cambridge connect - Miami Lakes Educational Center

WELCOME BABY BORGES
Mrs. Neyda Borges and Mr. Daniel Borges welcomed their
newborn son, Ian Daniel Borges, on December 16th, 2015
The Newsletter
of the Cambridge
Academy Alumni
Association
CAMBRIDGE CONNECT
QUIET ON SET
S
Hilary Higgins
KEEPING UP WITH THE OBAMAS
H
ilary graduated from Harvard this May,
earning a degree in Political Science.
After graduating, she worked in the Rule
of Law program of a Latin American policy
think tank in DC, called The Dialogue.
After that, she interned at the White
House for the Senior Advisor to the President,
Valerie Jarrett, in the Office of Public
Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.
She just moved back to Boston to work as
a business management consultant at the
Boston Consulting Group.
If any of you have any questions about
working in the government, or recruiting to
work in consulting, you can reach Hilary at
hilaryjhiggins@gmail.com
IVY DREAMS KNOCKING ON 2016
S
Stephanie Brito
tephanie Brito, current senior in
journalism, has been offered admission to
Yale after receiving a phone call and a likely
letter from them.
She has also been accepted into
MIT. Currently, she waits to hear back from
Harvard, Princeton and Stanford.
ince graduating, Karina has continued to pursue a variety of interests
while completing her undergraduate degree at NYU.
She has worked on various
student films and stage productions
(working as an actor, in production,
and working behind the scenes on sets).
This experience led her to a job as a Production Assistant for the “This Year in
Vevo” music awards show.
She has also continued her
dedication to helping others. She volunteers for Gallup NYC, which pairs
therapeutic horses with disabled people
and is working on a larger project, an organization of college students who will
work to tutor and mentor students from
underprivileged and underserved areas
of New York.
Karina Padron
EXPLORING THE WORLD
K
Cosette Perez
CHASING
HOLLYWOOD
T
his December, Cosette completed two
internships in Hollywood California, where
she is pursuing her interest in film. She
worked at David Ellison’s company, Skydance.
They produce the Mission Impossible and
Star Trek films.
The other internship was at New
Regency, which produced Birdman and 12
years a Slave. This year they produced The
Revenant, so they may win the Oscar three
years in a row, which would make it the first
company to do that.
Although
Cosette
graduates
from Boston University at the end of this
semester, she is pursuing her career dreams
in Hollywood. She was recently hired at
Sanctuary Content which is a production
company that makes commercials for highend clients.
She is fortunate to begin working
with them while they too are growing and
moving into a new office. She is seeing
everything being built from the ground up. So
it’s exciting!
DRAWING
STRENGTH FROM
DIVERSIY
Krisna Maddy with Junot Diaz
PAGE 2
elvin, who
was named a Gates
Milennium Scholar,
enrolled at
Carnegie
Melon
University
after
graduating from MLEC in 2009.
Always known for his wide variety
of intellectual and academic interests,
Kelvin’s academic career took many twists
and turns before he completed his degree
in 2015. He shifted majors as often as his
interests did. “I think the order was biology,
physics, linguistics, art, philosophy, and
finally, logic and computation.
But these shifts in direction
don’t tell the whole story. Kelvin wasn’t
moving aimlessly, rather he was studying,
researching, learning and using all of these
experiences to propel him from project to
project.
Some of his projects include the
discovery and genetic sequencing of two
bacteriophages, a Department of Defense
project involving magnetic bacteria and
bioluminescence, and testing casual
inference algorithms for the Carnegie
Mellon philosophy department.
After collaborating with some
colleagues, he developed his own business
named Biogenous -- a waste-to-energy
system for buildings. He decided that
he would take a year off from school,
even though he had only a semester left,
to concentrate on his entrepreneurship
dreams.
“To my surprise, we saw some
success, being accepted into incubators
that provided us with more funding, and,
more importantly, mentorship.”
After publishing a paper about
Biogenous, he was invited to give a talk at
the European Meetings of Cybernetics and
Systems Research in Austria.
He’s worked in a variety of
disciplines, but has now accepted a position
as a developer with ThoughtWorks, and
will begin in April after a six-week training
session in Pune, India.
Kelvin Rojas
K
risna is currently the Vice Chair of the
United Minorities Council. The UMC is
a political organization on campus that has
been around for about 30 years.
They are an umbrella organization
that includes 28 minority student groups
on campus including Carribean/African
American, Latino, Asian/Pacific Islander,
LGBTQ, and Native American organizations.
They work to facilitate interculturalism and
social justice on campus.
On the political side, their current
initiatives include improving the conditions
of faculty diversity, opportunities and
assistance for first generation low-income
students, and responding to incidents
on campus that are harmful to minority
students.
Every semester we sit down
with Amy Guntman, the president of the
university to discuss our initiatives and
ways administration could be of assistance. Outside of the political stuff, we
promote a sense of community amongst
minorities through social events such as
Celebration of Cultures which is a fashion
show, performing arts group showcase, and
food event, as well as Unity Week which is a
week of promoting interculturalism through
a series of events and a main speaker (i.e.
Junot Diaz!!)
I basically plan these events, work
with administration on a weekly basis, and
connect with students.
It’s definitely been one of the most
rewarding parts of Penn for me
LIVING THE HOUSE OF CARDS LIFE
A
fter graduating, Darryl enrolled at
Florida International University to
pursue a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political
Science. The past four years of his collegiate
career has revolved around community
service.
It all started when he applied to
an organization called Global Community
Engagement. As part of the team, Darryl
would travel to the Dominican Republic
during his spring breaks to mentor children
in impoverished communities, as well as
advocate for children’s rights.
In his third and last time in
GCE, Darryl served as the director for the
organization.
To add upon this experience,
Darryl was also actively involved with FIU’s
Center for Leadership & Service, serving
as a Peer Leadership Consultant for the
office; the job was to represent the office
in freshman classes, as well as organize
four-day leadership retreats per semester.
Along with that, Darryl has served as
the Philanthropy chair for his fraternity,
coordinated fundraising events that has
raised over $6,000 and has also served on
the executive board for alternative Breaks
and Omicron Delta Kappa Leadership
Honor Society.
In terms of internships, Darryl has
participated in a few notable internships.
He interned a semester with the
International Rescue Committee, where
he assisted caseworkers transition recent
refugees, asylees, and parolees into life in
the United States.
Darryl was later accepted to The
Washington Center for Internships and
Seminars in Washington D.C., and was
assigned to MANA, A National Latina
Organization, where as a Legislative Intern,
would attend congressional hearings and
markups on Capitol Hill, along with design
press releases and newsletters to update
members on recent legislation.
Darryl was later able to extend
his stay in Washington D.C when he was
accepted into the Congressional Hispanic
Caucus Institute (CHCI) Internship
Program, where he was placed into the
Office of Senator Marco Rubio on Capitol
Hill. In this experience, Darryl observed
first-hand the operations of the Senate,
including the interaction of the House of
Representatives,
Executive and Judicial branches.
In his work as an intern, Darryl would
correspond with over 60 constituents daily,
give U.S. Capitol tours, answer phone calls,
and sort mail, along with assisting with
drafting correspondence letters.
Now in his last semester at FIU,
Darryl is looking ahead at where his career
takes him post-undergrad. He plans on
taking a year off from enrolling in graduate
school to develop political campaign
experience in either a congressional election
or presidential election. In the long term,
Darryl intends on going to graduate school
for public policy and become involved in
policy making.
FOLLOWING GOBAL DREAMS
A
fter graduating from MLEC, SaraH
enrolled at American University at
Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, she left
after her first year because, her financial
aid was not enough to cover the cost of
tuition, books and housing. With her credit
stretched to the limit, she was unable to
qualify for any more loans.
But she was determined not to
allow her economic status to hold her
back from pursuing her dreams. After
transferring to FIU, she completed 3 study
abroad programs: an exchange in Spain, a
study session in the Czech Republic, and an
Atlantic Exploration on Semester at Sea.
She paid for these using FAFSA
and scholarships and working a full time job
while also attending school full time.
SaraH Castellanos
Darryl Perez
TEAMING UP
WITH A
NON-PROFIT
A
fter
graduating
from
Columbia
University, Samantha decided to
dedicate herself to non-profit work on
a quest to give back and help underrepresented and unprivileged communities.
Her first full-time job working as a project
coordinator with an organization called
Reach Out and Read in Brooklyn, NY.
There, she was able to help bring books
into various doctors’ offices to promote early
literacy among diverse populations.
Now she is currently working as
a case worker for the AIDS Service Center
(ASC) in NYC helping clients to achieve
life stability by helping them access health
insurance, housing, therapy and other
services that may ease their lives.
Working at ASC has really shaped
her career goals and she would like to
pursue an MSW or MS in counseling.
Samantha Jean-Baptiste
PAGE 3
CONQUERING ENIGNEERING
Gloriana Redondo
S
ince I graduated MLEC I’ve had the
opportunity to do great things and meet
amazing people who have helped me grow
professionally and personally.
But I would not be where I am today
if it had not been for the things I learned
as an engineering student in Cambridge.
I was taught the basic concepts which led
me to appreciate the study and commit to
becoming a mechanical engineer.
I thank Mr. Kynerd for being a
huge influence in my career path and for
presenting to me the idea of attending
Carnegie Mellon University. Which at
the time, I didn’t believe I could ever be
accepted to due to the rigorous curriculum
and high standards the university placed its
students.
But with the support from our
Cambridge family, I applied and was
ultimately accepted. I received the Gates
Millennium Scholarship at the end of my
senior year thanks to Mr. Kynerd and
Mr. Moffi who were my recommender and
nominator for the scholarship application
process. I will probably never know what
they wrote about me, but I appreciate every
word and their time since that scholarship
led me to receive a great education, debt
free.
I took an internship as a
mechanical engineer in Cartago, Costa
Rica. I worked for the quality department
WHAT’S
HAPPENING AT MLEC
- Miami Lakes Educational Center is an
A school once again
- Our new school principal is Ms. Loudres
Diaz. She is Brown University alumni.
- Christian Steiner was accepted into
NYU.
- MLEC may adopt an eight period day.
PAGE 4
at a hydroelectric power plant for 2 months.
The experience helped me apply what I was
learning in college to my work. It opened
my eyes in terms of what a company expects
from you as an engineer. Life is more about
alright this is what you know, now what can
you do with it.
Which is why it is so important to
be part of groups outside of class. I worked
for the Formula Society of Automotive
Engineers (FSAE) for 2 years as the chassis
system director and project leader. I was the
first woman to be chassis system director
in the team’s history and helped the team
win the first design competition for a hybrid
formula vehicle in 2014.
I received a job offer from L’Oreal
USA on December 2014. I was inducted into
the Management Development Program
in February 9th, 2015 in Redmond,
Washington. The program gives me the
opportunity to work for any of the L’Oreal
USA plants across the world through 3
rotations (equivalent to 3 years).
I started my first rotation in
Washington and was offered another this
year at the same location. I am currently a
Supplier Quality Engineer for Clarisonic,a
L’Oreal owned company.
It is the first and only device
plant the company owns. As a mechanical
engineer I am learning and solving problems
every day.
LIFE OF THE PARTY
S
TEACHER OF THE
YEAR
M
rs. Erica Evans-Desimone was
awarded the coveted Teacher of the
Year award. Through her effort and tireless
drive, she has molded the Cambridge
Academy to what it is today.
Ruth Reyes
REINVENTING
THE WHEEL
A
s her first year at Emory University
comes to a close, Ruth Reyes has been
kept pretty busy. She joined the campus
newspaper, The Wheel, as a photograpgher
and was quickly promoted to photo
editor, where she edits the work of her
photographers and assigns assignments.
Despite her position, she realized
that The Wheel was confused on what
defined a newspaper and was mixing
magazine-like content with newspaper
content. She is currently working on
changing the direction of The Wheel - she’s
starting with her photographers and then
working her way up.
and Western audiences. She has had a lot of
fun working with the advertising group, and
helping book reservations and managing
the website/emails.
If you visit MSMR during the
break, she can be found singing Asian pop
music while dancing on the stage.
uzanne has been helping her family
run their karaoke/ restaurant business,
Macau Speciality Musical Restaurant
(MSMR), over the winter break. Suzanne’s
aunt, a famous singer from China, moved
to the US recently and established MSMR
with Suzanne’s mother about 1 year ago in
Miami Lakes near Miami Gardens Drive.
She is now working with her aunt to
promote new concepts to attract Millennials Suzanne Wong