The first time Tavia truly understood healthcare equity, she wasn’t in a classroom or a clinic. She was watching her mother.

Growing up in Mattapan, Tavia watched someone she loved face serious health challenges over many years and saw firsthand both the promise and the gaps in our healthcare system. This experience ignited her passion for health equity, particularly for women of color. Rather than look away, Tavia leaned in. “Seeing what my family went through showed me that healthcare isn’t just about medicine,” she says. “It’s about dignity. And not everyone gets the same amount of it.”

That sense of purpose has shaped the path Tavia is now building.

Named Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston’s 2026 Youth of the Year, Tavia is being recognized for her leadership, academic excellence, and commitment to service. Each year, one teen from each of BGCB’s nine Clubs is selected as that Club’s Youth of the Year. Those nine young people then take part in an interview process before a panel of judges, who select one overall winner to represent Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston. This year, Tavia earned that distinction, becoming the first young person from the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center to be named BGCB Youth of the Year. Tavia will now go on to represent her peers and the Clubs at the State Youth of the Year event in May.

But what makes her story so powerful is not simply the list of accomplishments she has already built. It is the sense of purpose behind them. Thoughtful, compassionate, and determined, Tavia has emerged as a young leader shaped by the support of the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center and driven by a desire to make life better for others.

Tavia’s connection to BGCB began the summer after her freshman year, at a YouthWorks job fair. Among a stack of flyers, one caught her eye: bright blue paper with orange bubble letters inviting her to apply to the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center. She applied, got the job, and what started as a summer position became four years of growth, community, and purpose.

“I walked in nervous and unsure,” she says. “I never expected to find a second home where my voice actually mattered.”

At the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center, Tavia found the space to grow into the leader she always had the potential to be. Through Keystone Club, BGCB’s teen-led civic engagement program, she developed skills in public speaking, community organizing, and advocacy. She eventually rose to Vice President, co-leading seventeen community events and logging more than seventy-five hours of service built around academic success, career readiness, and community engagement.

Emily Merchant, a social worker at the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center, has worked alongside Tavia since she was 14, including closely through their shared work in Keystone. “Tavia is an exceptional young woman who dedicates herself to her academics and community service,” Emily shared. “She has developed a sense of confidence to utilize her voice and pursue new opportunities.”

“Tavia leads with both heart and intention,” said MiShy Sibley, Teen Program Manager at the Josh Kraft Mattapan Teen Center. “She is thoughtful, grounded, and deeply committed to serving others, and it has been incredible to watch her grow into the kind of young leader who makes everyone around her better.”

Tavia also found her pre-professional footing. As a Healthcare Pathways Teen Ambassador, she worked to bring healthcare career awareness directly to pre-teens and teens at the center, designing and promoting a wellness guide distributed across all nine Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston locations. BGCB’s Ready to Work program further sharpened her skills, preparation that helped her land a summer internship at Boston Medical Center, where she worked in the pediatric clinic and participated in weekly department orientations alongside hospital staff.

Emily sees in Tavia something that has been consistent from the very beginning: compassion. “When asked her biggest strength, Tavia described herself as compassionate,” Emily shared. “Tavia embodies compassion in the way she shows up, leads, and creates connections. Since I met Tavia, she has always had a drive to help others. Even at 14, she expressed her dream to work in healthcare with the goal of bridging gaps for Black women and women of color. It is impressive how she has continued to develop this passion and translate it into her career goals.”

Tavia’s ambitions are personal and precise. Maternal mortality among Black women and women of color is a crisis she has studied and spoken about publicly, including in a final project at Emory University’s Pre-College Program. Her long-term goal is to own a practice that offers not just clinical care, but education, emotional support, and advocacy for women through every stage of pregnancy and birth.

“I want every woman to feel heard when she walks into a doctor’s office,” she says. “My goal is to ensure that everyone, regardless of race or economic status, is able to have adequate health care.”