Pembroke Pines Charter senior wins Silver Knight Award. Meet Isabella Abohasen
There was a sole winner from Pembroke Pines high schools at the 68th Silver Knight Awards gala Tuesday night honoring top high school seniors in Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties.
Presented by the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald, the awards program was established in 1959 by John S. Knight, the newspaper’s publisher, to recognize seniors who accomplish outstanding academic achievement and community service during their high school years.
Among the winners was Isabella Abohasen, a senior at Pembroke Pines Charter High, who won her Silver Knight statue in the Athletics category in Broward.
Four other students from Pembroke Pines won honorable mentions.
In her community service entry application given to judges, Abohasen detiled how she launched an initiative at her high school to collect new and gently used sports equipment and then donate it to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Broward County, which serves underprivileged children.
Her schoolwide drive collected 100 pieces of sports equipment in 2025. This year, the effort is on track to double that number, she told the judges.
Abohasen and a teammate founded the Student Athlete Association at the school, where student-athletes mentor children from the Boys & Girls Clubs.
She told the judges her goal was to “inspire children to discover sports, become more active and learn from student-athletes who volunteered with the program.”
Abohasen was among more than 940 students nominated for the Silver Knight Awards from the tri-county area. There were 30 winners announced, along with 90 honorable mentions selected by a panel of judges.
Awards were given in 15 categories, from art and athletics to science, world languages and digital media.
Over the decades, the Silver Knight Awards have celebrated hundreds of exceptional students, many of whom have gone on to notable achievements.
Past winners include Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, who won in science while attending Miami Palmetto Senior High in 1982; former NFL star Ted Hendricks, who won in athletics while attending Hialeah High in 1965; and current Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who earned an honorable mention in drama while attending Palmetto Senior High in 1988.
Winners receive a Silver Knight statue, a $2,000 scholarship from the Herald Charities Foundation and 25,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles. Students who received honorable mentions got a $500 scholarship and an engraved plaque.
Here are the students from Pembroke Pines schools who earned Silver Knight Award honorable mentions:
- Janeyliz Baez, Pembroke Pines Charter High — Journalism
- Sneha Mathews, Pembroke Pines Charter High — Vocational Technical
- Isabella Fuentes, West Broward High — Drama
- Isabella Borges, West Broward High — Digital & Interactive Media
