Matthew Capeletti wants to make sure all struggling students have a shot at winning the Nobel Prize.
To keep his classmates -- and students across the country -- from giving up on schoolwork they don't understand, Matthew, a senior at William T. McFatter Technical Center in Davie, created a free Web-based service called TutorChatLive.com. The site provides unlimited tutoring in math and science -- and almost any other subject.
''I was struggling in calculus class. I looked around at my classmates; they didn't understand either,'' said Matthew, this year's Miami Herald-El Nuevo Herald Silver Knight Award winner in the general scholarship category.
He said he ended up getting an A in calculus -- with a tutor's help.
60 HONOREES
Matthew was one of 60 extraordinary seniors honored Tuesday night at the annual event, held at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise.
Fifteen Broward high school seniors, out of 335 nominees, each received the top prize, a Silver Knight statuette, a free round-trip plane ticket on American Airlines, a medallion and $2,000. The students won for their accomplishments in categories including speech, mathematics, journalism and music. The 45 students who earned honorable mentions -- three in each category -- received a $500 scholarship and an engraved plaque.
Miami-Dade winners will be announced May 20.
The evening marked the 50th year Silver Knights have been awarded. Flashbacks played for the audience saluted past winners who have gone on to become CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, award-winning composers and entrepreneurs.
This year's honorees already have impressive résumés.
Kelsey Falter, of St. Thomas Aquinas in Fort Lauderdale, founded Youth Awareness Then Action, an organization to inform her peers about the Holocaust, Afghani war victims, Guatemalan child laborers and Cambodian sex slaves.
She used her art and design skills to create awareness campaigns, which raised over $4,000 for the causes, and helped her win the award in the art category.
''Kids today are so used to learning about social injustice through textbooks,'' said Kelsey, who was inspired after meeting a survivor of the genocide in Rwanda. ``If students knew what was going on, they would want to help. Give them the information and they'll do the rest.''
INSPIRED
Personal challenges inspired some of the students' community service endeavors.
When Emily Fleisher's mother faced a possible cancer diagnosis, they joined Gilda's Club, a nonprofit organization that provides support for cancer patients, their families and friends.
Although her mom's tumor turned out to be benign, the club's kindness inspired Emily, this year's winner in business, to create Friends of Gilda at Cypress Bay High in Weston. Her club concentrated on finding ways for children with cancer to have fun, ''rather than always trying to be brave and strong as they must be through their treatment,'' Emily wrote in her application.
At South Broward High in Hollywood, Daniela Roeder directed a stage production of The Wizard of Oz in which students with disabilities had the lead roles, which led to her win in the drama category. Her brother has Down syndrome.
''Everyone should have the same opportunity and be treated as equal,'' Daniela wrote.
Other winners include teenage book publishers and leaders of peace rallies and emergency room volunteers.
Robert Levy, a senior at Deerfield Beach High, published a children's cookbook in English and Spanish. He is the only nonnative Spanish speaker in his Advanced Placement Spanish Literature class and won in the foreign language category. Melaine Malcolm organized a gathering in memory of the Virginia Tech shooting victims. The Cooper City High senior won the mathematics category.
John S. Knight, once a publisher of The Miami Herald, started the Silver Knight Awards in 1959 to recognize students who were outstanding in both academics and service. The program started in Miami-Dade County and extended to Broward in 1984.
The awards are sponsored by American Airlines, The Blank Family Foundation, and BlueCross BlueShield of Florida.
