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2025: Pathfinder Scholarship Awards

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2025 Pathfinder Awards spotlight top high school seniors in Palm Beach, Martin counties

Wayne Washington
Palm Beach Post

Each first-place award winner will receive $3,000. Students were recognized in a range of categories encompassing academics, the arts, sports and community engagement. Public and private schools submitted nominees for the awards, which are sponsored by The Palm Beach Post and have been presented for 42 years.

Here’s a look at some of these remarkable students:

Academic Excellence

First Place – Josetta Wang, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Josetta Wang

Josetta Wang was born with underdeveloped fine motor skills.

The congenital problem persisted into her early school years. She struggled to make her hands work well enough to tie her shoes, use scissors or button up her clothes.

Wang’s preschool teacher took note of the problem and suggested that her parents enroll her in an extracurricular activity like sports, dancing or playing the piano as a sort of occupational therapy.

Wang began to play the piano, and it changed her life. Practicing improved her motor skills and sparked a love for music Wang has already ridden to extraordinary heights.

The little girl who once couldn’t tie her shoes went on to become an award-winning pianist. That journey alone would be remarkable, but it is not the only noteworthy aspect of Wang’s young life.

Wang became as proficient academically as she is on piano, compiling a 4.0 grade-point average and scoring a 1520 on the SAT. She is ranked first in her class of 328 and is waiting to hear back from prestigious academic institutions like Brown, Columbia, Harvard, Duke, Emory and Princeton. She plans to teach and eventually become a nonprofit executive.

In addition to her musical and academic accomplishments, Wang served as president of the Asian Cultural Society and Dreyfoos and founded a nonprofit, The Crescendo Project, that provides free weekly piano lessons to under-resourced elementary school students.

Wang has raised $32,000 for her nonprofit and has taught three students so far, including a little girl who inspired her to translate the nonprofit’s curriculum into Spanish.

“Eighty-eight piano tiles were my keys to overcoming linguistic insecurity and accommodating my congenital condition,” said Wang, who plans to study music, business administration or human and organizational development in college. “Knowing firsthand the transformative power of music, I will dedicate my life to reducing access barriers to music.”

Second Place – Derek Collins, Park Vista High School

Third Place – Jennifer Han, Palm Beach Central High School

Mathematics

First Place – Jeffrey Yu, American Heritage School

Jeffrey Yu

Jeffrey Yu plans to make data science his life’s work. No one who knows anything about him would question why.

Yu, after all, is a National Merit Semifinalist who has received a perfect score on the SAT. He placed first at the National Alpha Theta Math Competition in 2023 and then snagged first place in the Regional Science Bowl in 2024.

He was chosen as one of 15 Kenan Fellows interns at the UF Scripps Biochemistry Research Center, researching novel drug-screening systems.

Yu has already been accepted by the University of Central Florida and Florida State University and is waiting to hear from academic titans like MIT, Duke and host of Ivy League schools, including Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth.

“I plan on majoring in mathematics and/or statistics to contribute to the field of data science,” Yu said. “I want to analyze large data sets and design algorithms to solve problems across diverse fields such as health care, finance, and technology. Ultimately, I’ll use data science to contribute to solving global challenges.”

Already, Yu has addressed some challenges close to home.

He volunteered at a retirement community and realized that many residents struggled with digital literacy. Some could not use smartphones to contact family and had trouble getting on the internet.

“Luxuries that we often take for granted,” Yu said.

So Yu decided to do something about the problems he saw. He held his own workshops for seniors. “But I quickly realized that I alone was not enough,” he said.

That’s when Yu decided to cofound TechEase, a nonprofit that organizes weekly workshops to teach hundreds of seniors digital literacy in retirement communities across South Florida.

He remained a one-man gang at first, but his work drew the attention of other tech-savvy volunteers. It wasn’t long before he was managing 20 volunteers and thousands in funding.

The math and tech whiz learned an important lesson along the way.

“As a team, we’ve made a greater impact than I could ever create on my own,” he said.

Second Place – Maya Edelstein, FAU High School

Third Place – Mia Hakkarainen, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Reach for Excellence

First Place – Micah Kapp, Oxbridge Academy

Micah Kapp

Micah Kapp’s dyslexia jumbled words and mangled language into nearly indecipherable bits. The Orton-Gillingham approach, a structured literacy method that breaks down reading and spelling into more digestible pieces like sounds and letters, helped Kapp pushed through his early struggles with reading.

He never lost his love of decoding language, just as he never forgot those early struggles with reading and understanding. That’s why he bonded with Tania, a Ukrainian woman his parents had welcomed into their home along with Tania’s daughter.

Tania spoke no English, and Kapp spoke no Russian. “Communication was a mix of smiles, nods and Google Translate,” Kapp said.

But none of that was enough to help Tania move forward in her quest to learn English. Kapp’s own inability to speak Russian limited his ability to help. Frustrated, he took an extraordinary step: He applied for a program that would teach him Russian. When he was rejected, he applied for another. This time, he was accepted by Indiana University’s summer language workshop.

“Weeks later, alone in a dorm, I stared at indecipherable letters, reliving the frustration of my dyslexia,” he said.

Kapp, though, had a weapon to turn onto the problem: the language decoding skills he learned in his own battle with dyslexia.

“I labeled every object in my room with Cyrillic, and Russian began to click,” Kapp said.

He leaned into his ability analyze and synthesize concepts, skills he used to pick up a third language, Spanish. A spark had been lit.

Kapp was able to help Tania and her daughter, who remain close to his own family. “The sounds of both Russian and English fill our home,” he said.

Kapp plans to be a linguistics professor who will use innovative strategies to help neurodivergent learners.

He’s already well on his way, having created an independent study of Russian culture and traveled to Georgia and Armenia. He created a short film about Armenian artisans for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and has served as vice president of his school’s Model UN.

Kapp has already been accepted by a trio of universities, including Indiana University. He hasn’t made his college choice yet, but, in every other sense, he knows where he’s headed.

Second Place – Ava Webster, Jupiter High School

Third Place – Erica Frishberg, Olympic Heights High School

Computer Engineering and Technology

First Place – Mirabelle Kakushadze, William T. Dwyer High School

Mirabelle Kakushadze

Mirabelle Kakushadze has always been interested in the full canvas of what academics offer.

She taught herself the Java and Python programing languages. She’s a programmer for a robotics competition team. She has interned at the Max Planck Institute for Neuroscience, assisting research into how stress affects neural circuits in the brains of mice. She impressed so much, she was taken on as a lab technician.

Kakushadze has worked as a tutor and raised money for books that would be donated to children. She’s been accepted at MIT, where she plans to major in computational neuroscience or biomedial engineering with a career goal of becoming a neural engineer.

“I’m very interested in the concept of reverse-engineering the brain, one that allows us to use artificial neural networks to first reconstruct the neural networks of the brain algorithmically and then teach them,” she said.

Second Place – Isabella Bodea, Jensen Beach High School

Third Place – Abigail Hepburn, Palm Beach Central High School

Art

First Place – Sophie Li,West Boca Raton High School

Sophie Li

An accomplished artist who uses a wide range of mediums, Sophie creates insightful, well-thought-out art pieces with a message.

Sophie uses her art as a tool to inform others and her piece “The Secret Shelf” addresses her feelings of injustice about book banning.

Sophie scored a 5 on her AP art & design project and earned a Gold Key in the National Scholastic Art Competition. She is the vice president of the National Art Honor Society at West Boca High, creative director for the ArchiTect Club, and co-founder of Rho Kappa National Social Studies Honor Society.

After graduating with an AP Capstone Diploma, Sophie will be attending the Rhode Island School of Design. She hopes to one day start an art institute and use her art to address important issues through collaborative projects, lessons, demonstrations and mentoring.

Second Place – Sydney Combs, Palm Beach Central High School

Third Place – Natalia Velez Delgado, G-Star School of the Arts

Business

First Place – Luca Weisman,Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Luca Weisman

In his belief that financial literacy should not be a privilege, Luca founded Making Cents for Kids. Through innovative curricula they created, Luca and his team hold workshops across the county to teach kids monetary concepts.

Its success then inspired Luca to create the Mindful Money App, which combines psychology and technology to help users combat impulse buying. Luca also used AI to create a chatbot that connects underprivileged kids with public service programs using geospatial mapping.

Third in his class, Luca founded and is president of Dreyfoos’ first chapter of DECA, which works with emerging leaders and entrepreneurs. He has since won first place in DECA’s Finance District Conference Award and DECA’s Virtual Business Challenge for Florida. Luca will pursue degrees in economics and data science followed by an MBA.

Second Place – Jayden Kahn, RHS @ Donna Klein Jewish Academy

Third Place – Sara Bernard, Park Vista High School

Career and Technical Education

First Place – Ruhani Dashmesh,Jupiter High School

Ruhani Dashmesh

Ruhani is a member of her school’s medical academy, has earned an EKG technician certification, a mental health first-aid certification, and will be a certified pharmacy technician by graduation.

In 2022, she founded the Mental Health Awareness Club with an aim to reduce the stigma of mental illness and improve schoolwide mental health. The club has since grown to more than 200 members, who are educated on mental health issues and have raised more than $7,000 for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.

Ruhani is also completing a pharmacy internship at Walgreen’s pharmacy. She’ll pursue an undergraduate degree in psychology, with a plan to go to medical school and ultimately have a career in psychiatry.

Second Place – Kayli Harris, American Heritage School

Third Place – Shelby Werner, Park Vista High School

Communications

First Place – Reagan Bresnahan,Seminole Ridge High School

Reagan Bresnahan

Reagan’s work on Seminole Ridge High’s TV station, WSRH, allows her to live out her passion for meeting new people and sharing their stories.

Not only does she produce, anchor, report, write, shoot and edit for all of her school’s broadcasts but she also mentors her peers in her role as co-president and lead producer for the TV Club. Reagan has won district, state, and national awards for her broadcast work and has represented her school for three years at the Student Television Network National Convention in Long Beach, California.

She is captain of the speech and debate clubs as well as her lacrosse team. Reagan plans on attending Molloy University in New York, where she will play lacrosse and study communications and broadcast journalism. After college, she will pursue a career as a news or sports reporter.

Second Place – Latricia Lamour, John I. Leonard High School

Third Place – Samantha Roseff, Palm Beach Central High School

Community involvement

First Place – Jessie Baxter,Jupiter High School

Jessie Baxter

Jessie has an unwavering commitment to serve her community.

To alleviate “clothing insecurity” for young girls, she created Ta Ta for Now, a nonprofit that provides undergarments to girls aged 11-17 in homeless shelters, foster care and low-income situations. Since its inception, the organization has distributed more than 33,000 undergarments, gathered more than $500,000 in donations and earned support from national powerhouse brands Victoria’s Secret and SKIMS.

Jessie volunteers with the Junior League of Palm Beach County, is a Business Partner with Education for her school district and has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. She plans to attend law school to be a public interest lawyer and hopes to focus on initiatives that foster the growth and empowerment of young women.

Second Place – Shiv Sanghrajka, Jensen Beach High School

Third Place – Maya Behura, American Heritage School

Forensics/Speech

First Place – Nicholas Ostheimer,FAU High School

Nicholas Ostheimer

Nicholas is the founder and president of FAU High School’s Speech and Debate Team, and his debate skills have helped the team achieve national recognition.

He is a two-time Florida Blue Key Champion and was second at both the Harvard National Speech and Debate Tournament and the National Catholic Forensic League in 2024.

Nicholas is the founder and executive director of Equality in Forensics, a nonprofit dedicated to making speech and debate more accessible. Under his leadership it has grown to involve more than 700 volunteers across 20 state chapters. It is the single largest student-run organization involved in speech and debate.

In May 2026, Nicholas will graduate from FAU with his degree in political science and a minor in history. After attending law school, he plans to practice public interest law.

Second Place – Emma Gardner, Wellington High School

Third Place – Hannah Rogers, William T. Dwyer High School

History/Political Science

First Place – Chester Coles, The Benjamin School

Chester Coles

Chester has a love for history, historical analysis and historical discussion, but his true passion and focus are classical numismatics — the study of old coins — and European history. That passion took him to the American University of Rome where, during the summer, he took college-level courses in archaeology and Greek and Roman mythology and participated in a small archaeological excavation.

Chester is a member of the Benjamin tennis team, president of the Classics Club and is founder and president of the Military History Club.

He plans to pursue a degree in classical studies at the University of Virginia and may double major in theology. He is interested in doing field research or teaching on a collegiate level.

Second Place – Joel Vincent, Suncoast High School

Third Place – David Brainard, The King’s Academy

Literature

First Place – Oliver Shane, William T. Dwyer High School

Oliver Shane

According to his AP English teacher, Oliver has a gift for literary exploration and experimentation of style and content. He is ranked top of his class with the highest honors point average his teacher has seen at Dwyer High School.

His passion for creative writing has brought him great success. He is the only person to have ever won the Palm Beach Dramaworks Young Playwrights Competition three times and won three Silver Keys and four honorable mentions for the Scholastic Regional Awards.

Oliver is the only high school student from Florida to be chosen as a Youth Ambassador for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where he makes sure other young people with diabetes feel they aren’t alone.

He will be attending the University of Southern California’s Business of Cinematic Arts program, where he’ll learn to integrate his creative storytelling skills with the entrepreneurial skills required for financial success.

Second Place – Lauren Cavanagh, West Boca Raton High School

Third Place – Shannon Wills, Jupiter High School

Music/Instrumental

First Place – Thomas Gardner, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Thomas Gardner

Thomas, an accomplished flutist, is a member of three bands at Dreyfoos, where he also plays the piccolo and alto saxophone.

He is an All-State and All-County musician, was named the top ranked flutist among All-State musicians, and his jazz band was a finalist in the Essentially Ellington Finals at Lincoln Center. He has also played in the pit orchestra for both the Young Singers of the Palm Beaches and the Ebony Chorale.

He was invited to perform two pieces at the Baroque Jazz Festival in Miami with Nestor Torres, a renowned Latin jazz flutist. Thomas hopes to one day have a permanent position in an orchestra or symphony.

Second Place – Moorea Tan, American Heritage School

Third Place – Rebecca Su, FAU High School

Music/Vocal

First Place — Aime Pierre, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Aime Pierre

Our Music Vocal judges were awed by Aime’s performance, calling it one of the most polished presentations they had seen from a high school student in a long time.

She participated in the highest-level music classes and performed at many county events. She co-founded and is president of her school’s Pickleball Club, and she volunteered at art camps where she worked with children on music, art and dance.

Aime plans to study nutritional sciences and fitness. As a dietitian and trainer, she wants to help people to become the healthiest versions of themselves.

Second Place – Sophia Perez, Cardinal Newman High School

Third Place – Jordan Ruiz-White, The King’s Academy

Science

First Place – Dishika Parikh, American Heritage School

Dishika Parikh

Dishika is enrolled in American Heritage’s pre-med program while maintaining a GPA of 5.6 (weighted). As part of the school’s Science Research Institute, she completed a project about a noninvasive diagnostic method for Alzheimer’s disease, which has earned her accolades at the school, regional, state, national and international levels.

At the International Forum on Research Excellence, Dishika placed as the top presenter in biology and biotechnology among numerous global applicants. Also an award-winning orator, Dishika founded the nonprofit Speakwise Academy in 2022 to teach public speaking skills to students regardless of age or background.

Dishika plans to be a physician and has spent more than 436 hours volunteering at and shadowing pediatric oncologists and hematologists at St. Mary’s Medical Center, where she received cancer treatments as a child.

Second Place – Emma Allison, Palm Beach Central High School

Third Place – Laura Williams, Santaluces High School

Sports

First Place – Sarah Decowski, Martin County High School

Sarah’s commitment to swimming stretched beyond the pool when she used her leadership and debate skills to lobby for the repair and reopening of the Martin County Pool, where her team practiced.

By rallying teammates and the community to attend and speak at the school board meeting, the district committed $483,500 to get the swimming pool repaired.

Sarah has personally won more than 30 swimming awards and helped her swim team win seventh place in the 200-yard medley relay in the Florida State Championship.

Sarah is president of her debate team and founder of her school’s Academic Ambassadors. She plans to major in biology, become a veterinarian and work at a zoo that focuses on conservation.

Second Place – Sam Woods, The Benjamin School

Third Place – Yohaun Gordan, Glades Central High School

Theater Arts

First Place – Yair Roman, G-Star School of the Arts

Yair Roman

Yair has immersed himself in all aspects of theater arts. He is a gifted actor and budding singer, but his true passion is writing. One of his plays has been published and produced.

Another highlight of his artistic career was directing G-Star’s piece at the Thespy One-Act Play Festival Competition. Under his leadership they received a Superior Score and the Critic’s Choice Award.

Yair will graduate with AICE diploma and IB diplomas and has received the highest AICE Drama score in the country. Yair will pursue a bachelor’s degree in fine arts and plans to continue acting and writing.

Second Place – D’Zzria Bethell, The King’s Academy

Third Place – Miranda Pachter, Dr. Joaquin Garcia High School

World Language

First Place – Anthony Viverito,The Benjamin School

Anthony Viverito

Anthony, whose native languages are Thai and English, is also proficient in Spanish and Chinese.  As a serious world language student, he has maintained an A-plus average in both these languages throughout his high school career.

As a financial whiz, Anthony won first in state in Fiscal and Monetary Policy, sponsored by Eurochallenge.

He is the co-founder of WeeklyTheta, a nonprofit that promotes financial literacy through many channels — including a blog with 15,000-plus monthly views and a YouTube channel surpassing 500,000 total views.  Anthony plans to major in economics and then delve into commercial real estate development.

Second Place – Phoebe Nissanoff, RHS at Donna Klein Jewish Academy

Third Place – Carlos Mayor, West Boca Raton High School

Wayne Washington is a journalist covering education for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at wwashington@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today.

© 2025 www.palmbeachpost.com. All rights reserved.

2024: Pathfinder Scholarship Awards

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2024 Pathfinders scholarship awards honor 54 remarkable Palm Beach, Martin county students

Students from public or private schools were eligible to be nominated for Pathfinders scholarships. Here’s what to know about the winners.

Katherine Kokal

Palm Beach Post

Vyapti Shahani Subramaniam

When Vyapti Shahani Subramaniam told adults she wanted to be a neuroscientist when she grew up, she remembers a particularly cruel (and common) response.

“Sweetheart, why don’t you choose a career more appropriate for girls?” they asked her. She said she felt ridiculed and

belittled.

Now a senior at Suncoast High and one of 54 students honored with a 2024 Pathfinder Scholarship Award, Shaha

ni Subramaniam is proving that “a career that’s appropriate for girls” is truly anything a girl wants to be.

“Misogyny is globalized, but equal opportunity is not,” she said. “These oppressive voices made me even more determined as an Indian-American woman to use my opportunities to support the education of underprivileged girls and students in general.”

Shahani Subramaniam, first in her class of 355, applied to a slate of top-ranked schools and now plans to dive into neuroscience and biology at Washington University in St. Louis in the fall. Her goal is to understand and study consciousness and the states of knowing that allow people to perceive our surroundings in terms of “I” and “me.”

She is one of an impressive list of 54 Pathfinders, who were announced Friday at Screen on the Green on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach. Shahani Subramaniam won first place in the Academic Excellence category.

Ryan Aouad

Pathfinder winner knows four languages. Guess where they come in handy the most?

Ryan Aouad, first place finisher in the World Languages category and nominated by West Boca Raton High, explained to the judges that he hopes to be a foreign affairs official and a polyglot, or someone who speaks several languages.

He is well on his way as a teenager: Aouad speaks or is learning Spanish, French, Arabic and Russian.

In addition to being able to trace the etymology of words in romance, central semitic and slavic languages, he said his skills also have far more practical uses.

“At my job as a lifeguard, there were numerous kids that did not speak English, usually from Latin America or Quebec. It was always a good feeling to be able to communicate with them in Spanish or French and convey the age-old rule of “no running!” in different languages,” he said.

Forced to evacuate her hometown for a hurricane, Pathfinder winner took on the challenge

Nikki Leali

Nikki Leali of FAU High School won first place in the Computer Engineering and Technology category.

Leali was forced to evacuate her home state of Louisiana from Hurricane Ida and move to Florida to start over in the middle of high school and the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everything I knew about high school ended abruptly on October 13th of 2021,” she said. “The sudden decision forced me to leave behind everything I knew, including multiple volunteer programs I spearheaded. For the rest of my 10th grade year, I navigated as a Florida Virtual student, which was a difficult adjustment.”

But Leali rose to the occasion.

She became a dual-enrolled student at FAU High and began working toward her bachelor’s degree in data analytics. Leali hopes to work on harnessing artificial intelligence to get meaningful insights from complex data sets as the technology evolves.

Pathfinder winner helped fight poverty during internship. Now, she hopes to make a difference in her career

Jasmine Nunez

As a summer intern at a nonprofit in Martin County, Jasmine Nunez said it was impossible to ignore the shattered bottles and trash that littered the sidewalk of Bonita Street, a predominantly Hispanic community in Stuart.

Nunez spent the summer helping people living in poverty redeem clothing vouchers, learn English, nurture community gardens and get nutritious meals. When she went back to school at Clark Advanced Learning Center, she realized she had to tap into her Hispanic roots to make a lasting difference in her community.

“There is still much work to be done to eradicate the economic disparities that impact the Hispanic community,” she said. “However, organizations like House of Hope inspire me to further their mission by targeting one of the biggest challenges to food insecurity: a need for more data. I am passionate about filling this data gap and ultimately championing policy.”

As the winner of the 2024 Pathfinder Award for Community Involvement, Nunez has put in nearly 500 community service hours. She hopes to attend law school and find policy solutions to food insecurity.

Editor’s Note: Due to a reporting error, this section originally misstated the location of Nunez’s internship. Her internship took place in Martin County.

Winners of 2024 Pathfinders scholarship awards

This year’s Pathfinder Scholarship Awards garnered 544 nominations and honored students with a total of $117,000.

Along with the top prizes, second and third place winners earned $2,000 and $1,500, respectively, adding to more than $4 million awarded over the event’s history.

“The Pathfinder program is a celebration of high achieving students in Palm Beach and Martin counties,” said Janie Fogt, president of the Pathfinder board of directors. “Tonight, 544 outstanding seniors are in the spotlight for their success in one of 18 categories. The fact that they were chosen by their schools is a great honor, and we are delighted to award 54 of them college scholarships.”

See the full list of winners below:

Academic Excellence

  • First place: Vyapti Shahani Subramaniam, Suncoast High
  • Second place: Bradley Frishman, American Heritage School
  • Third place: Aditya Narayanan, William T. Dwyer High

Art

  • First place: Petter Rodriguez, William T. Dwyer High
  • Second place: Arabella Sanchez-Garcia, Oxbridge Academy
  • Third place: Autumn Johnstone, Jupiter High

Business

  • First place: Emilia McGovern, Wellington High
  • Second place: Jacob Glover, Spanish River High
  • Third place: Pratheek Nathani, American Heritage

Career and Technical Education

  • First place: Olivia Angervil, Clark Advanced Learning Center
  • Second place: Eden Price, Jupiter Christian School
  • Third place: Nandini Patel, The Benjamin School

Communications

  • First place: Laila Mayfield, Jensen Beach High
  • Second place: Isaac Edelman, West Boca Raton High
  • Third place: Dariel Reid, American Heritage

Community Involvement

  • First place: Jasmine Nunez, Clark Advanced Learning Center
  • Second place: Noah Forman, FAU High
  • Third place: Sofia Scher, Spanish River High

Computer Engineering and Technology

  • First place: Nikki Leali, FAU High
  • Second place: Katelyn Sadorf, Spanish River High
  • Third place: Kaitlyn Chen, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Forensics/Speech

  • First place: Sasha DiMare, American Heritage
  • Second place: Arik Karim, Dreyfoos School of the Arts
  • Third place: Morgan Rafferty, Suncoast High

History

  • First place: Shania Grant, FAU High
  • Second place: Joelle Carmel, William T. Dwyer High
  • Third place: Tanay Warrier, American Heritage

Literature

  • First place: Emily Singer, Dreyfoos School of the Arts
  • Second place: Nedjie Aurelien, Atlantic High
  • Third place: Alessandra Roberts, Saint Andrew’s School

Math

  • First place: Matthew Cai, Atlantic High
  • Second place: Jesse Brodtman, American Heritage
  • Third place: Makena Senzon, Dreyfoos School of the Arts

Music — Instrumental

  • First place: Rose Friedman, Suncoast High
  • Second place: Julián Fente, Saint Andrew’s School
  • Third place: Ryan Vladimir, Boca Raton High

Music — Vocal

  • First place: Cassidy Clark, Palm Beach Gardens High
  • Second place: Ava Diamond, William T. Dwyer High
  • Third place: Olivia Reid, Seminole Ridge High

Reach for Excellence

  • First place: Brooke Taylor, Spanish River High
  • Second place: Kai Franks, American Heritage
  • Third place: Mikayla Jeanty, Park Vista High

Science

  • First place: Ava Allwardt, Saint Andrew’s School
  • Second place: Nira Goyal, Martin County High
  • Third place: Theodore Ouyang, Suncoast High

Sports

  • First place: Jake Chavis, FAU High
  • Second place: Brynn Stoneburg, Jensen Beach High
  • Third place: Cecelia Oneid, Jupiter High

Theater Arts

  • First place: Von Markarian, Dreyfoos School of the Arts
  • Second place: Johnathon Bucknor, Wellington High
  • Third place: Kelsey Bonner, West Boca Raton High

World Language

  • First place: Ryan Aouad, West Boca Raton High
  • Second place: Addington McKearn, William T. Dwyer High
  • Third place: Mario Suarez, Saint Andrew’s School

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com.

Help support our work; subscribe today!

Pathfinders scholarships are sponsored by The Palm Beach Post and award each of the first-place winners $3,000. By recognizing students across 18 categories, Pathfinders honors the high school seniors for their achievements inside and outside the classroom.

The scholarship program is now in its 41st year, and Palm Beach Post Executive Editor Rick Christie said it’s the best example of the newspaper’s relationship and investment in our community.

“This is one of my favorite times of year,” Christie said. “These high school graduates are forms of renewal of our ideas, of our ideals and what our community can be.”

Asked what his advice would be to the graduates and winners, Christie encouraged them to remember “whatever you think your limits are, think higher.”

2023: Pathfinder Scholarship Awards Mark 40 years

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Pathfinder Scholarship Awards mark 40 years of recognizing academic excellence

Kristina Webb
Special to The Palm Beach Post

A first-generation college student who wants to set an example for her younger siblings. A gay Black student who hopes to improve equity in medical care. A young entrepreneur inspired to achieve great things following his sister’s stillbirth.

These are just three of the 18 outstanding students honored by this year’s Pathfinder Scholarship Awards.

The Pathfinder Awards, sponsored by The Palm Beach Post, marked their 40th year with a remarkable slate of candidates — 530 of them.

The first-place winner in each of the 18 categories received a $3,000 scholarship in recognition of their achievements. Second- and third-place winners received $2,000 and $1,500, respectively.

In addition to requiring written recommendations from their academic leaders — including principals, program directors and teachers — finalists also are required to take part in an interview process.

All told, the scholarship program has awarded more than $3.5 million over the past four decades.

“It’s hard to think of a community event The Palm Beach Post has participated in over the past few decades that has a greater effect than the Pathfinder Awards,” said Palm Beach Post Executive Editor Rick Christie. “It is often said that its children are any community’s greatest asset. And, other than our award-winning education coverage, this is our way of helping to recognize that truth.”

‘My whole life has been surrounded by one question: What more can I do?’

From an early age, Martin County High School senior Daniela Mendoza watched as her single mother worked two jobs to support her three children. As the oldest, Mendoza learned how to cook, clean and do laundry to help her mother and two younger brothers.

“My whole life has been surrounded by one question: What more can I do?” Mendoza said. “This question made me who I am and who I will become.”

Mendoza has channeled that desire to do more into a passion for health care. She is enrolled in Martin County High School’s Medical Academy. In her junior year, she earned her medical administrative assistant certification. She’s currently studying to become a certified nursing assistant. She will be a first-generation college student, and she plans to obtain her bachelor’s degree in nursing.

Her skill and dedication to her work have made her a top student in her program, said Aimee French, Medical Academy instructor at Martin County High School.

“As a nursing assistant, Daniela completed 20 hours of clinical rotations at Palm City Nursing and Rehab where she participated in patient care,” French said. “During her training, Daniela went above and beyond, taking initiative to learn and expand her knowledge.”

With an admiration for women and mothers and their strength, Mendoza said she wants to go into maternity care. “Women are so strong and powerful, and being able to help a woman push out a beautiful blessing is so rewarding.”

Mendoza also works more than 45 hours a week at two jobs, seven days a week, while making time to volunteer for the Club Pure summer camp in Port St. Lucie.

Community service was a constant theme from this year’s Pathfinder winners.

The overachiever who grew ‘more proud and open with my unique identity’

Science Pathfinder winner Justin Ricketts, a Suncoast High School senior, plans to become a neurologist so he can dedicate his life to ensuring his future patients receive quality care, “regardless of race, gender, economic status or sexuality, to the fullest of my abilities,” he said.

Ricketts grew up in Lake Worth Beach, where he watched neighbors, friends and family members struggle to receive adequate medical care.

One of his greatest challenges growing up was in understanding his sexual identity.

“In high school, I have more often than not been the only Black kid in my advanced classes … or the only gay kid,” Ricketts said. “With the exception of one of my classes in four years, I’ve always been the only Black and gay kid. Regardless, I have grown more proud and open with my unique identity.”

Ricketts scored a perfect 1600 on his SATs, and he is president of Suncoast’s Black Student Union. Last summer, he attended the elite Research Science Institute at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which accepts only 92 students per year.

He has been accepted to Harvard University’s neuroscience program, which he plans to attend before pursuing an MD-PhD.

“Justin is a chameleon of sorts,” said Liesl DeLuera, science teacher at Suncoast. “He is comfortable and confident with peers from many different walks of life; able to find a common ground from which he works collaboratively to achieve a common goal. I have seen this first hand in the classroom and know it to be equally true today.”

Collaboration both in and out of the classroom can be seen among several Pathfinder winners.

A responsibility to live life ‘to its absolute fullest’ for a sister who was stillborn

Pathfinder winners and Spanish River High School seniors Paul Passarelli and Brody Pellegrino dedicated dozens of hours to their work with the nonprofit Clubs2Kids.org, founded and operated by Passarelli with a summer school curriculum written by Pellegrino.

The organization introduces young students, who might not otherwise have the opportunity, to the game of golf. The children are provided equipment, guidance and education.

“For the past two years, it’s been amazing to see children learn to love golf like I do,” said Passarelli, who is this year’s Community Involvement Pathfinder winner for his work with his nonprofit. “We now have eight instructors who teach 110 children, saving local families $66,000 in fees and equipment.”

Passarelli is ranked sixth in his class, and he plans to study either economics or business, then enter the finance industry.

Pellegrino is this year’s Academic Excellence Pathfinder. He is ranked first in his graduating class, scored a 1540 on his SATs, was named an AP Scholar with Distinction by the College Board and plans to pursue a career in finance.

When Pellegrino was in fifth grade, his sister Margo was stillborn. “I thought about Margo never having the chance to take risks, to fall but get back up again, to change the world, to live,” Pellegrino said. “I felt an urgent responsibility to live my life to its absolute fullest for her.”

With that inspiration, Pellegrino in ninth grade joined DECA, a student organization that encourages entrepreneurship. He quickly assumed a leadership position and this year is president of Florida DECA.

“We have not had a DECA Executive President for Florida in many years at River, and we are so proud that Brody has done such an exceptional job representing Spanish River while gaining invaluable experience meeting with other student business leaders from across the state,” said Spanish River Principal Allison Castellano.

Pellegrino has been accepted to and will attend the exclusive Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

“We congratulate all of the Pathfinder Award winners, as well as the nominees,” The Post’s Christie said. “With the help of their parents and loved ones, these students are laying the groundwork for a great future. We wish them well.”

2021: Pathfinder Winners are Announced

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2021 Pathfinder Awards: WATCH as the winners are announced

Palm Beach Post staff report

2022: Pathfinder winners overcome great challenges 

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2022 Pathfinder winners overcame great challenges in Palm Beach and Martin counties

Giuseppe Sabella
Palm Beach Post

“I was thrown into a classroom where nobody could understand me, and students would bully me for not knowing the language,” Gerig said. “I would ask other Spanish speakers for help, and they would trick me into saying things to embarrass myself.”

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT First - Gabriel Gerig - Inlet Grove High School

Gerig, now a senior at Inlet Grove High School and one of 54 students honored during the 2022 Pathfinder Scholarship Awards, said that family, faith and self-determination fueled his journey.

He earned straight A’s, climbed to the top of his class and recently earned a spot at the prestigious Harvard College.

But it was Gerig’s volunteer work — more than 1,300 hours dedicated to tutoring students, helping at school events and passing out food to local families — that secured his position as the Community Involvement winner during this year’s Pathfinder awards.

The awards, sponsored by The Palm Beach Post, entered their 39th year and gave $3,000 to each of the first-place winners across 18 categories, honoring the high school seniors for their achievements inside and outside the classroom.

“The Pathfinders Scholarship Awards are a tradition unlike any other in Palm Beach and Martin counties, providing an opportunity to put our hardworking high school students center stage,” said Post Executive Editor Rick Christie.

“It is the most significant showing by our communities how much we value education, and the importance of investing in our students,” he said.

“The Palm Beach Post is proud to have been a part of this great tradition from the beginning, and looks forward to continuing that support.”

REACH FOR EXCELLENCE First - Aidan Locke - Jensen Beach High School

Aidan Locke, a student at Jensen Beach High School and this year’s winner in the Reach for Excellence category, turned her challenges into opportunities.

Locke has dyslexia, a learning disability that can make reading difficult. But that struggle motivated Locke to work harder and to advocate not only for herself, but also for the many students who face similar obstacles.

She excelled in school, shared her story at national conferences, pushed for new dyslexia legislation and worked toward her ultimate goal of becoming a special education teacher.

“I cannot think of a more noble course of study than to give back to other students that may find themselves struggling and feeling discouraged and disheartened,” teacher Amanda Cooke said in a letter of recommendation for Locke.

Locke was among the many Pathfinder winners who aspired to make a positive difference in the world.

MATHEMATICS First - Alexander Stone - West Boca Raton High School.

Alexander Stone, who ranked No. 1 in a class of more than 500 students at West Boca Raton High School, plans to major in aerospace engineering.

Stone, this year’s winner in the Mathematics category, said he hoped to advance technology for everyday travel, cargo transportation or space voyages.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE First - Belina Bubenik Parry - Olympic Heights High School

And this year’s winner in the Foreign Language category, Belina Bubenik Parry, is using her gift to pursue a career in diplomacy and international relations.

The Olympic Heights High School senior can speak, write and read in English, Czech, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Arabic.

Parry — who was also practicing Mandarin, Thai and American Sign Language — said her mother inspired a love of language in the family, along with a spirit of sensitivity and cultural awareness.

Now, Parry has vowed to honor those lessons after her mother’s passing in September.

“Although I’ll never be able to repay my mom for all the wonderful things she did for me, I know I can still make her proud,” she said in her award submission. “That will be her legacy; I will be her legacy.”

This year’s Pathfinder Scholarship Awards garnered hundreds of nominations and honored students with tens of thousands of dollars.

Along with the top prizes, second-and third-place winners earned $2,000 and $1,500, respectively, adding to more than $3.4 million awarded over the event’s history.

“We are proud to recognize the hard work and tenacity shown by the 534 Pathfinder nominees from Palm Beach and Martin County high schools,” said Janie Fogt, president of the Pathfinders’ Board of Directors. “We are able to give 54 scholarships, but if we could, we would love to give so many more.”

gsabella@pbpost.com

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