Each January, Project 351 sends student ambassadors from each of Massachusetts's 351 cities and towns to Boston for “Launch Day” to kick off a year of community service, statewide unity, and youth leadership. Project 351 was started in 2011 by Carolyn Casey and former Massachusetts Governor, Deval Patrick. What began as a one-day celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day and Gov. Deval’s second inaugural has led to decades of service by over 5,000 student ambassadors.
Each year, local educators from Massachusetts's cities and towns select one eighth-grade student to participate in Project 351. Paxton Center School selected Emilyanis Rodriguez as their student ambassador for 2024. Ambassadors are chosen based on Project 351’s values: kindness, compassion, humility, and gratitude. Rodriguez was chosen by her teachers for demonstrating these traits.
In the fall of 2023 Rodriguez, who runs cross-country, took herself out of a race to help an injured runner. Her instinct to help her fellow runner was inspired by words she had heard from her coach many times, “As long as we help our community we’ll always come out on top” repeated Rodriguez.
Rodriguez traveled to Boston with other student ambassadors this January to participate in Launch Day. While there, they heard from speakers including Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Governor Kim Driscoll, and Sen. Ed Markey. Ambassadors learned about their upcoming year of service, in which they are supported by team leaders, supplied with “toolkits” and guided by mentors via Zoom meetings throughout the year. On launch day Rodriguez participated in a food drive, with a Latina-led organization called La Colaborativa, which served over 27,000 people that day.
March 27 kicked off Rodriguez’s local spring service, during which she collaborated with Cradles to Crayons and the Paxton community to collect new and gently used clothing for youth in need across The Commonwealth. Rodriguez assembled a small team of seventh and eighth graders to collect and sort a total of 33 bags of clothing. The collection box was housed at the Paxton Center School for the duration of the drive, which took place between March 27 and April 4.
The spring clothing drive is just one of several projects during the student ambassadors’ year of service. In April, Project 351’s regional ambassadors participated in an Earth Day community clean-up event at Wachusett Mountain. Each September, Project 351 dedicates a day of service in memory of 9/11.
For the student ambassadors Project 351 is a year of service, leadership training, mentorship, and statewide teamwork. For Paxton’s student ambassador, it is just the beginning of what she hopes will be a lifelong calling. Rodriguez said she hopes to one day become a dental hygienist. “In the future, I want to move to Puerto Rico where my family is from, and help as many members of my community as possible,” said Rodriguez, “even if it’s just to provide a check-up for their teeth.”
Each year of the project brings new student leaders and new issues requiring the service, humility and compassion of the student ambassadors. Next year, a new set of 351 students will be selected to carry out acts of service that transform communities across Massachusetts. For now, Rodriguez and her fellow ambassadors are hard at work making a difference in their communities. When asked what she hoped to accomplish before the year is up, Rodriguez said “I hope to touch as many hearts as I can, and to show people who might not have the same things that I do that someone cares about them.”