Lauren Bartel

Student, Gulliver Preparatory School

Born and raised in Coral Gables, Lauren Bartel is a high school junior at Gulliver Preparatory School, which she has attended since kindergarten. With over 1,500 hours of community service, she was awarded the Congressional Award Silver Medal, the highest honor the U.S. Congress can bestow a minor. The 17-year- old is a published author, winning the Mainstream/Literary Short Story Award for best original work in the Writer’s Digest Writing Competition. Bartel’s artwork has been published in magazines like Florida Audubon, Skipping Stones, and Teen Ink. She is also a Conservation Student Scholar at Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, where she built a botanical exhibit and is conducting research in orchid propagation. This past school year, Bartel was the only junior at Gulliver to receive academic awards as a top student in four subjects: Science, English and Literary Arts, Social Sciences, and Visual Arts. On top of all of this, her SAT scores were in the 99th percentile. 

Lauren Bartel

Latest Achievement

Bartel was selected to be one of the 250 students to attend the Washington Youth Summit on the Environment in Washington, D.C. this summer. Hosted by George Mason University, the National Geographic Society, and the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, it is a weeklong program for high-achieving students who are interested in conservation and sustainability. These students get access to field visits and lectures with researchers and scientists. The Youth Summit was supposed to be held last year but was postponed due to Covid. 

What She Says

“Ever since I was little, I was really interested in the biological sciences and the natural world,” says Bartel. “With all of these environmental issues that face us, especially with our country and our community, I knew that I definitely wanted to become involved, both on a communal scale – because we can see a lot of the effects of climate change right in our backyards – but also on a national scale,” she says. 

*Photo by Emily Fakhoury