About Me
My name is Charles Bui Kennedy. I live in Worcester and attend the Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science. Before attending Mass Academy,
I went through the Worcester Public Schools system, during which I was a part of the Goddard Scholars Academy. I have a passion for math and science, and love to learn new things, useful or otherwise.
I also have plenty of hobbies and interests, which you can see below.
Hobbies
I have a variety of hobbies, ranging over a pretty wide area. At South High Community School, my sending school, I participated in the track and field team, where I ran distance and threw discus(sometimes).
However, because of Mass Academy’s conflicting schedule, I cannot participate in the team this year.
I've always loved adventure. Ever since I was five or six I've loved reading books and watching movies about great adventurers going on epic journeys. This love of adventure has led to many of the activities I do now.
One of the things that this adventure hunt has led me to is the Boy Scouts. I am a Life scout, and I have been involved in Scouting for upwards of 10 years.
Currently, I am a part of Troop 37, Worcester, based out of Christ the King Church on Pleasent Street. Scouting has taught me a love of the outdoors and some great survival skills.
I've also gained a lot of leadership skills in the program. I served in many positions in the troop heirarchy, including the Senior Patrol Leader(SPL). Through the Boy Scouts, I got a job this summer working at Treasure Valley, a BSA summer camp in Rutland, MA.
I worked at the Ecology Conservation area, where I taught the geology, archaeology, insect study, reptile and amphibian study, and astronomy merit badges. In years previous, I went to Treasure Valley with my troop, and stayed for a week rather than a whole summer.
Currently, I am working on achieving the Eagle scout rank, which I hope to attain by next year.
I also spend a lot of my free time reading and playing video games. I love books and games about sci-fi, especially those about an explorer journeying through the galaxy, or a fantasy hero fighting monsters and criminals. This takes up a lot of my life, and has really influenced my
outlook on life. I've been turned into one of those people who would drop everything and go into cryosleep to get shipped to a new galaxy in a heartbeat.
This attitude bleeds into the activities I do. One of the biggest nerd things that have come out of this is that my friends and I get together every Saturday to play Dungeons & Dragons(D&D, the nerd game), as we all have similar attitudes and love to hang out together.
The last of my real passions is music. I play mainly the piano and the trumpet, although I do sometimes pick up a harmonica or recorder for a while. Before coming to the Academy, I was in my school's marching band. Although I wasn't the best player,
I was one of the better marchers, so they just put me on the end and told me to look good. You can actually see me on the outside of the second row in that picture. I still play the piano, mostly jazz and rock. Sometimes my friends and I will play music together when we get bored at D&D.
Community Service
I have done several things for community service throughout the year. One main source of volunteer hours is the Boy Scouts. I have helped run Boy Scout stations, done community cleanups, and participated in charity events through Scouting. I really enjoyed these opportunities,
not only because I was able to make a visible impact in my own community, but also because I was able to do it with people I liked, which made the work go by faster. The second major source of community service is my church. I go to the Wesley United Methodist church, which actually
happens to be very close to Mass Academy, and there I help with church cleanups, community suppers, and youth group activities. The community suppers were probably my favorite to do, because you could always find somebody interesting to talk to there. I may continue to help with community
suppers at a separate organization called the Mustard Seed over the summer, which does meals every night. This would give me the opportunity to make a bigger difference in my community, as there would be plenty of times for me to come in and help out.