Silver Knights
2024-25 Nominees
Columbus leads all private schools in Miami-Dade County with 31 Silver Knight Award winners—a reflection of our unwavering pursuit of excellence. Over the past 12 years, our Explorers have earned 23 awards and 32 honorable mentions, demonstrating not only academic achievement but a deep commitment to service, leadership, and living out the Marist mission.
CCHS Past Winners
- Sven Stumbauer
- Alexander Naranjo-Sanchez
- Jason Fernandez
- Dominic Gatto
- Jordan Perez
- Juan Pablo Garcia-Casals
- Hans Bendixen
- Alejandro Morles
- Lukas Guerra
- Antonio Castellanos
- Christopher Ahrendt
- Anthony Martinez
- David Sanchez
- Jose Cardelle
- Kaelen Krumich
- Noah Lopez
- Joshua Fonseca
- William Reis
- Cesar Santalo
- Joseph Corderi
- Michael Joseph Sanchez
- Andrew Briz
- Michael Ortega
- Jose L. Insua
- Ernesto Freyre
- Carlos Rodriguez
- David Heffernan
- Robert Brown
- Thomas Webb
- Rafael Penalver
- Raymond Dunn
Sven Stumbauer
Alexander Naranjo-Sanchez
Jason Fernandez
Dominic Gatto
Jordan Perez
Juan Pablo Garcia-Casals
Hans Bendixen
Alejandro Morles
Lukas Guerra
Antonio Castellanos
Christopher Ahrendt
Anthony Martinez
David Sanchez
Jose Cardelle
Kaelen Krumich
Noah Lopez
Joshua Fonseca
William Reis
Cesar Santalo
Joseph Corderi
Michael Joseph Sanchez
Andrew Briz
Michael Ortega
Jose L. Insua
Ernesto Freyre
Carlos Rodriguez
David Heffernan
Robert Brown
Thomas Webb
Rafael Penalver
Raymond Dunn
The Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards is one of the nation’s most highly regarded student awards programs.
The purpose of this Awards program is to recognize outstanding students who have not only maintained good grades but have also unselfishly applied their special knowledge and talents to contribute significant service to their schools and communities. The Silver Knight Awards program was instituted at the Miami Herald in 1959 by John S. Knight, past publisher of the Miami Herald, founder and editor emeritus of Knight-Ridder Newspapers and 1968 Pulitzer Prize winner.
The program is open to high school seniors with a minimum 3.2 GPA (unweighted) in public, private, and parochial schools in Miami-Dade and Broward counties. Students may be nominated in 15 categories: Art, Athletics, Business, Drama, English & Literature, General Scholarship, Journalism, Mathematics, Music and Dance, New Media, Science, Social Science, Speech, Vocational-Technical and World Languages. Each school may nominate one student per category.
Nominees from all schools appear on a designated day to be interviewed by a panel of independent judges. Each panel of judges selects one Silver Knight and three Honorable Mentions in that category. Names are not revealed until the Silver Knight Awards ceremony. Silver Knights receive $2,000, a Silver Knight statue and a medallion presented by American Airlines. The three Honorable Mentions are presented $500 and an engraved plaque.