Anna Goodkind is a recent graduate of Boston Latin School as a part of the class of 2003. She lives in Jamaica Plain with her parents and younger sister, Molly, who is currently a seventh-grader at Boston Latin School. She is very excited to be continuing her education as a freshman at Barnard College in New York City next year.
Throughout her career at Boston Latin, Anna has demonstrated skills and leadership in both academic and artistic pursuits. Her academic interests lie mainly in the humanities and social sciences, especially literature, writing, and history, and her artistic skills include theater, dance, and visual art. Anna has maintained an academic record of high quality while also participating in many extracurricular activities, including the drama club, dance club, and film club as well as proving highly successful in her two-year advanced placement studio art class. She has also developed a love for public speaking, discovered through her participation in both public and prize declamation during her time at Latin. At the end of her Boston Latin career, Anna received special prizes for academic achievement as well as for excellence in both visual art and English oration. Outside of the school environment she has also played a large role in the Freelance Players Theater Troupe, first as a performer and then as a stage manager, as well as the Urban Connection Dance Group. Anna has been dancing since she was four years old and acting since she was eight. For the past two summers she has taught theater and dance classes to children ages six through fifteen at the Creative Arts at the Park summer camp in Brookline. Despite her love for children and teaching, this summer Anna was ready for a change.
Anna’s devotion to public service is what led her to the Ward Fellowship program this year. Because of her father?s active union work at UMass Boston, as the Grievance Secretary for SEIU’s Local 509, Anna has heard many stories about public service issues in Boston. She also knows much about John William Ward and admires him for his work in public service-he was a good friend of her grandfather’s and used to baby-sit her mother-so she decided this was the perfect job for her.
However, Anna’s interest in community service started long before she heard about the Ward Fellowship opportunity. During her freshman and sophomore years at Boston Latin Anna spent four afternoons a week tutoring younger students in Latin, Science, English, and Pre-Algebra, an occupation which she enjoyed very much. Anna also sees the arts as a means of bringing together communities and encouraging children to develop important intellectual and social skills. During her junior and senior years, Anna had the opportunity to volunteer at the Boston Public Library-a public institution which she deems one of the very best for children of this city and the community at-large-teaching art classes to children ages six through nine. This was a great experience for Anna, because it enabled her to combine her love for art, children, and public service into one exciting and productive activity.
Though she has not yet decided on an occupation, Anna sees possible future careers for herself in the arts, teaching, journalism, law, or psychiatry. She looks forward to being able to use any one of these professions to contribute to the public good and participate actively in her community. For these reasons, Anna is extremely excited to be a part of the Ward Fellow program this summer and looks forward to an exciting and enlightening experience. She would like to thank everyone who helped to provide her with this wonderful opportunity to learn and grow.
Her sponsor is the Honorable Mayor Thomas Menino.