Matthew Bartel

Matthew Anthony Bartel is a junior at Gulliver Preparatory School, born and raised in Coral Gables. He serves as Florida's Youth Poet Laureate — selected from more than 2,000 applicants statewide — and as a National Youth Poet Laureate Ambassador and national finalist. At age fourteen, he founded Our World of Hope, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that has reached over 27,000 children across war-torn countries in collaboration with Save the Children, SaveUkraine, and other humanitarian organizations. He holds the Congressional Award Gold Medal, the highest honor Congress bestows upon youth, and is a national finalist for the Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. He is also a nationally published poet, an independent environmental health researcher, and a guitarist in a rock band