On Nov. 7, Miami Palmetto Senior High School announced its 2022-2023 Silver Knight Nominees. Miami Herald’s Silver Knight is one of the most prestigious awards in Miami-Dade and Broward County, recognizing 12-grade students in public, private and religious schools who not only excel academically but also give back to their communities through service projects. 

Every year, MPSH’s AP English Literature and Composition teacher and Palmetto’s Silver Knight coordinator, Andrea Spivak, nominates a select few of Palmetto’s 12-graders for the award. Students may be nominated in 15 categories: Art, Athletics, Business, Drama, English & Literature, General Scholarship, Journalism, Mathematics, Music and Dance, New Media, Science, Social Science, Speech, Vocational-Technical and World Languages. Each school nominates one student per category.

Each of the 30 Silver Knight winners will receive a $2,000 scholarship from the Herald Charities Foundation, symbolizing their accomplishments adorned with the coveted Silver Knight statue.

Notable past winners include Jeff Bezos, former CEO of Amazon, who won the Silver Knight in the science category in 1982, and Bill Conti, an Oscar-winning composer who wrote the music for the “Rocky” and “Karate Kid” films, was the winner of the music category in 1959.

The following students have been selected to represent MPSH for their outstanding service.

Art: Rafael Linares

Athletics: Valentina Nicolini

Business: Jacob Albert

Digital & Interactive Media: Sebastian Soto

Drama: Ava Goldenberg 

English & Literature: Audrey March 

General Scholarship: Devica Shah 

Journalism: Abigail Lambert 

Mathematics: Tong Jing 

Music & Dance: Christina Perez  

Science: Luke Yang 

Social Science: Lucas Hudson 

Speech: Matthew Lewis

Vocational Technical: Bethany Deferrari   

World Languages: Diego Espinosa