NC Youth of the Year: 2010

Xavier Del Rosario: 2010 North Carolina Youth of the Year

The 2010 North Carolina Youth of the Year Celebration was held in Gastonia on March 26-27, 2010 with 29 candidates for consideration for the top honor. After two day of the judging process, it was announced that our 2010 Youth of the Year is Xavier Del Rosario with the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wake County.

Xavier is 18 years old and has been a member of his Club for nearly three years. Xavier has already weathered several storms in his young life. In 2001 his father was incarcerated with an eight year sentence and then his mother lost her dental assistant job, which threw the family into crisis causing them to move to a low-income neighborhood. Then his family moved to Puerto Rico in 2006, which is his mother’s native country. He met the challenge of trying to adjust to a different culture where Spanish is the primary language (which he did not speak yet), all the while trying to be a good role model for his younger three siblings. After moving back to North Carolina in 2007, he states he was fortunate to have found the Washington Elementary Boys & Girls Club in Raleigh.

At the Club, Xavier quickly rose to be one the strongest leaders of the Club. His accomplishments include being the Keystone Club President, the first male Junior Staff member to be hired at the Club, and elected by staff as a Youth of the Month during the 2008-09 school year. By being a paid Junior Staff, he has been able to help his mother pay household bills and gas for their car. He is also keenly aware of how his leadership and behavior can help mentor many of the Club members who come from the public housing community directly across from the Club. After having to transition back into the American school system in 2007, Xavier has become an outstanding high school student. He is taking honor courses at Cary High School, while maintaining a 3.4 GPA and remaining on the A/B Honor Roll. While focusing on his academic performance, he has also found time to participate as a member of the National Honor Society and Fellowship of Christian Athletes.

He has been giving back to his community through many opportunities created at his Boys & Girls Club, school and church. As Keystone President, he led community service projects such as the Annual Fall Festival for over 200 youth, hosting Nickelodeon Day of Play for 30 members, creating a video about teens in foster care and how they are impacted in Wake County. The Keystone Club also wrote a play about HIV/AIDS to educate teenagers about the risks. They performed this play on Worlds Aids Day at the Boys & Girls Club Teen Center. Xavier played the character of a teenager born with AIDS and did not tell his sexual partners. He admits that playing “Justin” was not easy and that acting in front of other teenagers was challenging, but the message was important. He also likes to provide volunteer services to Passage Home, which works to provide programs to break the cycle of poverty and have a lasting change for their participants.

In Xavier’s essay on his Club he notes:
“My Club is made up of a gym and four trailers. We do not have all the amenities of the average Club, be we use what we have effectively. My Club is like David in the Bible against Goliath: although the opponent was incredibly larger than he was, in our case our opponent being the community surrounding us, we both stand tall and overcome any challenge that is set forth in front of us. A place that looks at any situation it may face, and not only defeats it, but conquers and rules it. That is exactly what my Club has instilled in me.”

Xavier plans to attend the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he plans to major in athletic training and likely minor in exercise science. This will be just another step for Xavier who stated in his future plans essay: “All my life I have been waiting for the day that I can call myself successful and make my parents proud of me. College is merely a bridge to help me cross from childhood to adulthood.” Our 2010 North Carolina Youth of the Year is quite an exceptional young man.