In collaboration with the 2024 Advocacy Dinner and Awards Ceremony Partner, Aetna Better Health® of Florida, we presented this year's Children's Week Florida™ Youth Advocate Award on February 26, to Maurits Acosta for his work on behalf of civic engagement opportunities for Florida’s youth.

Maurits Acosta is a junior at Hialeah-Miami Lakes Sr. High School with a passion for civics that finds true pleasure in service to others. In 2022, he started Virtutem Populo, meaning Power to the People in Latin, as a passion project with the overarching, but essential goal of encouraging youth participation in government and their communities. He was driven by the conviction that one must be the change one wants to see in the world. This is why he has successfully written and passed infrastructure and flooding legislation at the municipal level to improve the well-being of his community.

Currently, he is Vice-President of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools District Student Government Association, Vice Chairman of the Miami-Dade Youth Commission, Student Advisor to the Town of Miami Lakes Education Advisory Board, and student representative to the Miami-Dade County Council of PTAs.

He has expanded Virtutem Populo from its humble beginnings to a thriving 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works to make civic engagement a priority across Miami-Dade County and the State of Florida. Over the course of the past two years, Virtutem Populo has been able to impact over 3,000 students and been able to raise over $40,000 for civic education programs.

Maurits’s work in promoting civic engagement and community involvement among students from all over led to him being named the 2022 Miami Lakes Volunteer of the Year and to receiving the 2023 Florida PTA Student Advocate Award. Earlier this year he was named the 2024 National PTA Youth Advocate of the Year as well as one of two Florida delegates to the United States Senate Youth Program. Maurits hopes to major in political science and live a life dedicated to public service.