Meet the 2025 Silver Knight winners

2025 AWARDS

One student raised nearly $8,000 to help build clean water wells in rural Eswatini, an African country where families walk miles to get clean drinking water, often over rough terrain.

Another created a program to support hospice workers by delivering more than 300 gifts to hospice nurses across South Florida.

Another worked with Special Olympics to create sports programs that include kids with and without special needs, helping to create a culture of inclusion.

Such were among the extraordinary accomplishments of the 30 Miami-Dade and Broward high school seniors who were honored Wednesday evening at the James L. Knight Center as Miami Herald/el Nuevo Silver Knight winners.

Now in its 67th year, the Silver Knight Awards recognize the academic excellence and community service projects of South Florida high seniors in public and private schools.

Previous winners have included Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who won the Silver Knight in Science in 1982 representing Palmetto High, and Ted Hendricks, a former UM standout and NFL Hall of Famer who won a Silver Knight in Athletics for Hialeah High in 1965. The newest U.S. Supreme Court justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson, won an Honorable Mention in Drama as a Palmetto High senior in 1988.

All told, 1,525 students have won Silver Knight Awards since the first class was nominated in 1959.

This year, 935 students in Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties were nominated, representing 90 schools in Miami-Dade, 33 schools in Broward and 3 schools in Monroe.

The students are judged by professionals in 15 disciplines: art, athletics, business, digital and interactive media, drama, English & literature, general scholarship, journalism, mathematics, music & dance, science, social science, speech, vocational technical and world languages.

In addition to the 30 winners — 15 each in Miami-Dade and Broward — 90 other students were named Honorable Mentions. So, click on the stories below of the 30 Silver Knights in Miami-Dade and Broward.

Their stories will inspire you and instill in you hope for the new generation of young people who are making a difference in the world — and in their communities.