- January 8, 2026
Maggie Harris (second from right) helps her brother Tucker Harris (right) and her sister Finley Harris (second from left) give gifts to the Seabreeze Homecoming king and queen at the Daytona Stadium on Friday, Oct. 3. Photo by Michele Meyers
Standing O - Seabreeze senior Maggie Harris. Photo by Michele Meyers
Standing O: Seabreeze senior Maggie Harris. Photo by Michele Meyers
Maggie May Harris has known for quite some time that she’s wanted to be a pediatric neurologist.
The Seabreeze senior also knows and happily shares that her grandmother Sheila Harris named her after the 1971 Rod Stewart song of the same name—“Maggie May.”
“Everyone’s asked me about my name,” Maggie laughed. “In elementary school, they’d always play the “Maggie May” song for me.”
Maggie attended Pine Trail Elementary School. In the summer of her first-grade year, she was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, in which the body’s immune system attacks the peripheral nerves.
She spent a few weeks at the Orlando Health Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children where she had a really good relationship with her pediatric neurologist. She was then taken to Brooks Rehabilitation in Jacksonville for neurorehabilitation and multidisciplinary therapies.
“My immune system attacked my nervous system so I was paralyzed from the feet up,” she said. “Then I had to relearn how to walk and everything. I think Dad has old videos of him yelling at me because I would hate doing the stupid exercises because it was so much work. That process made me want to go into pediatric neurology.”
Maggie has been accepted to attend the University of South Florida and hopes to be accepted in the future into the Indiana University School of Medicine, which is consistently ranked as one of the top medical schools in the United States.
Seabreeze Principal Tucker Harris told his administrative assistant Jeanette Oberst the qualifications for being nominated as the school’s Standing O. Oberst told him she knew the perfect person: His daughter Maggie.
They discussed everything that she had accomplished and the growth they had witnessed since her freshman year.
“He would never nominate his kids for anything,” Oberst said. “I told him you’ll never agree with it but Maggie deserves it. Maggie is academically gifted. She is involved in everything, and yet, no matter how busy she is, she still finds the time to help out in the office every day, to see if anybody needs anything. She’s just that kid who is so well rounded and just goes over and above.”
Having a dad as the principal of your school has its advantages and disadvantages, Maggie stated.
Maggie is academically gifted. She is involved in everything, and yet, no matter how busy she is, she still finds the time to help out in the office every day, to see if anybody needs anything. She’s just that kid who is so well rounded and just goes over and above." — JEANETTE OBERST, Seabreeze administrative assistant
“It’s on certain things — if he’s on the committee to pick students for things, automatically I can’t be picked because it’s a bias thing,” she said. “But I have a unique relationship here because I see the backside that a lot of students don’t see like the ‘why’ behind a lot of decisions.”
Maggie currently maintains a 4.3 to 4.4 GPA, is president of the Student Government, president of the Allied Health Academy, a student council ambassador, a National Honor Society officer and represents Seabreeze on the Superintendent’s Advisory Leadership Team. Her junior year, she completed all the AICE class requirements. In May, she will graduate with her AICE diploma and an associate degree from Daytona State College.
Last year, she was one of two students selected from Seabreeze to participate in the American Legion Auxiliary Girls State at Florida State University. During the week-long workshop, they elected a governor, were part of either the House or Senate, presented and voted on bills. She was chosen to be the ALA Girls State scholarship recipient.
“When I went to Girls State, it gave me a different perspective (about veterans) because the people from the ALA who run it, they either served in the military or their whole family served and they dedicated their whole lives to the ALA,” she said.
Maggie has over 1,000 hours of community service. Her favorite service hours are acquired honoring veterans through the Hero’s Remembrance Club she started her sophomore year and helping at Breakfast with Santa in Ormond Beach.
“The breakfast with Santa thing is always cute because me and my sister did it when we were younger, so it’s like a full circle kind of thing,” she said. “The veteran thing is cool. My dad’s dad served so it’s kind of special.”
The veterans club recently partnered with Beachside Elementary, where her stepmother Kendall Harris is a teacher. She had her students make a Veterans Day craft and wrote letters. Maggie’s club members also wrote letters then delivered them to the Emory L. Bennett State Veterans’ Nursing Home.
Currently, Maggie is working with club advisor Dr. Scott Bay on a memorial that will honor Seabreeze veterans. A granite stone and a crepe myrtle tree will be placed in a designated area in front of the Agricultural Technology Academy buildings on campus. A commemoration ceremony is being planned by the club for Memorial Day this year.
Maggie said knowledge is crucial regarding veterans. She is counting on the Hero’s Remembrance Club to enlighten her generation.
“I think a lot of people are seeing the administrative actions from the executive office right now and associating them with the armed forces and all they’ve ever done,” she said. “You have to differentiate, if you don’t agree with what’s happening right now … The lens is so much bigger.”
