As a member of the Youth Advisory Committee of the Children’s Trust, Coral Gables High senior Robbyn Jimenez works hard to help children in the community.
Earlier this year, the group focused on youth homelessness, so he started a drive at Gables to collect toiletries for the kids at the Chapman Partnership Homeless Assistance Center.
“We got a lot of supplies,” he said.
They filled five huge boxes with things like shampoo, toothpaste and toothbrushes.
The youth advisory board went to Tallahassee to speak with lawmakers about the problem. They met with legislators from Miami Gardens and Miami.
“They were really engaged in the conversation. They asked our view on things. They said they agreed with what we have to say but it’s a difficult process,” Jimenez said.
At school, Jimenez is interested in taking language classes. He takes Portuguese as a dual enrollment class. When he arrived at Gables, he wanted to take Japanese but Gables didn’t offer it, so he took Chinese.
He put his Chinese to good use over the summer on a 17-day trip to China sponsored by the Confucius Institute.
“We stayed at high schools,” he said. “In China high schools are like boarding schools.”
While there, he took Chinese language and culture classes. They also went on excursions.
“In Beijing, we visited the [Great] Wall,” he said. “It was fascinating. It was a good experience. I expected for no one to understand me, but they did.”
In fact, they said for a foreigner his Chinese was good.
At school, he participates in Chinese language competitions.
“Freshman year, I got third place in Level One speech,” he said. “Last year my group got First Place in the Level Three skit competition.”
Jimenez is a member of the National Honor Society and the IB Honor Society. Last year, Jimenez was the outstanding delegate at the
Harvard Model Congress, a government simulation run by Harvard University.
In college he’d like to study international business, international relations, finance and politics.
— Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
