Giselle Halliday was born on December 27, 1999 to two postal workers from Boston. She has lived her entire life in Dorchester, living with her parents, an older brother, and her older cousin. Today, she is a rising senior at Boston Latin school. In school, she plays on the girls’ lacrosse team and runs track during the winter. Outside of school, she recently began to volunteer at the John F. Kennedy Museum, where she hopes to learn more about that era, as it is one of her favorite periods of history.
In elementary school, Giselle was always mesmerized by world affairs. She was captivated by the fact that there were so many different countries and cultures that had their own unique histories and traditions, and was intrigued to learn more about how these nations interacted with each other. There was a specific moment where she was jealous of the older children because they had the opportunity to take a current events class, while her grade was not able to. Even today, her favorite subjects are current events and contemporary history. Giselle attended a parochial elementary school, so one component of the curriculum was a Spanish class. Giselle has taken Spanish classes every year since kindergarten, except her sixie year. Her study of the language has had an immense impact on her plans for the future. She wants to study another language in college, but regardless she hopes to be able to use languages as a mode of communicating with others in her future career path.
Giselle applied to the Ward fellowship to expand her knowledge of the American government and to understand to a greater degree the interconnectedness of local, state, and national governments. She hopes to study international relations as an undergraduate and later pursue a career working at the national level, and to do so one must be familiar with the entire system. She hopes that being a fellow will expose her to the world of public service, which will give her insight into what exactly she wants to become.
This summer, Giselle will be working with Brian Golden in the Boston Planning and Development Agency.