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Michael Glickman has always had an interest in things
mechanical.
Michael Glickman
"As a little kid I was always taking things apart
to see how they worked," said Glickman, a senior honors student
at Palmetto Senior High School and a Miami Herald Silver Knight
nominee for outstanding scholarship. "Unfortunately, it took me a
few years before I learned how to put them back together. Now,
whenever anything in the house breaks down, everybody calls on me to
fix it. My family says they will even call me after I go away to
college!"
Glickman often builds his own mechanical inventions
including a solar cooker and a high- frequency hearing detector -- and
he recently won second place in the Miami-Dade County annual Egg Drop
Competition, where students design and build containers that will keep
an egg from breaking when it is dropped from a height of 60 feet onto
a concrete pavement. Glickman's device was made from Styrofoam and
duct tape.
"I guess it's true what they say about duct
tape," he said with a deadpan stare.
Glickman is an outstanding student who excels in all
subjects. He recently won the Siemens Foundation Scholarship for
Advanced Placement and was the male national scholarship winner for
the United States.
Meanwhile, he stays busy as the president of the JETS
(Junior Engineering Technical Society) physics club, is the founder of
the psychology club and is the former Lt. Governor of the Key Club.
Glickman also is a regular volunteer at Coral Reef
Nursing Home and he and his younger sister, Laura, can be found there
on a daily basis during summer vacation and twice a week when school
is in session.
"We visit with the residents, play dominoes and
bingo, and sometimes just sit and talk," said Glickman, who also
visits residents who have been hospitalized and attends funerals for
people he has met. "When people talk about doing community
service, most of the time they talk about helping kids. The older
people in our community are often overlooked and they may be neglected
and lonely.
"I like helping out, but I also learnthings from
them, from their experiences," he continued. "For example,
one resident is an alumnus of MIT and, since I'm thinking of going
there, he talks to me about what it's like. Another person is teaching
me to speak Yiddish."
Through the Key Club, Glickman has brought even more
cheer to nursing home residents. He organized and presented a talent
show of Key Club members at The Palace and Coral Reef Nursing Home.
"Our own extended family is pretty small, with
only one grandfather living nearby, so it's nice to have some
surrogate grandparents," Glickman said. "In fact, many of
the residents call us their grandchildren and they really look forward
to our visits. So do I."
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