Honoring Exceptional Students through Silver Knight

Every year since its inception in 1959, the Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards honors high school seniors from Miami-Dade and Broward County schools that have shown excellence in both their academic performance and in their dedication to community service. Both the academic and community service requirements are rigorous but the rewards that come with it are well worth the dedication and hard work.

Silver Knight is an awards program that runs among one of the most highly regarded in the entire nation. Although the application process is lengthy, nominees have to demonstrate both incredible skills in a subject and endless commitment to society.

By Miami Herald standards, you must have a minimum unweighted GPA of 3.2 to be a Silver Knight nominee. However, with so many students here at Ferguson, our nominees (typically 15 per the 15 categories) usually have unweighted GPAs of at least 3.6 or higher. One school can have as many as 15 nominees, one per category, and ultimately all 15 will be in the running for the Silver Knight award itself in their respective category.

The categories are Art, Athletics, Business, Drama, English & Literature, General Scholarship, Journalism, Mathematics, Music and Dance, New Media, Science, Social Science, Speech, Vocational-Technical and World Languages. The category you’re nominated for is based purely on your academic strengths and contrary to what some may believe, your community service project doesn’t necessarily have to be related to your category. In fact, many community service projects aren’t! You simply must show initiative, motivation and a vision to make the world a better place.

Here at Ferguson, Silver Knight’s sponsor Ms. Jacqueline Milera conducts the Silver Knight nominee selection process starting with an open call for any interested seniors to attend one of two informational meetings. At the meeting, Ms. Milera reviews the credentials for Silver Knight and afterward, she will pass out an initial questionnaire to be filled out anonymously.

“All interested seniors essentially… list everything that they have done in high school that would warrant them being named a nominee in a particular category,” Ms. Milera said. “After they turn that in, there’s a committee… and we get together, and we very painstakingly go through all the potential nominee questionnaires.”

The process takes days to complete but it is well worth the wait when you finally have a final list of nominees. After that, Ms. Milera will either send a letter of acceptance or rejection to every individual who filled out the questionnaire and then helps the chosen nominees prepare for the interview with the Miami Herald Silver Knight panel of judges. Once all the nominees have completed their interviews all that’s left to do is wait for the awards ceremony where the winners and Honourable Mentions will be announced.

After turning in your Ferguson Silver Knight application and attending the meeting, what’s the next step for any nominees? According to the Miami Herald Silver Knight website, a school’s nominees will be interviewed by a panel of independent judges and each panel will select one Silver Knight and three Honourable Mentions. The judges’ choices will then be announced on the evening of the Silver Knight Awards Ceremony. Silver Knights will receive $2,000 scholarships among other prizes and the Honourable Mentions will receive $500 in scholarship money along with an engraved plaque.

Silver Knight nominees are extraordinary people that have proven they can go the extra mile for themselves and their communities. Silver Knight nominee for English and Literature, Winely Thompson, describes her peers as “exemplary students that guide others into doing the right thing while helping out in the community.”

The inspiration that motivates the nominees is reflected in the dedication to their community service projects. Thompson’s project includes collecting clothes in good condition to personally donate it to churches in underprivileged areas in Nicaragua.

Ferguson’s journalism nominee Giselle Valdes’ community service project involved volunteering at Kayleen’s Learning Center helping children with homework in academic areas they struggle in. Commitment to helping others is key when it comes to this aspect of the competition. In fact, Ms. Milera says that they weigh the community service slightly more than the grades. She breaks it down by saying, “50 percent community service, 40 percent academics, 10 percent interview.”

It takes a lot of hard work to become a Silver Knight but in the end, it is worth it. Ferguson students that have passion and drive being recognized for all the work they’ve put in is something that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.

The experience of being a nominee and perhaps even winning in your category will be well worth the dedication. The recognition that comes from just being a part of Silver Knight is something earned and well-deserved, making it a truly unique experience for all.