With a fresh new board this year, Pembroke Pines Charter High School senior Marina Conklin was chosen as the 2024-2025 Health Information Project (HIP) club president. The HIP club, run by Maria Pardo, is dedicated to making young individuals stay emotionally, physically, and mentally safe.

When first applying to become president, Conklin knew she had a strong connection with presenting and learning about health. Conklin explains how “leading HIP has been easy [but still] enjoyable; I prepare the slideshows before our HIP meetings and explain everything of what is expected for the presenting days.”

Along the way, Conklin has learned presentation and communication skills, which have helped her become the leader she is today. Additionally, she could not have gotten through this year without her board: “I love that everyone in HIP is so close, [it’s] almost like a family,” she says.

Being president has also shaped a new perspective for her on what teamwork, responsibility, and public speaking should look like. “The way she can command students’ attention during meetings is a true testament of how much she has grown over the years,” Pardo expresses. Furthermore, Conklin has grown a deep attachment to this program and hopes that “even if only one person feels impacted, it means we have done our job.”

Before the end of the school year, the HIP club recruited new Peer Health Educators (PHE) for the next year who will carry on the club’s mission. To help improve the club, Charter’s HIP invited official observers to come and watch their presentations. Not only did they gain feedback, but the observers “were so impressed that they [would like] to come back [and] record us as an example for next year’s PHEs,” exclaims Conklin.

From joining HIP in her junior year, Marina Conklin made her way up to being president, determined to make an impact on her peers and improve the school environment. She has committed to the University of Central Florida (UCF) and plans to major in Biology. Nevertheless, her mark in the HIP organization will always be remembered.