On July 18, 2001, I was born to loving Italian parents in London, England. My parents both grew up in the poor southeasternmost region of Italy, Puglia―my father coming from a long line of tobacco farmers and my mother from a line of members of the Italian army. After attending university in Milan, they moved to London in search of opportunity and a better life.
We immigrated to the United States in late 2002 on a visa, and have lived here in Boston ever since. Though I’m only an Italian citizen and I strongly connect with Italian culture, I’ve been lucky to call America my home. I’ve been raised in an Italian household where we speak the language, always eat family meals, and practice other cultural norms, but outside my house I feel just as American as anybody else. It’s thanks to my Italian roots that I started playing soccer at the young age of 4 at Hill House, and now I’m the captain of the BLS Boys Varsity Soccer Team. Sophomore year I was on the first team in program history to win the Dual County League, a feat we repeated last year and will fight for again this coming fall.
It’s also thanks to my upbringing that I’ve always been interested in history, spending countless hours of my childhood reading about the Roman Empire and Italy’s involvement in both World Wars, where many of my family members served. This passion for history translated to politics once I got to high school, and freshman year I founded the Political Awareness Club with my friends, where students hold weekly discussions on a variety of political topics.
Compromise and respect are very important concepts to me, and I’m appalled by the current political fragmentation and polarization in this country. That’s why I’m incredibly excited to work with Governor Charles D. Baker this summer, a role model to leaders in communities for his extensive work across the aisle.