19 year-old Jackson Pellegrini is wrapping up his first year at Boston College. The Los Gatos native was the 2014 Lexus Volunteer Scholarship Awards Grand Prize Winner of $5,000!
Jackson says he used the funds to help cover his first year of college tuition, which he says helped tremendously.
Jackson graduated last year from Leigh High School and played on the basketball team while maintaining a 4.3 GPA. When Jackson wasn't on the court or hitting the books, he spent his time volunteering in his community and globally. Every year, Jackson travels to Mexico with his church youth group to build homes for those in need. In high school, Jackson also organized clothing drives, food drives, the Princess Project and more!
"The blessings and opportunities I am so lucky to have enable me to utilize my unique assets to help those in need and do what I love: service to others," says Jackson.
The Boston College freshman says he has continued his volunteer efforts this past school year in Massachusetts. He quickly got involved with one of the largest weekly service groups at the university - 4Boston. Jackson says as part of the organization he has been exposed to many different service opportunities including tutoring and mentoring a 4th grader from inner city Boston and planning events and activities for at-risk children.
During his spring break this year, Jackson did a service trip to a struggling area in Springfield, MA. He joined a group of ten students and two mentors and learned about servant leadership, leading a community and being a servant at the same time. Jackson says he also had the opportunity to tutor children and visit homeless shelters. Jackson says he has been accepted into an international service organization, and next school year he will be traveling to Nicaragua.
“It's crucial to be men and women for others,” says Jackson. "I just think it’s really important to give back because of all that we are fortunate enough to have."
Jackson is currently majoring in Political Science and English with minor in American Studies. He says his plan is to start or participate in a non-profit organization in Boston and is very interested in helping those in low income housing as well as the global clean water crisis.
No comments:
Post a Comment