Passion for medicine leads Windermere Preparatory School junior to author first book

Windermere Preparatory School’s Pedro Do Coutto Silveira has wanted to be a doctor for as long as he can remember. 

His whole life has been spent going in and out of the hospital for his family’s different emergencies — his mom’s surgeries, his sister’s broken leg, his dad’s possible stroke or even his own issues with asthma. 

Through it all, Silveira couldn’t escape the feeling of hopelessness. He dreams of becoming the person who can be there for families to give them the help they need and not leave them stranded. 

Silveira’s experiences led him to writing his book “The Adventures of Dr. Pedro,” which was published Tuesday, March 24, in English and Portuguese. The book is inspired by his own dream of becoming a doctor, and it follows Dr. Pedro on his passion for medicine, which leads to him diving into the world of the human body. 

But his book is more than his first publication; it became a vessel to give back to the community. 

Silveira has been helping at Connection, a transdisciplinary therapeutic support center in Winter Garden that helps people with Autism Spectrum Disorder live life independently, since before it opened its physical location in January. 

Watching families come in and struggle to pay for therapy because their insurance wouldn’t cover treatment sparked his desire to help.

At that moment, Silveira decided all the proceeds from his book sales would go toward Connection to help the developing facility and its families. 

“I’m not going to help the (entire) world, but the little I do is a world for an entire family,” he said. 

Seeing the children grow at Connection means the world to him. 

“Sometimes (the children) are misunderstood because of what they have and being able to be there for them, sometimes all they need is a hug and all they need is someone to play with them and just to be that person to help them is something that’s really impactful for me,” Silveira said. “It’s really important to just be there to help.” 

Andre Sophia, owner and executive director of Connection, said it was a huge honor to Connection that Silveira decided to help the center with the proceeds of his first published book. The Sophias met Silveira’s family a few years ago and they have been friends ever since. 

“There’s no words to represent what a person he is with his heart, and he’s doing it for love and he just wants to do good,” Andre Sophia said. “He did a great job with the book. I bought our clients’ books. … With this (money), we’re going to create much better quality of the kids’ lives.” 

And although Silveira created the book and the plan for its proceeds, the inspiration came through Windermere Prep’s Theory of Knowledge class, which required Silveira to create a Creativity, Activity, Service Personal Project for his IB Diploma.

PROJECT TO PURPOSE

When Silveira was assigned the personal project, he instantly knew he would do something related to health, but he wanted to figure out a way to turn the health information into a presentable medium for children. He took the main body parts — brain, heart, intestine, lungs, stomach and kidneys — and turned them into writing. 

Silveira chose to write a children’s book to spark their interest in the human body and inspire others to become doctors in the future. He also wanted to make it interesting for their parents to read to them. 

Writing a children’s book meant Silveira had to write everything in a specific “kids language.” He introduced what would happen in the book and broke down how they can use their sights and senses to feel the body parts in their body such as placing their hand on their chest to feel their heart. 

After three months of writing, Silveira had a doctor proofread the book to ensure accuracy. Then others went over the corrections, while he worked alongside the book’s illustrator Leandro Francisca. 

“As a school project, a lot of people don’t think of the impact that they can actually do,” Silveira said. “I’ve always liked to help other people … I just thought that doing a project where I’m able to help a family, help someone in need is much more meaningful than just doing a project.” 

Impacting others and creating change is all Silveira truly was hoping to do, especially by writing it in Portuguese, too, and sending that version to hospitals in Brazil. 

PASSION FOR HELPING

Silveira was born in Brazil and lived there until he was 7 years old. He and his family moved to Windermere in 2016, and he enrolled at Windermere Elementary. After a few years, he moved back to Brazil to get his green card before enrolling at Windermere Prep in eighth grade. 

At first, the move was a struggle. 

“I’m social but in the environment I’m very comfortable in, so moving to a place where I wasn’t able to speak the language well because I did do English classes in Brazil, but it’s not really the same,” he said. “When you get put into an environment where everyone’s speaking English and no one is there to speak your language, it’s quite like you’re scared and you won’t talk to anyone.” 

He used to cry at school and ask his parents to spend the whole day there just so he could stop by and say hi at lunch. Silveira thanks his parents for everything they have done for him. Moving from Rio de Janeiro, which was full of violence, gave Silveira a comfortable place to work and grow. 

Although the move was difficult at first, it was the best decision for him and his future. Silveira said Windermere Prep shaped him into the person he is today. The support he received from teachers, counselors and his friends enabled him to become an author. 

They have supported him through his research on the efficacy of biosynthetic scaffolding and stem cells. Silveira said research came out in Brazil that is curing people with paralysis, which shocked him. It inspired his research. He’s working on it as a part of his full IB Diploma. He elected to publish his work by the end of the 2025-26 school year so he can work on it further his senior year. 

Because he took a year to work on it rather than the typical two years, Silveira has relied on the feedback from his teachers and counselors for proofing, and he currently is in the process of finalizing his graphs. He has been impressed in his research seeing the science behind it and how new types of proteins interact with one another in a positive or negative way. 

“It’s giving me new skills to use in the future once I get to college,” he said. 

He is using those research skills as the president of the Health Occupations Students of America club at his school and teaching students how to suture, perform CPR and other functional skills. 

But his experience in Brazil has provided him with the most experience for his life as a doctor. 

Last summer, he shadowed in a top trauma hospital in Rio de Janeiro, and it has been an eye opening experience for him. Silveira has watched surgery and seen all of the inner workings of the hospital, which has reinforced his passion for becoming a doctor. 

“The happiness that people have, like how they enjoy doing it and it’s not just, ‘Work for the money,’ because that has nothing to do with when you’re in the hospital,” he said. “They work for the purpose of helping other people and putting smiles on people’s faces. They work for a greater cause and not just helping to help. They help for a purpose and that’s what I want to do. I want to help make the families feel comforted.”