“Cavaliers with Character” is an award administered by Coral Gables Senior High to the high-achieving students for possessing unique qualities that make them stand out among the rest of the incredible student-body. One trait is being an Inquirer, which senior Indiana Harper was nominated for by Ms. Depaola. She has a natural ability to consistently ask insightful questions, be fearless and never allow anything or anyone to stop her from learning something new.

Indiana Harper is an extremely dedicated student inside and outside the classroom as she is involved in multiple clubs including Gables Health Information Project and Interact. Although COVID-19 has limited the amount of immersion and involvement that students would usually have in a regular school year, Harper is grateful for the amazing experiences she has had over the years in these clubs as she notes the amount of friends, opportunities and skills that have arisen because of it such as her improvement in both leadership and communication.

Just like many teenagers, Harper’s favorite activities consist of going on long drives and listening to music all the time. Music has helped her tremendously both mentally and emotionally, as she finds listening to it to be a great method of relaxing and de-stressing from all the school work that surrounds many students today.

As for academics, Harper’s favorite subjects are a combination of both English and Science classes as she has a passion for Psychology. She finds every aspect of the subject intriguing and is fascinated with how the brain works and understanding people to a deeper degree. She owes a lot of her success to her mom specifically as she has helped her every step of the way to becoming the person she is today.

Speaking of role models, Harper attributes a lot of her success to Ms. Depaola, not only for nominating her for the Cavaliers With Character award, but for also being an incredible mentor and leader to her. There was a time where Harper did not have the motivation to be involved in any clubs or have much school spirit either but when she ultimately joined Interact and sponsor Ms. Depaola, guided her and the members into a prosperous and enjoyable high school experience.

“I can for sure tell you that Indiana is awesome! She has always given back to her community and is a great friend to have. She is a great mentor to the freshmen peer health educator on HIP and is always promoting many of our service events in Interact,” senior Daniel Fernandez said.

Overall, winning this award meant a lot to Harper as this was the first award she had won besides honor roll in high school, providing her with a proud moment in her high school journey. Harper remained humble with the situation but is grateful for the nomination and hopes to aspire others to achieve great things in their four years in high school.