Whiz Kid: Dan B.

Swampscott High School senior Dan B. has an extremely bright future ahead of him, all of the colleges he’s interested in, are interested in him.

When The Patch caught up with the 17-year-old, he was waiting at Panera Bread to talk to a representative from Cornell University, about the possibility of heading to upstate New York for his college career.

“All the schools I’ve applied to are giving me interviews,” Dan said. “Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, M.I.T., it would be great to go to M.I.T., my dad works there and I did an internship there for two years while I was in high school.”

Dan has lived in town his entire life, his mom and dad and older brother came to Swampscott over 20 years ago from Israel.

“My parents left the (former) Soviet Union and moved to Israel before they came to Swampscott, my grandparents lived in Lynn and my dad had a job in Boston, and Swampscott is a really nice town,” Dan said.

Dan's family are members of Chabad Lubavitch of the North Shore on Burrill Street and Dan is the president of the Jew Crew, according to Chabad’s website, the group is “open to all Jewish teens on the North Shore and is dedicated to providing a fun, positive, and meaningful environment.”

Dan is a member of the debate team at SHS and is also the student representative to the School Committee, the liaison for the students at SHS and their voice on the board.

“Throughout high school I’ve mostly been doing science based activities, including my internship at M.I.T., moving forward I think I want to go into a different direction in college, going into the social sciences and economics,” Dan said.

“One of the things, while we’re talking about economics is, I put forward a proposal to get a grant to get new Economics textbooks for the high school, the books we have now are out of date,” Dan said.

Dan was nominated for the School Committee position by his friend Billy Travascio, and was surprised he was picked, but excited about the challenge, even though it entailed long hours.

“Mr. Schwartz told me about it and I was kind of surprised, he said it was a long commitment, as far as hours are concerned, but I accepted it and it’s really been an interesting experience,” Dan said.

“I’m on the debate team, and the School Committee meetings are kind of like muffled debate team sessions, you can argue, but not really, it needs to be toned down a bit for the School Committee,” Dan said. “I enjoy being part of the process.”

Dan, who will be 18 in March, has all the classes he picked to finish out his last semester at SHS, and will miss quite a few things about school, and town when he graduates.

“My favorite classes include AP English and AP Econ, I’ll miss my friends when I graduate, many are leaving town of course, many are leaving the state, some are leaving the country, it’s a big change for all of us,” Dan said.

“Swampscott is such a nice small, town, I have great friends here, it’s a great location next to the ocean, I will absolutely miss the ocean when I go to college,” Dan said.

Dan enjoys reading and watching movies and hanging out with his friends when he’s not busy with Jew Crew, the School Committee, and the debate team. Dan also volunteers at the JRC on Paradise Road.

“I hope I’m doing a good job as the student rep to the school committee, I take my duties very seriously, I bring any student concerns to the committee and I’m also on the grants sub-committee, it’s a very import position to me,” Dan said.

“Early in my high school career I loved math and the sciences, now that I’m getting closer to college, I’m excited about history and English,” Dan said. “I’ve always had a passion for learning.”

Here’s what Rabbi Shmaya Friedman of Chabad Lubavitch had to say about Dan:

“As president of the Jew Crew over the past year, this extraordinary and brilliant young man’s dedication to and passion for Jewish life and Jewish pride has set a shining example for teens on Boston’s North Shore.”

Rabbi Friedman also submitted this write-up Dan did for a recent Jew Crew Event:

"Of all the natural laws that govern man, none are more obvious than gravity. It is a fact – an undeniable fact – that humans cannot fly. And yet, by some primordial desire to reach for the heavens, we try. We build planes and call their flight ours to hide our insecurities but, still, we ourselves cannot fly. Jumping is the closest thing we mortals have to flight; we reach to the skies to temporarily escape the repressive pull of the earth – find ourselves a moment of euphoria – only to be pulled back again.

This past Sunday, Jew Crew reached for the skies at Sky Zone, an indoor trampoline park in Everett. We arrived shortly after lunchtime, donned provided shoes (as to protect the trampolines), and began bouncing about. Some Jew Crewers entertained themselves by just jumping, while others participated in festive games of dodge ball. Eventually, exhausted teens made their way to the resting area to recover and socialize. After a few hours, when the resting area was sufficiently packed, Jew Crew made its way to Brookline’s Café Eilat, for a feast of delicious pizza for dinner.

The Jew Crew board is currently a swarm of busy bees working on the third annual “Jew Crew takes Manhattan” weekend trip to New York City. For more information visit bostonjewcrew.co."

If you have a child from Swampscott who should be The Patch "Whiz Kid" please send a submission to Scot@prologue.com.