''It's about knowing where you want to go in life,'' Serge said. ``The one thing I always tell people is that you can always overcome obstacles.''

Surmounting hurdles was on the mind of Rafael Fernandez of Ransom Everglades when he read about thriving micro-financing in developing countries. Inspired, he created Leaping to End All Poverty, or LEAP, a student group that over two years raised money to sponsor micro-loans to women entrepreneurs through an international aid organization.

Rafael, the Silver Knight winner in science, and his group sold Cuban coffee at school, explaining to students that their money would be better spent there than at Starbucks because LEAP would send the money to Togo, Costa Rica and Cambodia for women looking to buy cloth to make dresses, supplies to set up a restaurant and fish for a supermarket.

''It was not a hand-out to someone, but rather a tool for a person to work hard and make their business succeed,'' Rafael wrote in his application.

The winners were awarded a Silver Knight statuette, a $2,000 scholarship, a medallion and one round-trip airplane ticket on American Airlines. Three honorable mentions in each category received a $500 scholarship and an engraved plaque.

The awards are sponsored by American Airlines, the Blank Family Foundation and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

PANEL OF JUDGES

This year, 348 students in Miami-Dade and 354 in Broward were nominated by their teachers for the awards. A panel of judges then chose the winners in each category.

In the past half century, 1,100 have been named Silver Knights. Winners have gone on to win Oscars, play in the Super Bowl and send rockets into space.

Quipped WFOR-CBS4 anchor Eliott Rodriguez, one of the event's hosts: ``American Idol has nothing on this group.''

Join the discussion

The Miami Herald is pleased to provide this opportunity to share information, experiences and observations about what's in the news. Some of the comments may be reprinted elsewhere in the site or in the newspaper. We encourage lively, open debate on the issues of the day, and ask that you refrain from profanity, hate speech, personal comments and remarks that are off point. In order to post comments, you must be a registered user of MiamiHerald.com. Your username will show along with the comments you post. Thank you for taking the time to offer your thoughts.

     Showing: Oldest first Newest first Most-recommended first Least-recommended first

@Nyx.AuthorDisplayName@ wrote on @Nyx.PostedAtTime@:

@Nyx.repliedToText@

@Nyx.replyAnswerText@

Reply to this Comment @Nyx.Recommender@ @Nyx.AbuseReporter@