West End House Marathon Team
This year Melissa Marquez, a fourth-year graduate student from Professor Deborah Perlstein’s group, will be supporting the West End House Boys & Girls Club in Allston-Brighton by running the 2019 Boston Marathon! She is excited to join their marathon team and to get to know the West End House community even more through this opportunity.
The West End House in Allston-Brighton is one of the Boys & Girls Clubs in Boston and the largest youth development agency in the area where a multitude of students go to after school. They provide a variety of outcomes-driven programs to more than 1,700 youth between the age of 7 and 24 residing the most under-resourced communities in Boston. Youth come from nearly every Boston neighborhood-approximately 60% live in Allston-Brighton, and 40% live in other Boston neighborhoods, including Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan. The programs are directed by professional staff and volunteers and are geared toward ensuring that the students succeed academically, explore and master the arts, develop career readiness skills, and adopt healthy lifestyles.
Melissa has been volunteering at the West End House for about three years through Boston University’s Graduate Women in Science and Engineering (GWISE) organization. Every week GWISE runs a girls science club where students take part in fun, hands-on activities. During her first year, Melissa worked with the elementary school club and, within her second and third year, she helped start and co-lead a middle school version known as Girls with Goggles. The club’s ultimate goals are to help young girls gain an in-depth understanding of scientific concepts and engineering principles, excite the students about science and engineering, and encourage them to pursue a STEM-related career. Girls Science Club is just one example of a program available to students at the West End House that encourages them to enjoy learning and develop skills that will help them succeed. Most recently, West End House was featured by United Way that shares the impact of their STEM programming.
Melissa’s goal is to raise $15,000, which would help the West End House to continue their mission in inspiring and enabling youth from all backgrounds, especially those who need them most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens. You can make a tax-deductible gift to her CrowdRise page and stay updated about the West End House and her training!
If you are in Boston on Marathon Monday, April 15th, we would like to invite you to come out and support all of the runners that day! This is one of the major days of the year that the city feels like home for everyone as we gather to celebrate and support one another.
