Ever since I’ve been little, I’ve loved helping other people. When I was a toddler living in Pennsylvania —where I was born— I remember always enthusiastically helping my sister “cook” on her plastic toy kitchen, or always being the first one in my day care to help clean up when I heard the “clean-up song”. When I later moved to Massachusetts at four years old, I would always help my parents out around the house —my dad with housework, my mom with cooking (real cooking this time)—and I never once described these actions as “chores”. Now, as the incoming captain of the boys track team at Boston Latin, I find the most rewarding experiences are when I’m able to help individuals both become better runners and also feel a deeper sense of camaraderie and teamwork.
Additionally, as I’ve grown and matured, my attention has grown to not only helping those directly around me, but to helping as many people as possible through public service. I’ve realized that only in public service is your sole purpose to work for the benefit and welfare of others, and thus through public service, you may do the most good. My first experience with serving the public came when I became a volunteer at the Museum of Science. I had always loved the Museum when I was younger, and it was one of the main proponents of my love for science and mathematics. Understandably, I wanted to spread this passion to as many people as possible. Now, more than two years later, I’m still volunteering at the Museum every week and I hold it to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life so far.
Invigorated by my experiences at the Museum, I wished to experience public service in a broader and larger scale: city government. Therefore, when junior year rolled around, I’d already decided to apply for the Ward Fellowship. My goal was not only to work with a sponsor who’s dedicated his/her own life to the city and the state, but also to meet with all the other sponsors and to see their perspectives on what public service means to them and how I, myself, can do the most good in my community. So far, only a week in, I’ve already been inspired by the people I’ve met. My sponsor, Commissioner Francisco Ureña is a former Marine who was deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom. You can see his profound, personal commitment and devotion to helping serve veterans in everything that he does, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, the two City Councilors we’ve met so far—Michelle Wu and Matt O’Malley—have both expressed to us the power of public service, specifically in politics, in giving the community a voice and power to enact change and better the city. You can see that they all are extremely proud and satisfied about the work they do for the city.
Going into the future, I wish to further serve the public, either by joining the Air Force through attending the Air Force Academy, or studying to become a biomedical engineer, developing artificial-muscle prostheses—a specific interest of mine— to help those with physical disabilities, including veteran amputees. In this way, I can continue to pursue public service while also engaging in fields which I find personally fascinating (aeronautics, engineering, and medicine).