Baylyn Coggins
Miami Palmetto High School rising senior Baylyn Coggins started a community service project called Baylyn’s Book Corner.
“I’m a reader,” she says. “These are books that I’ve read and my family has read. I’ve sent them to places like Temple Beth Am, public libraries and schools. I’m hoping to branch out. I like to support literacy.”
Coggins says she’s probably donated 300 books so far.
The donated books include a collection of The Babysitters Club, Mangas, and books from authors she’s currently reading such as Colleen Hoover.
Coggins also has a list of books that are currently banned.
“All of these books that are familiar and they are just gone,” she says. “It’s sad to see. A lot of my friends don’t read at all. I feel reading takes my mind off a lot of things. I have a creative mind. I have to picture things in order to get it and with books I can picture what I’m reading.”
Although she has been collecting the books on her own, she’s considering conducting a book drive through the Palmetto English Honor Society.
At school, Coggins is the secretary of the Jewish Student Union and a member of the Women’s Union. She’s on the Student Council Marketing Committee.
She promotes the upcoming events on Instagram reels.
“I generate photos and captions,” she says. “We get the word out to people that this is happening at our school and where you find it and how you can get to it.”
Coggins plays lacrosse for Palmetto. She was captain of the junior varsity team for two years and won the Leadership Award. She expects to be on varsity as a senior.
Outside of school, Coggins is a member of Beth Am’s Social Justice Teen Fellowship. This past school year she went to Guatemala.
“It was an interesting experience,” she says. “It was nice to see the community outside of Miami and what I have compared to what others have. To work with the people and to see what they experience made me grateful. I was making stoves for them and toilets. And we have that in every single house in Miami.”
She says we don’t realize how much we have until you see it for yourself by going to another country.
Next year, she expects to go on another mission trip to Columbia with the Fellowship.
Locally, they’ve helped the residents at Lotus House and at food shelters.
“Sophomore year for the confirmation class, we went to Washington, D.C. and I was able to lobby for women’s abortion rights,” she says.
She talked to senate staffers about the abortion issue.
Coggins also volunteers as needed at Temple Beth Am.
“It’s nice to take part in the Jewish community and the community,” she says.
Last summer she was a Counselor in Training at a sleep away camp working with eight- and nine-year-olds.
“I also did UCLA summer program going into junior year,” she says. “I took a creative writing class and a SAT/ACT prep course.”
She had to write a short story for the class.
“It helped me see what I want to be in the future,” she says. “I feel I want to be more of a journalist. It gave me a vision of what next year will be.”
Her college list includes Northeastern, Syracuse, Indiana, Penn State, South Carolina and the University of Colorado at Boulder for a journalism major.
Coggins has earned numerous community service hours as a Girl Scout. She’s been a scout since kindergarten and has been helping her friends earn their Gold Awards.
Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld
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