On March 7th, 1995 I was born in Boston, Massachusetts. I have lived in West Roxbury my entire life in my Father’s childhood home. His name is Gabriel Tang, and I live together with him, my mother Catherine Tang, and my younger sister Lauren Tang. My sister and I are both mixed race, having an ethnically Chinese father, and an ethnically German mother.
My parents were both fortunate enough to get into Ivy League schools and so have placed a premium on education. I was enrolled in the METCO program thanks to my Asian heritage and so enjoyed grades K-6 in the Newton Public School system, spending 6 years at Bowen Elementary School and one at Oak Hill Middle School. From a young age my father instilled a desire for me to attend Boston Latin School, where he and two of his brothers had attended. So, in 6th grade I took the ISEE exam and was successful in placing into Boston Latin School, which I attended for grades 7-12th and subsequently graduated from in 2013.
While at Boston Latin School I kept myself busy with as many extracurricular as I could handle. I sacrificed half of my study halls, which was probably a poor decision after having taken 6 AP classes, to play flute in the school’s Concert Band. During the other half I would be volunteering in the school’s physics lab or aiding a teacher. Afterschool you could find me trying to solve the world’s problems (if only) in our Model United Nations club where I served as Vice-President. It was in Model UN that I discovered and developed an avid love of politics, thanks in part to a classmate and dear friend, Anthony Cheung. If I wasn’t in Model UN, I was probably getting beaten by underclassman in our Chess club, where I also served as Vice-President. Outside of school I also worked with the ArtScience Program, receiving a grant for a project I started with 4 friends to redefine how we use social media in our daily lives.
This fall I will be starting my first semester at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. There I plan to dual-major, studying Physics and Chemistry. After I want to eventually attend law school, with the ultimate dream of changing how science is taught in our schools across the country. Often, students don’t have a formal science class until they start high school. Even then, curriculums rarely enter into the interesting aspects of the disciplines. For example, most physics courses never leave Newtonian Principles. Almost nothing that science has learned since the end of the 1800s is taught to our youth today. I want to change this.
During my summers I’ve tried to stay productive, volunteering one year at a local student center as a tutor and mentor. More recently I’ve received two jobs through Boston Latin School’s wonderful alumni-sponsored programs. The first job was as a Babbitt Fellow, interning with the American Civil Liberties Union. The following year I was a Ward Fellow, interning with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority.