Volunteer… artist… world traveler… Jenny Taing is more than just a straight “A” student, though she is that too.
Since freshman year at Foran High School, Jenny has been a member of Foran Interact, a group at the high school which focuses on doing volunteer work in the Milford community. This school year, Jenny, who will be a senior, will be co-president of the organization.
When asked what her plans are for the club this year, Jenny said, “We haven’t really gotten together to talk about it yet, but our biggest event is Empty Bowl. We’re planning on making that bigger, getting more people to come.
“Empty Bowl is a charity dinner where parents and teachers make soups and we’ll bring the bread and stuff and we’ll sell tickets to it, and all the money usually goes somewhere like the Beth-El Center (a homeless shelter in Milford).”
In addition to her volunteer work, Jenny is an accomplished student and artist.
“I like [all my subjects] pretty much, but mostly art,” said Jenny. “It’s a hobby that I’m hoping to maybe be able to make into a career.”
Jenny also loves to travel. Every summer, she and her family travel someplace different, as far away as China. When asked where her favorite place to travel has been Jenny, whose parents, Eng and Bunseng Taing, are immigrants from China, said that though it would be hard to choose, probably China was her favorite.
“It was really cool seeing my roots and the village where my grandfather lived and stuff like that,” Jenny told Milford Patch.
This month, Jenny is traveling as one of 100 scholarship winners chosen from across the United States to spend two weeks abroad in South Korea and learn the culture. Jenny can hardly contain her enthusiasm.
“For a weekend we’re staying with a host family [in Seoul],” she explains, “That will be really exciting.”
When asked if she had any recommendations for other young people who’d like to get started volunteering in Milford, Jenny recommended, “I would definitely say to join a club. It’s easier getting started when there will be other kids there too, and your friends.”
Jenny already has plans for the future. A year from September, she would like to double major in marketing and graphic design in college. Eventually, she would like to be a professional artist.
The way she’s going, it seems like Jenny can do whatever she sets her mind to do!
