Layla Reyhani School for Advanced Studies South Campus senior Layla Reyhani is a volunteer and Junior Ambassador for Safe Haven for Newborns, a non-profit that helps newborns surrendered by family in the first 30 days of life under the safe haven laws. “To precent infant abandonment,” Reyhani sa ys. “To help them seek the care they need if the give up the child under 30 days. Everything is confidential. If they don’t know what to do with the baby, we can find an adoptive home.” The non-profit provides free baby products to help the new parents. Reyhani began volunteering when her best friend’s mom asked for help with the annual gala. “My main job is with the baskets and reaching out for auction donations,” she says. “I host drives at school for baby products. I also help work the gala registration.” Reyhani spends a few hours a week working on Safe Haven things, including community outreach. In addition to the gala, the organization has stands at Farmer’s Markets, and school collections. “I’ve been talking to people at school and hosting drives,” she says. “Last year we did one for a month and a half. I collected so many products! Maybe more than a thousand dollars worth of goods.” That drive was in the spring and she expects to have another collection drive next spring. Reyhani also volunteers at Ronald McDonald House. “It’s where kids stay when they receive treatment,” she says. “I do inhouse activities with the kids once or twice a month.” On her visits she’s made no-bake goodies such as dirt cups or brought cupcakes to be decorated. When she’s there, she’s working with 10-15 kids at a time. “Ive always known about the Ronald McDonald house,” she says. “Someone I know had been in one. Little kids should be treated and have a chance to live. Everyone should be a child once.” She wanted to volunteer there because her goal is to become a pediatric oncologist. “Being an oncologist means being a cheerleader for the person receiving the treatment,” she says. Toward that goal, she recently shadowed oncologists for a month and a half at the Baptist Miami Cancer Institute in the Hematology/Oncology Center. At school, she’s a member of the Science Honor Society and on the design team for the yearbook. And she’s the vice president of the Business Club. The club had a school wide competition Shark Tank type of competition and she won. Her proposal involved chocolate chip cookies. “I marketed them really well,” she says. “It’s a basic chocolate chip cookie and I marketed it like a Crumble cookie. I showed how cookies are part of the best of life events.” She’s been making chocolate chip cookies since 2020. Don’t tell Cookie Monster, but even though she makes fantastic chocolate chip cookies, they aren’t her personal favorites. She does like making cookie boxes as holiday gifts. Reyhani played national level club volleyball through eleventh grade, and she plays girls volleyball at Terra since the School for Advanced Studies since it doesn’t have its own team. Previously she played volleyball at her original school, True North. When Reyhani goes off to college, she’ll already have her Associates degree from Miami-Dade College. She plans on taking a pre-med track. Her college list includes the University of Florida, Florida State University, the University of Miami, the University of South Florida Honors College, Wake Forest University, Vanderbilt and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Linda Rodguez Bernfeld     ABOUT US: For more Miami community news, look no further than Miami Community Newspapers. This Miami online group of newspapers covers a variety of topics about the local community and beyond. 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