Miami Palmetto High School Junior Madison Williams won a Panther of Distinction Award at the school’s Junior Awards Ceremony. The award is given to Juniors who show leadership and academic achievement.
Williams is the current director of the student-run Pinecrest City Music Project. She has been a part of PCMP since her sophomore year and became the Executive Director in January.
PCMP provides music mentors to elementary and middle school students. It also hosts ArtsFest at Pinecrest Gardens.
“It’s for the South Miami-Dade Public Schools,” she says. “We would love to expand outreach.”
ArtsFest features musical groups performing around the gardens. She says that this year they had string quartets and rock bands.
“We also have visual arts,” she says. “This year we had photography from AP Photography students from Palmetto and a lot of art pieces from Miami Sunset- mostly paintings and drawings.”
Her goal as Executive Director is to increase outreach, find new partnerships and increase the organization’s relationships with others. Plus, she wants to raise awareness about PCMP.
“We have mentors who go to Palmetto Elementary, Pinecrest Elementary and Southwood Middle school weekly,” she says. “They work with students every week and help them better play their instruments.”
She says not all students have access to music tutors, and this helps keep music alive in Miami-Dade Public schools.
“We prepare them for recitals and if they have competitions or exams, we help with that as well,” she says. “We hope to maybe in the future work with different schools such as Jorge Mas Canosa.”
The administrative staff works on finding sponsors, scheduling, and writing grants.
“Most of our money comes from grants. A lot are granted from Miami-Dade Department of Cultural Affairs. We also have grants from the state level and the federal level,” she says.
“Last year we received a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts which is a federal arts program.”
She is also the Client Relations Officer for Tutoring for Tomorrow.
“The general mission is that we have a lot of tutors on staff, and they tutor people of all ages in any subject,” she says. “Half of their proceeds are donated to different charities. It’s a great way to give back to the community. It’s also community service there because there is free tutoring that all tutors participate in at Palmetto High School and Palmetto Elementary.”
At school, she’s the incoming President of Rho Kappa, or Social Studies Honor Society.
She’s been on a History Bowl team since her freshman year. This year she was vice president of communications.
Williams is the Class of 2025 Treasurer. She had that role this school year and will remain in the job next year. She’s a member of the National Honor Society and the English Honor Society.
Currently, she’s Secretary of the community service club, Interact. Her senior year she’ll be the Vice President.
“We help enhance the beauty of the school, as well as taking part in donations,” she says.
“We encourage all of our members to participate in opportunities for community service.”
She’s been in BBYO, the Jewish youth organization, since eighth grade.
She’s the current president of the chapter. Her term ends at the end of the school year.
During the High Holy Days, she is in the Temple Beth Am choir.
In the fall, when working on her college applications, she’s considering applying for a business-related track or a pre-law track or even a combination of both.
Potential colleges are the University of Florida, the University of Texas at Austin, Vanderbilt University, Tulane, and Emory.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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