MUSIC AND DANCE: Daniela Martinez

From the first time she touched the bow to the strings, Miami Palmetto Senior High senior Daniela Martinez found her passion within the tunes and melodies of the violin. Due to this love for music and the arts, Martinez ensured she would carry on the impact of the instrument. Starting her Silver Knight Project Silver Strings in 2022, Martinez has visited numerous local elderly homes, providing residents with music therapy through song and tune, all while combining her passions.

Martinez uses music as a form of escape, allowing her to do what she loves while giving back to her community. 

“I’ve been in the school orchestra since my freshman year and I play the violin, and I am now the President of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. I have this club involved with silver strings since I have them make holiday cards for the residents. I’m also a mentor for Pinecrest City Music Project at Pinecrest Elementary and I go every week to the elementary school in assisting the teacher to help the students play the violin,” Martinez said. 

 Martinez recruited members from her Advanced Orchestra class to play seasonal music around the holidays and older compositions the residents are familiar with.

“We went during February to play love songs for Valentine’s Day. But we play older music they know, so they can sing along to them,” Martinez said.

Martinez formed several meaningful connections with individual residents.

“There is this one resident [who is] a veteran. And every time we’ve gone he’s always sang all the songs and every time we go, they’re always so happy to see us,” Martinez said.

Martinez found inspiration at a young age from her family and personal experience with the touch of music. 

“When I was 11,before [my grandfather] passed away, I played the violin for him. So that is when music therapy got brought up. And then my grandmother throughout [my] high school had Alzheimer’s, so I’d often visit her and play the violin for her, and I noticed how she was impacted by it, and the other residents as well like to hear me play the violin,” Martinez said. 

Due to personal experience and Martinez’s acknowledgment of the often lonely feeling at the homes, she knew the importance of taking Silver Strings to far bounds. 

“The elderly don’t get that many visitors, so every time I call they’re always open for us to go and play for them, because they don’t really have that many events going on, and it’s nice for them to see young faces that they don’t get to see often because they’re not visited by many people. So its [purpose is] just to bring joy and some love to the elderly community,” Martinez said.

SCIENCE: Isabel Duran

After participating in the National Chemistry Olympiad and realizing she was the only girl in a group of 10, Miami Palmetto Senior High senior Isabel Duran realized the importance of expanding scientific opportunities to girls. Through this idea, Duran launched her community service project: Science Technology Engineering and Math Gender Equity Membership. 

Through STEM GEM, Duran goes to local elementary schools and works with the after-school program to host weekly science lessons to encourage young kids, specifically girls, to get involved with STEM. In addition, she goes to local science museums and fairs for elementary schools to have small booths with engaging experiments for young kids to get them involved in the field. 

“Coral Reef Elementary said ‘yes’ because they had the idea of doing it through the after-school program. So they already have people there to run the after-school program. And by doing it through that, we got in to recruit a lot of the kids that are there anyways in the after-school program, it’s the third through fifth graders. They’re in the cafeteria, I walk in and I say ‘who wants to do science’ and then the people that want to do science stay,” Duran said.

Through the help of MPSH’s former Advanced Placement and Honors Chemistry teacher Yuria Sharp and other nonprofit organizations, Duran received feedback and advice on how to start her project and even received grants.

“And I went to talk to Dr. Sharp. And I was like, ‘Hey, this is a problem.’ So we were like, ‘Okay, let’s do something about it.’ So we started testing experiments and stuff to kind of do this and go to schools and teach science lessons. And at the same time, I tried to reach out to other successful nonprofits, and I called PCMP [Pinecrest City Music Project]. And I was like, ‘Hey, what do you think about this idea?’ And I talked to the board from TFT [Tutoring For Tomorrow],” Duran said.

Duran has raised over $1,000 to support her project by selling cookies for $1 each. 

“[Cookie sales have] been a great way to just keep the program running. And it’s given me a chance to talk about it when people ask what the cookies are for. And at the same time, it’s given other people the opportunity to show support,” Duran said.

Recently, Duran has also started to make science kits for elementary school teachers, including an experiment and lesson plan about what the class is learning.

“So, I sent out a form that was like, ‘what experiments do you want,’ and I prepared worksheets, lesson plans and science explanations. So I just prepare experiments that match fifth-grade education standards for science. And then I build the kits with everything they need, so the worksheets, and everything that teachers need, and then all of the materials and I think that if we get kids to do things hands-on, they will be more interested in the things [rather than] reading them from a book,” Duran said.

After having strong female influences on her science courses from elementary school up until high school, Duran has been able to grow her scientific interest in STEM; she currently participates in numerous scientific competitions and assists with scientific research at the University of Miami.

“Since I was really little, I’ve been super lucky to be surrounded by women who are empowered, and especially in STEM. I am so lucky that it took me getting to such academic levels of science to feel just the gender disparities and the gender discrimination even, so I think I was lucky in that sense.” Duran said.