Ajani Boyd
My name’s Ajani Mosi Boyd, I’m fifteen years old, a rising senior, and I’ve lived in Dorchester near Uphams Corner for all of my life. All my life I’ve always been busy with activities, balancing music, karate, and school since I was 4. I’ve always been busy, and once I got to Latin, I immediately added more to that list of commitments and at various points found myself overwhelmed, burnt out, and stretched to thin. After finding myself in that place about three times and embarrassingly not learning from my mistake the first two times, I had to sit down and really figure out what I wanted to do, what brought me the most joy and fulfillment and focus on those things. I recommitted myself to music, because music has always been apart of who I am and always will be, and the opportunity to tour across Europe twice playing music was absolutely amazing. What I recommitted myself to along with music was social justice, and making a change, trying to better the world. I truly love making people’s lives better and helping, especially those in need. I couldn’t give that up because it meant so much to me. However Latin does isolate you from the world in a way so I’ve focused that energy into ways to change the school and also ways to use the school to bring change outside of the schools four walls. I’m the president of the club BLS B.L.A.C.K, a member on as many committees as I can be on, a senior member of the Young Men of Color program, a participant in student leadership, and there’s more but I’m running out of space. I love doing participating in things like that because that’s me working for something way bigger and greater than myself. I’m very passionate about doing what I can to make this world a better place, because no one person can do it by their self, but everyone can make a difference, and that’s great because there’s no shortage of things. For example, our planet is dying, there’s still inequities along the lines of race, socioeconomic class, gender, and so much more. There’s wild corruption and greed. There’s grand national and international issues but then there are also state, local, and everyday life issues that are all important. So why am I interested in public service? I’m interested in public service because I get to help those in need, take care of and help my community, make people’s lives better, and fix some of the problems that people have to face. Why apply for the Ward Fellowship? I applied because it’s giving me a unique opportunity to explore public service, gain hands-on experience, and learn the ins and outs of public service from the great public service people of Massachusetts so that one day, I can possibly be in the positions that they are in and make change as well.