Meet Austin C: A Journey from Non-Profit Leadership to the Spotlight of New York Fashion Week
Written by Knovva Academy Staff
When you meet Austin C., you’re struck by how much of a life he’s lived already as a ninth-grade student. Barely into high school, he’s already visited 30 countries and become deeply involved in Lions Club International. He even tried modeling – last year, he was a model during New York Fashion Week. We’ll share more about Austin and how he plans to use these experiences in his future endeavors.
Meet Austin C: His Journey of Passion and Ambition
Austin was born in Hainan, China, but has made quite the life for himself here in the United States. In the last five years, Austin’s been busy volunteering, playing sports, and participating in extracurriculars while also earning high honors in his academic classes. He has set big goals for himself and hopes to become a non-profit leader by the time he graduates from high school!
Fearless Journey to the US: Embracing a New Beginning with Confidence
While moving to a new country would be daunting for most teenagers, Austin embraced his new home and successfully integrated into his new school and community. While a student in China, he regularly practiced English, so by the time he arrived at his new home thousands of miles away, Austin was well prepared. He began communicating with teachers and fellow students with ease and even joined sports teams within his first year of middle school.
Unveiling Austin’s Passion for Volunteerism
While in the U.S., Austin made a surprising discovery. In almost every municipality he traveled through, he saw signs for Lions Club International, a non-profit organization that improves the lives of people at the community level. Because signage for the organization appeared everywhere, Austin realized the volunteer group had a significant reach, especially in the U.S.
As both of his parents are active members of the China chapter, Austin has volunteered at Lions Club events since childhood.
Since moving to the U.S. over five years ago, Austin has participated in multiple local events for the organization, including marching in a parade through Boston and donating his own money to local children in need.
His Future of Volunteering and Giving Back
Austin remembers the first pictures he saw of suffering children in Africa. There were so many kids his age who were born into difficult living conditions, and as they became older, the challenges only multiplied. Austin also learned how eye disease impacted the elderly in those same areas. A lack of resources – such as nutritional food and life-saving medication – continues to pose significant challenges to the people living in these areas of the world. The images of human suffering stayed with him as a reminder not only of his good fortune but his responsibility to help others.
As a current Lions Club member, Austin organizes, facilitates, and attends fundraising events and volunteer missions. He also encourages his peers to sign up for and participate in community service activities.
This constant activity of giving back to the community has inspired Austin to one day start his own non-profit organization. He hopes to build a similar community of helpful volunteers who can impact the local Boston area.
The Sports Enthusiast
In addition to his passion for helping others, Austin is also a prolific sportsman. As a lover of all sports, he finds it a challenge to pick his favorite. Sometimes he enjoys basketball games with his friends, other times he catches a tennis match with his classmates and his family.
He became interested in horseback riding while he was still in middle school. It’s a passion that not only instilled confidence in Austin but also created a lasting connection with his horse. He honed his communication skills by conveying instructions to the horse, tapping into his patience and empathy as he built a trusting partnership with the animal.
But Austin’s favorite activity is tennis, a sport that combines physical fitness with mental agility, as players need to strategize, anticipate, and react swiftly on the court. For Austin, tennis fosters endurance, speed, and agility, as well as team building and competition.
Having gone to the Rafa Nadal tennis camp in Boston, Austin realized his natural talent and decided to build on it. Austin practices between two and four hours per day and currently plays singles. He hopes that with the help of his weekly tennis lessons, he’ll work his way up to doubles soon.
Expanding Horizons: Extracurricular Adventures
As you might expect, Austin has a lot of interests in life, most of which extend beyond the typical classroom walls. Austin is a basketball enthusiast and goes to TD Garden more than 10 times each season to cheer on the Boston Celtics. However, he’s not just a passive viewer when it comes to Celtics games. He’s a true basketball enthusiast with a deep love for statistics.
You’ll often find him engrossed in the game, not only cheering for his favorite team but also analyzing individual player statistics and the team’s performance. He’s the go-to person for understanding the game beyond the introductory level.
Austin’s Journey in Music
Austin played piano and drums in the school band while a student at Weston Middle School. During this time, he also took piano lessons at the Rivers Schools and performed recitals in front of an audience, helping him feel more connected to the world despite the isolation brought on by the COVID pandemic.
Passion for the Performing Arts
Austin appreciates the performing arts, and Broadway musicals have become a great area of interest for Austin and his sister. Sometimes they travel to New York City for a weekend to attend one or two musicals.
Fascination with All Types of Aircraft
Austin has been lucky that his parents prioritize travel as much as he does. As a young boy, he became fascinated by airplanes when he looked out the plane window and saw how high up he was. After that, Austin has taken an interest in all types of aircraft, from commercial planes to fighter jets. Austin has become such an expert on planes that he can tell the make and model of one flying overhead just by the sound of its engine.
Spotlight at New York Fashion Week
During his time attending and volunteering at the Lions Club International events, Austin noticed an important detail in all of the presenters at the events, including his father. When his father was asked to speak at an event, he changed into a different person on stage and exuded a confident and exuberant personality that surprised Austin. He began to notice the subtle hand movements and speech intonations of each speaker and saw the value of how they presented themselves.
Understanding the importance of presentation, confidence, and interpersonal skills, Austin decided to try another pursuit: modeling at New York Fashion Week (NYFW).
NYFW is an annual event that attracts over 230,000 visitors from all over the world and brings in millions of dollars of revenue for the designers as well as the state of New York. Austin responded to a casting call and was selected from a pool of over 1,000 teen models.
He walked the stage in front of a wide audience in 2022, and his image was published on the covers of Bazaar and Elle fashion magazines. He was offered a spot back in NYFW and Milan Fashion Week for 2023 and 2024.
Vision for the Future: Empowering Communities
Austin knows the importance of donating one’s time and financial support to those in need. Lions Club International showed him first-hand the kind of significant impact one can make in the lives of others. Austin knows he wants to improve the world and hopes to lead a non-profit before entering college and establishing himself as a changemaker for those in need.
Austin knows that all valuable things in life take time, commitment, and passion, all of which he’s willing to give for the greater good. Austin hopes to build a non-profit that will foster a sense of community in students his own age. He also hopes to reach beyond local borders and help those in need in other countries. His dream is to eventually reach all the way to Africa, where the first images of hardship affected him most, and help students realize their full potential as he’s been able to do.