
“[The Unity and Diversity Project] really created new opportunities for [members of the Vaughan Community Center of Recreation], it gave them an opportunity to think for themselves and their artwork because art is so flexible, it’s not bound to one solution. Then they could take that way of thinking into really, anything, any passion, anything they want to achieve in the future. So it’s a big let me say, ‘push factor’ to achieving certain goals … It’s way more flexible, in my opinion,” Martens said.
