Saint Brendan’s High School 2026 graduate Catalina Valdes won $5,000 from the Publix Carole Jenkins Barnett Community Scholarship. Valdes will use her scholarship money to go to Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She will major in interior design with a minor in Historic Preservation.
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“I’ve always had an interest in art,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to make a career of it, and I didn’t know how and the option came and I said hmmm, I’ve always been interested in historic buildings. I grew up in Miami and there’s Coral Gables and the majority of those buildings are historic homes, and I’ve always been interested in that.”
She learned that historic preservation interior design is a major during a visit to Savannah where they went to a speakeasy that had been redone by interior design and historic preservation students at the Savannah School of Art and Design.
Valdes won the scholarship for her volunteer efforts. She’s earned more than 2000 community service hours having started volunteering her freshman year. What’s impressive is that she also worked part-time at Publix starting her sophomore year.
“Publix is very flexible,” she says. “I put in that I have a volunteer event on Saturday and they give it to me.”
She began with a foster organization, filling backpacks with school supplies for kids from pre-K to high school.
Her early experiences helped her fall in love with volunteering, and she just kept on going.
Valdes created a service project called Love Thy Neighbor. Through the project she provided more than 1,000 arts kits to the sheriff’s office, the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital Psychology Department, and Lotus House.
She was the youth chair for the Junior Orange Bowl Youth Ambassadors, and she fosters kittens that are newborn or up to four weeks old for the Miami-Dade County animal shelter.
“They require a lot of attention and care,” she says. “I did a lot of fostering over the summer. After the swim season I would start fostering even more because I had a lot of time on my hands.”
She fostered six pairs of kittens and one single kitten. The single kitten, named Daisy, ended up a member of her family.
Her volunteer efforts include two Blue Mission trips to the Dominican Republic. On the first mission, they provided latrines to the remote villagers.
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“I got to interact with the people in the village,” she says. “I could see I was making an impact.”
On the second trip, they piped in water to a different village.
“We helped bring water from the water source, which was five miles away up in the mountains,” she says. “We made that trip the first day and I never want to make that trip again.”
She says she cannot imagine walking five miles with buckets every day.
Because of her experiences, she started the Blue Club at school.
“It’s basically like Blue Missions but on a more local level,” she says. “We are spreading awareness about water conservation and the water crisis. We would have presentations every month. We helped stuff these bags during the Women and Children’s Day they have for Blue Mission. We packed toiletries and sanitary pads for the women.”
The bags were taken by St. Brendan’s teachers who participated on a Blue Mission trip.
In addition to her own club, Valdes is a member of Key Club, which offers more volunteering opportunities.
She was the St. Brenden’s Silver Knight nominee in the Vocational/Technical category.
Valdes was a member of the varsity swim team for three years participating in the 100-meter breaststroke races.
Linda Bernfeld Rodriguez
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