Age: 17
Lake Mary
Like most of the young people in the following pages, Aboff seems to find more hours in the day than many of his peers -- and elders, for that matter. Aboff, who says he started carrying a briefcase in third grade, is a senior at Lake Mary High School, where he's active in the Future Business Leaders of America and won a scholarship in a state entrepreneurial championship. This year, he worked in a small local computer store that was barely making it. The owner was great with computers, but not as strong with the business, Aboff says. The owner let Aboff, whose father owns a sportswear company, reorganize the store and its operations. Aboff established formal pricing policies for equipment and services and found more reliable, less expensive suppliers. He also designed an ad campaign. The company has had record sales and earnings. Meanwhile, at his school, Aboff helped form an investment club, is managing editor of the school paper and did more than 400 hours of community service last year. He's also president of his synagogue youth group. Aboff says he plans to either take over his father's business or start his own. "Since I was a little kid, I wanted to be a businessman like my father." He says he'd also like to find a political role "where I can use my leadership and business discipline and logic."
Amanda Thomas
Age: 17
Brooker (north Alachua County)
Thomas, who grew up on a chicken farm with her family and 66,000 birds, believes that agriculture still has a future in Florida. A junior at Union County High School, she's active in FFA (Future Farmers of America) and hopes to study microbiology at the University of Florida's College of Agriculture. She wants to become an agricultural scientist, using plants to create new types of cancer-fighting medicine.
Brent Gordon
Age: 24
Gainesville
A campus heavyweight at the University of Florida, Gordon has racked up an impressive array of awards and activities during his academic career. Now president of the student body at UF, he's also chairman of the Florida Student Association, the 33-year-old lobbying group made up of the student government presidents from nine state universities. He won the UF Presidential Recognition award in 1996 and 1999. He's been named to the UF Hall of Fame and a UF Outstanding Male Leader. He's also a member of College Leadership Florida and Florida Blue Key. Along the way, he earned a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in educational leadership. Next, he'll be going after a combined law degree and doctorate, with a long-term goal of becoming a university president. He says he likes both education and administration. The politics of a university job don't faze Gordon: "I could be that link" between academe and statehouse, he says.
Michelle Oyola
Age: 23
Tallahassee
At a time when many of her counterparts are eager to leave the classroom to start new careers, Oyola is focusing on improving education for those who follow. After receiving a bachelor's degree in elementary education from Florida Atlantic University, Oyola is now in graduate school at Florida State studying public administration. Her goal: Teach school and eventually work in the state's Department of Education. She already has a head start: As the student member of the Florida Board of Regents, Oyola got a statewide perspective on Florida's university system by visiting college campuses. In addition to graduate school, she works for the Department of Children and Families, where she organizes the governor's mentoring initiative. In college, Oyola served as student body vice president, homecoming director and on the Florida Student Association. She also found time to give swim lessons.
Reggie Fullwood
Age: 24
Jacksonville
Fullwood is the youngest City Council member in the history of Jacksonville and the youngest elected municipal official in Florida. He'd like to be the city's mayor one day. Fullwood, who grew up in the area he now represents, graduated from the University of North Florida with a dual degree in communications and political science. He works as government and public affairs manager for Vestcor, a real estate development company, and plans to start a master's degree program in public administration at UNF next year.
Eddy Flores
Age: 21
Orlando
A junior majoring in biology at the University of Central Florida, Flores is intent on protecting marine life off Florida coasts, especially Western Atlantic sharks. He's currently doing research on over-fishing in the Atlantic and would like to see his studies translate into stiffer fishing regulations for Florida. After completing his undergraduate studies, he plans to get a doctorate in marine science. For now, Flores is a teachers assistant for two freshman classes and holds down two jobs as a student assistant for Campus Life and as a tutor at a local elementary school. He also volunteers several hours each week at a local AIDS organization.
Mike Nowotarski
Age: 17
St. Petersburg
A senior at Lakewood High School, Nowotarski is the producer and editor for a student-produced magazine show that appears on the local Fox network affiliate and is one of the only TV news shows in the country produced entirely by students. He also produces a live morning news show for his high school. This year, Nowotarski started his own company, Premier Productions Inc., which makes promotional videos, and has done work for the St. Petersburg Times and the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show. He says he plans to double major in broadcast TV and business at the University of Miami, while also studying computer engineering. He plans to keep his company running while he's at school.
Alex Diaz
Age: 21
Homestead
Diaz is student government president at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, where he's a senior. He's already thinking bigger, however, and is running for state legislature to represent his south Florida hometown. If he wins, Diaz will be the youngest state representative ever. Diaz began volunteering in the Homestead area when he was 13, which he says gave him an appreciation of the need for economic redevelopment. Homestead, he feels, has been overlooked. "We need a change in south Florida," he says.
Cornelius Minor
Age: 21
Tallahassee
Minor, a native of West Africa, grew up in Atlanta before moving to Florida to attend school at Florida A&M University, where he's student body president and majoring in English. After graduating, he plans to travel abroad for a year and teach in Japan, so he can "experience life." His parents taught him the value of traveling and seeing the world, he says -- "Experience is the real teacher." He'll then return to Florida to get a Ph.D. in sociology. Florida, he finds, is an "opportunistic state" that he doesn't think is friendly to students and education. "It's easier to get a shopping mall than to make changes in schools," he says. He'd like to be involved in building community-based organizations, which he sees as essential to change. Minor also plans to stay involved with FAMU, which he says is "the future for blacks in higher education." He doesn't think people in the state realize the "jewel they have in FAMU."
Greg Auerbach
Age: 20
Orlando
Auerbach, a computer engineering major at the University of Central Florida, sees himself as an entrepreneur, with plans to get an MBA and start his own company someday. He's extensively involved in the life of UCF: He started the Leaders Involved for Tomorrow program, which brings high school students from around the state onto the college campus for leadership summits and also to acquaint them with the university. He founded a fraternity on campus and serves on the President's Leadership Council, acting as an ambassador for the school at UCF functions. Auerbach has been a UCF tour guide since his freshman year. Meanwhile, he works 20 hours a week on campus and has held a part-time job at Disney World since he came to the university in 1997.
Gabriel Schwartzman
Age: 23
Gainesville
A grandmaster at 17, Schwartzman has combined his world-class chess skills with some exceptional quantitative talents. He completed a degree in finance in less than three years and now works as the chief operating officer at Barr Systems, a Gainesville software company. Meanwhile, he still competes in some chess competitions, writes a weekly chess column for the Gainesville Sun and teaches chess on the website he created (www. yourmove.com).
Aaron Gordon
Age: 17
Miami
When he was 9, Gordon found a cause: fighting to have seat belts on school buses. While in elementary school, Gordon was on a bus that was in an accident. No one was seriously hurt, but he thought seat belts would have kept some kids from getting shaken up. For eight years, he did research, wrote letters, attended Miami-Dade school board meetings and traveled to Washington, D.C., to plead his case. He helped draft a bill in the U.S. Congress mandating increased safety on school buses. And this summer, after Gov. Jeb Bush signed a law requiring seat belts on school buses in Florida beginning in 2001, Bush invited Gordon to attend an honorary signing.
Shannon Mullen
Age: 20
Fort Myers
Like many of Florida's young achievers, Mullen combines academic success with heavy involvement in campus life. While a freshman at Florida Gulf Coast University, she started -- and still runs -- a program called Crest, a service organization that gives tours and meets with visiting dignitaries. A senior business management major, she now serves as senior resident assistant in her dorm, where she oversees a student housing staff and organizes educational and social activities. She's in the school's honors program and also serves as secretary of the Golden Key National Honor Society and vice president of the Newman Club, a Catholic organization. She's currently working with the school's dean to start an undergraduate business association. In 1998-99, Mullen was named the school's Student of the Year.