Miami Palmetto High School rising senior Ari Cromartie won the Leadership Award at the end of the year awards ceremony. He’s the incoming Class of 2027 vice president.
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This was his first run for a school office.
“I’m pretty new,” he says. “I’m the only one who wasn’t on council before. I was always involved in the school. I wanted to increase that involvement and I want to bring sports into it.”
Cromartie says he was encouraged by Savannah Sanin and her Mock Up! Speak Up! project and also encouraged by his coach to run.
“I wanted to represent a new perspective,” he says. “I had been involved but not in these events. Another thing that inspired me to run is trying to help people get past financial burdens when it comes to school events. I want to help introduce events that could lower some of those fees and increase accessibility for the seniors. I pretty much do everything regarding the class. I participated in organizing the events and propose new events.”
One of the first big events is the Panther Prowl, a lip sync battle.
“We just finished the set list,” he says. “I think it’s one of the biggest events we have – bigger than homecoming.”
The senior class is using songs from the 80’s and everyone in the class can participate.
“We try to get as many people involved as possible,” he says. “Last year we had a huge number of juniors. We take who we have, and then we try to do choreography.”
Last year, before he was a class vice president, he helped direct the football section of Panther Prowl.
“Last year it was a Disney theme,” he says. “We did a reenactment of their Zombie football theme.”
Cromartie says it was a good way to integrate sports into school more.
Getting more students to attend sporting events is important to him. He plays right offensive right tackle on the football team.
Previously he played junior varsity basketball for two years and one year of junior varsity volleyball. He was also a member of the track and field team, taking part in the shot put and the javelin. He may go out for track and field again next year.
Cromartie started playing football at the end of his freshman year. He joined the varsity team his sophomore season.
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He’s talked to a college scout or two but he’s not counting on getting a sports scholarship. He’s considering top academic universities such as Cornell, Georgetown, and Columbia, the University of Florida and Florida State University.
He is deciding between Accounting and Industrial Engineering as a major with a plan to continue on to law school.
Outside of student council he in the National Honor Society, Key Club, the English Honor Society and the Capstone Club.
For community service, through Key Club he participated in the Wings for Wishes event sponsored by the Make a Wish Foundation. The Key Club members made sure the food was available and drinks were replenished along with working on crowd control.
He also volunteered at a political rally featuring gubernatorial and attorney general candidates.
“I was helping everyone know their options for mail in voting,” he says.
Cromartie found the event interesting because he eventually wants to follow in his grandmother’s footsteps. His grandmother Dr. Velma Palmer was a former vice mayor of South Miami.
“She saw I wanted to be politically involved,” he says. “I got to walk with her and walk house to house. It was an inspiring type of run.”
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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