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From Migrant Farmer Worker to College Bound Student

  • Alexis Hernandez is a 2022 graduate of Miami’s School of Advanced Studies-Homestead, a dual-enrollment school in which students complete their last two years of high school (11th and 12th grades) – earning their high school diploma – while also obtaining a two-year Associate in Arts degree.

    Hernandez became a top student at this school while working as a migrant farm worker at the Everglades Migrant Camp, where he also lives. He is the son of parents who were born in Mexico. 

    The graduating senior was accepted to many schools and received full scholarship offers from Harvard and Stanford.

    In addition to excelling in academics, Hernandez was dedicated to serving his community and being a role model. In an effort to help younger students at the migrant camp where he lives follow in his footsteps academically, he set up a tutoring program called "Migrants Drawn Together." 

    He also served as the vice-president of the Children's Trust Youth Advisory Committee, a leadership development program for Miami-Dade County high school students. Students in the program attended workshops and learned critical leadership and advocacy skills they used to develop service-learning projects that benefited their local communities. 

    “I can't even imagine a story more powerful than that of Alexis,” wrote a school staff member, who submitted Hernandez’s story when district officials requested profiles of exceptional students from the class of 2022. “He is living the American dream from migrant worker who has toiled in the fields of South Dade to one of the finest high school seniors in America, who will be attending either Harvard or Stanford on a full scholarship next year.”