Danny Xu was born on February 16, 2000 in Guangdong, China. Although he was born in China, he grew up in America. Arriving at the age of five, he has lived in the East Boston neighborhood for most of his life.
Danny entered Boston Latin School in ninth grade and is about to enter the twelfth grade. Danny loves playing sports like basketball and badminton, but is only active on the track team for the school. Although Danny loves track and has been doing it since ninth grade, he isn’t that good at it. He is, however, improving. During his freshman year his time for the 100 meter dash was 14 seconds and in the two years since then he has improved his time to 12.8 seconds. Next year he hopes to improve his time even more to help the BLS track team find more success in the Dual County League.
Since the end of ninth grade, Danny has been an active member of the BLS recycling committee. Although he is not an officer he helps out every Tuesday and Thursday. Also since the beginning of eleventh grade, he has been a zone captain during lunch. His primary responsibility is to assort the recyclables and the garbage, then to place them in the correct bins. One of Danny’s goals by the time of his graduation is to encourage more people to volunteer for recycling.
Danny has always been interested in public service for one reason. That reason is his family, who told him numerous stories about life in China and about the difficulties of raising and supporting a family there. He has been told countless times how lucky he is since many people don’t even have the luxury to drink fresh water and eat a full meal. Especially his grandparents, who told him about life during their youth and about their poor village, about how they couldn’t afford school and education. Due to this Danny has always wanted to find a way to give back to the community that gave him and his family so many opportunities.
Danny’s sponsor is Adrian Madaro, the State
Representative, of his neighborhood–East Boston. He looks forward to this unique opportunity to work under him. Danny hopes to gain valuable experiences during this fellowship and to meet the incredible people that make not just East Boston, but the entire City of Boston great.